Recovery After Full Dental Implants

July 21, 2024 1:00 AM

I am having ALL my teeth replaced with implants. This will involve a day without teeth, and I'm assuming several days of pain/discomfort. Help me recover without going insane or starving to death!

Firstly, what do I eat??? I will have 24 hours without any teeth at all. What do I eat that day? And the following days, I will likely be in pain. What do I eat in those days? I suspect I won't have much energy for food prep.

If you've had this (or similar extensive dental work) done, what helped in recovery? What questions am I not thinking of? What else should I know?

I'm a side-sleeper. Am I going to be able to get comfortable enough to sleep, or will exhaustion eventually just take me?

I realize I'm going to basically have to re-learn to eat. Any tips?

I'm an anxious wreck! The idea of them drilling into my skull wigs me out. The thought of a long, arduous recovery scares me. Please help me get through this without losing too much weight or sleep or sanity. All tips, tricks, and personal experience welcome!

[e-mail] (I can't believe that wasn't taken) for private answers.

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (24 answers total)

Firstly, what do I eat???
applesauce & there are many different foods similarly blended up in packets in the baby food aisle. you should be able to find several flavors/ingredients you like. you're going to be alright, good luck!
posted by HearHere at 1:17 AM on July 21

I think that with food you won't starve but you may get bored of eating soft foods only.

Food ideas:
Yoghurt, custard, pudding
Soups
Smoothies
Protein shakes
posted by kinddieserzeit at 1:26 AM on July 21

When I had a less intense dental surgery some years ago, I got very sick of eating soft sweet foods after a day or two. Drinking cups of bouillon helped with that a lot.
posted by terretu at 1:35 AM on July 21 [1 favorite]

All excellent questions for your dental surgeon. A lot will depend on the exact procedures they have to perform and how your gums and jaw react to them.
posted by koahiatamadl at 1:45 AM on July 21 [8 favorites]

You’re going to be really tired, and also on pain meds for a while at first. So while you won’t be able to eat lots of things, you won’t have the desire or opportunity to either, because hopefully you will be sleeping and resting and zoning out for a while.

If you can make or request home made stock to sip that can be really wonderful. It’s always so much more flavorful and satisfying than store bought. You can make it way ahead of time and freeze it in small portions to microwave in mugs to hold and sip. The classic would be chicken stock, and depending on what spices and aromatics you connect with love and care you could do like turmeric garlic ginger, or paprika onion parsley, or cilantro lime tomato, or as plain or complex as you like. Roasted carrot and onion stock is a nice vegan alternative but it doesn’t have the protein to help you stay full on a liquid diet so make sure you have supplementary protein in that case.

Mashed potatoes are a good make ahead food too, when reheating in the microwave add some extra milk or liquid alternative and mix it in to help fluff it up afterward. Or you can do it casserole style and freeze it ready to bake in the oven. You can do white potatoes of course as well as sweet potatoes, and even mix in other starchy veggies that mash well, like parsnips, carrots, winter squash or turnips depending on what you like.

Look into something called a soft food diet. Depending on your procedures and healing you’ll probably need to avoid hard foods for a bit anyway. Cottage cheese with preserves, bananas, porridges like congee or cream of wheat, many types of eggs, jello and smooth ice creams. Lots of options in the not completely liquid arena.

Anxiety like this is very common. You can message your care team about these questions and they probably have a bunch of FAQs and suggested meal plans and ways to promote recovery for you to peruse.
posted by Mizu at 1:45 AM on July 21 [2 favorites]

To repeat Mizu’s point, anxiety is normal. I would ask for anti-anxiety medication to help you through the no teeth day. Might be better to take some Ativan and zone out for the day. In that state you won’t be hungry.
posted by shock muppet at 2:10 AM on July 21 [6 favorites]

Oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, Protein drinks (ensure, premier protein, etc), ice cream, yogurt. For the anxiety, as mentioned, medication, but I would prefer a couple of shots of whiskey. YMMV.

I also sucked on cracked ice which was soothing. For something a little more solid, you could try some loose scrambled eggs. That depends on what it took to get you no teeth and when.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 3:12 AM on July 21

One low prep possibility is to buy ready prepared meals, cook them and then put them in the blender. Won't work with everything, but might seem a bit more like regular food.
posted by quacks like a duck at 3:33 AM on July 21

I've gotten four implants, one by one, so no where near as extensive as your recovery, but I would second the anti-anxiety meds for the build up to the procedure and if the surgeon okays it, during, whether you are awake or not. My surgeon(s) never had any and I absolutely ate a couple of Xanax. (I am sure they are insisting you get a ride home anyway.)

I don't really like pain meds (the high octane type) and I don't know why. It is very very much not that I'm anti-drug, something about them is unpleasant to my system, but if you can take them, take them, and just ride the waves of the good drugs. If not, afterward, alternating Tylenol and Advil is often recommended because they don't compete with each other. Also weed if it's legal and you like it. You won't be able to smoke so it would be edibles/capsules.

Every time this has happened, though, I've stocked up on kid food and not just kid food but my kid food -- foods from my childhood and/or crap food. It's not a lifetime of crap food, but a few days and it made it sort of novel and entertaining and it was fun to walk around the supermarket thinking 'cream of onion with butter on top, oh my yes!'

Instant mashed potatoes and gravy that comes in jars, Kraft macaroni and cheese, ice cream and artificially-flavored chocolate sauce that comes in a squeeze bottle (ice cream sundaes and milkshakes), multiple varieties of cream soups served with copious amounts of butter, ice cream sundaes, root beer floats etc. etc. etc.

Just the most self-indulgent inner child stuff I could get to, the kind of things you'd feed a six year old in 1975 who had just had their tonsils removed. It made it something very close to fun.

First day you will probably be floaty and told to ice the area, best you can, and that is 100% worth it. It helped keep the swelling down. Icing your face is kind of awkward, so maybe get a days worth of movies and your favorite television shows. Now is a good time for a rewatch of seven seasons of Whatever. I only had noticeable swelling one of the four times. With all your teeth it will be more uncomfortable but if you wonder 'is icing actually worth bothering with?' it definitely is.

So you're painting yourself a soothing portrait of lying on a couch eating ice cream and watching television and getting pain relief and floating on your drugs of choice. Being happy and comforted and feeling positive (to me) is much more important to recovery than getting enough vitamin C or whatever. Who cares? Nutrition is a long term, over-arching thing that should be sustainable over time, not a short term thing. Short term is 'comfort self and be as happy as possible while getting through $thing.'

After you get through the acute phase they will likely tell you to eat soft and/easy foods for a while. Maybe up to six months. That's not as limiting as it might sound, not as limiting as the truly soft food phase. I would avoid fibrous things that tend to (for me) to get stuck in teeth like steak, chicken, the more fibrous fruits and vegetables but there are thousands of other things to to eat - egg dishes, pastas, bakery items, cheese, most sweet things that will be fine. Some cuisines (Indian) have a lot of foods that will fit the bill. Avoid the saag paneer.

Best of luck! It's a brave thing to be doing and will make your life better though you clearly know that or you wouldn't be doing it!

If it soothes you at all, until I got all four implants in I couldn't tell you which were implants and which weren't. I would go to the dentist a cleaning and before they cleaned my teeth they'd ask how the latest implant was and I would have to sit there and figure it out. On multiple occasions, I had to sit and ask them which of my teeth weren't real. Now I know it's the second molar from the back on all sides (I had my wisdom teeth out as a kid) so it's easy, but after the gums ease their way up the sides and recovery is complete, I don't even notice. They are the same as the rest of my teeth and I have been happy with them. My first was done in 2009 around when I turned forty. I just tried to remember which was done most recently and I am not sure.

I would consider recovery complete at six months out. I am not sure what they will tell you - that might be overly cautious, but it might be helpful to have that perspective? It is NOT six months of misery at all. Just that like if a ladder had to grow into a solid, reliable shape before you stand at the top run but for now it's totally fine to use it as a book shelf and put a couple of plants on it. Too much metaphor? Sorry, working on coffee.

Basically: it will be okay, and it is possible to have a little fun with constraints. I know that having it done one by one is not at all the same and what you're facing is 'bigger' I just wanted to let you know it's doable and it will be okay.

This will be a memory in a year and you will not be thinking about it.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:40 AM on July 21 [11 favorites]

Odwalla Superfood Smoothies were my go to when I had my wisdom teeth out.
posted by metasarah at 4:43 AM on July 21

The thought of a long, arduous recovery scares me.

I don't know about you but for me knowing that there's an end date to something makes it much more bearable. An arduous slog with no end in sight? That's hard. An arduous slog that's going to be over a few months from now, where every day is one more day down towards it being over and every month/week is a little bit better than the last? And I can tell myself "3 more months to go", "3 more weeks to go", "oh wait, I'm already there"? That's doable. If you're that way too, don't focus on the long recovery part, focus on how there's an end date. Make a calendar to cross days off of if you need to.
posted by trig at 4:54 AM on July 21 [2 favorites]

I just went through full teeth replacement, but likely a bit differently than what you are going to do. I had the uppers replaced - 4 in 1 implant. Then a bit later the lowers (also 4 in 1). It cost more money (getting anesthetized twice) but I wanted to experience the process 1/2 way before going all in. It's about 4 weeks or more of basically eating baby food as mentioned above. Some good ideas there though I didn't see oatmeal, my recommendation. At that point, you should be getting another set of new teeth and can move onto soft foods like sliced meats, cheese - though I would recommend cutting the crust off to be safer than sorry.
For me, the pain wasn't too bad. I never had to take any of the painkillers my doc gave me - ibuprophen (1 months worth) and hydrocodone (1 weeks worth).
Side-sleeping shouldn't be a problem - at least it wasn't for me.
It is a longish recovery, but I didn't find it arduous - they're not asking you to push a boulder up a hill every day.
The weirdest thing is the prosthetics are ceramic. Totally different feel from your actual teeth.
Best of luck, you should be fine. If not call your doc for an immediate appointment.
posted by Grok Lobster at 7:42 AM on July 21

Will you need to sleep with your head elevated? If so, getting a nice arrangement for that will help; I had this Avana one for some nose surgery last year.
Can be pricey but I’d expect there’s used ones.

(I’m a stomach sleeper and this arrangement kept me supported enough in the unusual-for-me position that I still managed to sleep more or less ok).
posted by nat at 9:10 AM on July 21

Not implants, but a friend who had to have is jaw wired shut for a few months reported getting totally sick of sweet foods- because sweet stuff seems to come to mind more easily when we think of soft/puréed diet. So definitely get some salty/savory options too (he did cream of whatever soup a lot, I’d prefer miso soup myself, but dal sounds good too)
posted by genmonster at 9:27 AM on July 21

I have gotten implants a few times, although no more than two at a time. It is kind of old hat for me now.

I usually sleep on my side and had no trouble sleeping at all. In fact, I slept a good deal that day, after the procedure.

Here’s a question I had asked about the food restrictions I was given: https://ask.metafilter.com/352925/Food-after-getting-dental-implant

Something I didn’t mention in that question, but I also wasn’t allowed broccoli, raw vegetables, or anything with tomatoes. One way to get nutrition in the first few days, when you can’t have hot food yet, is through drinks such as Ensure or SlimFast. Do a good browsing at the grocery store before the procedure. You will likely find some convenience foods that fit the bill. One thing I did for lunches was single servings of instant mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese.

The actual procedure of placing the implants was amazingly easy and didn’t bother me. Any extraction has some possibility of being more trouble. That probably depends somewhat on the condition of the teeth being pulled.

I was offered and accepted a sedative. I think I took one Valium the night before, and another about an hour before going to the dentist.

I was given hydrocodone for a week, but I tapered off within a few days. I did have Ibuprofen for a few more days. Stay ahead of the pain, but it’s not as bad as you might expect.

The inside of your mouth might bleed, but don’t panic.

You will likely be given an ice pack. You might or might not want to get one or two more of your own, or just use a bag of frozen peas or corn.

One other thing -- if you get some kind of temporary "teeth" -- be very careful eating. They are pretty fragile. I am not supposed to eat with them in, but I did, and the first set lasted only a month or two, I think.

You are welcome to MeMail me with any questions or concerns.
posted by NotLost at 9:36 AM on July 21

I meant to link this: https://ask.metafilter.com/352925/Food-after-getting-dental-implant
posted by NotLost at 9:42 AM on July 21

I am surprised you will be only one day without teeth. I think it has always been at least two weeks for me to have any replacement for the teeth. I am not counting the implants, because they themselves don't help directly with eating. Maybe you are getting the extractions on one day and the implants the next?
posted by NotLost at 9:50 AM on July 21

I have a few friends who have done this, and there were some un-fun days but they all felt like they'd been through viruses or injuries or other not-terribly-intrusive surgeries that were far worse. Stay on top of your pain meds and stay absolutely positively on top of your anti-inflammatory meds and routines, whatever it is they tell you to do with ice packs, mouth rinses, medication, lack of activity and lifting, DO THAT FOR AS LONG AS THEY TELL YOU TO DO IT. There's only so much room in there for swelling, and if you let it get ahead of you it starts pressing on your jaw and sinuses and inner ear and that fucking hurts.

Everybody panics but I promise you eat soft foods all the time, you do not have to live on popsicles and applesauce until your pancreas explodes. You can even get fiber! (YOU SHOULD MAKE SURE TO GET FIBER). Here are foods you likely have eaten fairly recently that you can easily modify to eat without teeth:

- Pasta dishes without chunky veg or meat - make your veg small: grate or mostly-puree with a stick blender and cook into your sauce, use a small pasta. Frozen pasta stuff like frozen lasagna is already mush, just give it a whack with a potato masher or knife and fork it into spoon-textured sludge (sorry, it's delicious sludge though). If you'll be on your own, get some cans of Boyardee and pasta soups to blend for quick meals.
- Rice dishes, again grate or mostly-puree steamed veg into it.
- If you want to add meat to anything, ground meat is easiest and smash it (it helps to add a bit of liquid as you're browning it) small and fine while it cooks. Ground non-red meat, chicken/turkey/pork, cook into near mush anyway.
- I routinely make "creamy" soups by instant-potting like 1.5-2lbs of cauliflower in stock and stick-blending it down to smooth, if you want it to be fan-fucking-tastic add browned butter as you blend it. You can beef this up with rice, potato, or pasta (blend that in too), and then from there pick what you want for an actual flavor to make it: cheesy, tomato-ey, broccoli-i, canned pumpkin and curry, coconut - lime - lemongrass, Vaguely Mexican, or use it like a congee base with finely-chopped add-ins.
- Actual congee, porridge, savory rice pudding.
- Chunky or Progresso soup of your choice, but stick-blended
- Any kind of soft egg dish, and this is one of the easiest to level up towards practice-chewing as well, with quiches or egg casseroles.

Get some flax seed, hemp hearts, flax-chia-hemp blend, something like that with Hardcore Fiber in it to mix into or top your meals with, and drink plenty of water with electrolytes. Neither constant runs nor constipation are going to improve your experience here.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:13 PM on July 21

Mod note: From the OP:

For surgical details, I am getting All-on-4 implants. Surgery day 1 includes extraction of remaining teeth and bone grafting as well as placing the implants that the teeth will be put onto. Day 2 I get the actual teeth. Top and bottom, all at once.

Feeding instructions from the dental team say that I can start "soft foods" and what they call the "fork diet", meaning anything that can be cut with a fork within a few days. Not sure when I can actually bite things, though.

I am anticipating a LOT of pain/discomfort for days and looking like I've been in a boxing ring for a while. Am I over-worrying? I did pick up some of those freezable reusable gel packs and plan to wrap them around the bottom of my face 20min on / 20min off (as recommended) for at least the first two or three days. Maybe longer?

I'm hoping the pain pills (on top of my usual psych meds) will help me sleep. I cannot imagine trying to sleep on my side, elevated, will be comfortable the first few days or so.

posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 1:39 PM on July 21

did pick up some of those freezable reusable gel packs and plan to

You plan to do EXACTLY what you are told to do, to the letter. Do not ask us. Ask your provider for aftercare instructions in advance so you can buy whatever supplies you need and train anyone who's going to help you. Nobody but them knows exactly how they're going to do this procedure and what works for their patients except them. Healing bone graft properly is 1000x more important than the bruising, which is mostly gonna be what it's gonna be - some people have peach-delicate faces, some people are remarkably resilient, and genetics appear to matter at least as much as anything you can do at this point.

Get them to give you a document - if they don't have one already - of any symptoms you should be worried about and should call them sooner rather than later if they occur. It may spike your anxiety a little but people in the moment tend to decide NOT to "bother" anybody about stuff they should take seriously.

You are anxious, do not let that screw up your aftercare. More is not better here, you need to do what they say on the frequency they say to do it. Do not damage your expensive dentalwork, or your face or nerves, trying to offroad this. They are the experts.

Don't pre-worry any of the unknowns, focus on the knowns. Stop imagining anything beyond following the instructions and make sure you have plans in place for THAT - you'll likely have lifting and also bending-over restrictions, do you have shoes you can put on (and walk stably in - flip-flops are a trip hazard, do not fall on fresh bone grafts), do you know how to get dressed mostly seated, do you own a stick blender? Prepare some very mindless binge-watching*, buy whatever washes and cleaning tools you're told to obtain, clean the hell out of your bathroom, do any laundry you're going to need. Meal prep and freeze in portions. Pick up some extra pillowcases if you don't have a stack, and identify your "not-best" towels to put inside the pillow case for when you drool.

Fully-engaging your immune system is exhausting. You'll sleep without much intervention, or you'll figure it out if there's trouble.

*Having periods of needing highly-consumable binge-watches in the past year, I can recommend the various different countries' franchises of Taskmaster and also The Traitors. Tons of episodes, absolutely zero stakes, anywhere from fairly to quite amusing but not so funny you'll hurt yourself.
posted by Lyn Never at 5:44 PM on July 21 [2 favorites]

I had this done about four years ago. Firstly, whatever pain and inconvenience you will undergo is worth it, so keep that in mind.

My dentist did things a different way to what you are doing, in that he did the extraction and setting of implants in one day, but let the implants 'set' for about three months before fixing teeth onto them. In the meantime, I had a set of 'temporary' dentures, so I never had a time when I couldn't eat.

If you are being sent home with no teeth at all and straight after a full extraction, you're looking at drinking through a straw and nothing else, if you can even stomach drinking. There's no way you are eating anything that doesn't come through a straw at that point.

Once you have your new teeth, you need to be extremely careful to avoid putting any kind of pressure on the implants because, if they move at all, you risk them not amalgamating and that would be very bad. I wasn't in this position, but I did ensure to stay away from anything firmer than mashed potatoes for the first week or so and nothing that required anything more than perfunctory chewing for several months.

In terms of pain, the first day will be bad but, as long as you don't do anything to adversely impact the healing process, the pain will reduce quickly. I needed nothing more than Ibuprofen after the first day.

The most important thing is what Lyn Never points out - do exactly what you are told to do, nothing more, nothing less. If you're not sure, ask beforehand. Implants like this are reliable and safe and straightforward these days, as long as you do exactly as you are told. Following instructions is particularly important if they are fixing your permanent teeth onto implants the day after installing them. I'm absolutely amazed they are saying you can start eating anything not liquid within a few days of placing implants but, if that's what they told you, follow the instructions.

Make sure you have a direct contact number to call if you are worried about anything and, if you are worried, call that number straight away!
posted by dg at 9:03 PM on July 21

You may not actually be allowed to drink through a straw - another good reason to get all your aftercare instructions in advance, so you can plan for it, but we learned a very useful trick from my wisdom tooth surgeon:
drink your food from shot glasses or other very small cups or bowls - pinch bowls for meal prep, the smaller measuring cups, espresso cups. My biggest challenge after any major dental work is that my jaws just don't jaw anymore, sometimes for days if the muscles stiffen up, and trying to get a spoon into my limited range of motion was messy and clanked on my teeth.

So semi-liquid meals got served in a measuring jug with a spout (you can wrap a towel around that and rubber-band it on for insulation) and a shot glass. Even while my lips were still numb, this gave me enough feedback to my hand that I could tell when I had it aimed into my mouth. Today I own a stack of silicone pinch bowls for meal prep and those would actually be nicer I think than glass.

You can also drink directly from the spouted jug, if you're really having bad lip interference either from numbness or swelling. Go slow until you get the hang of it, and you'll want a thick towel for a bib.

You may also want some plastic or silicone spoons, to avoid the teeth-clanking once a spoon is viable.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:25 AM on July 22

instant mashed potatoes with butter and salt
posted by Jacqueline at 8:17 AM on July 22

You may also want some plastic or silicone spoons, to avoid the teeth-clanking once a spoon is viable.

Plastic cups too! (Just clanked a front tooth on a glass...)
posted by trig at 10:11 AM on July 22