Soft diet recipes after dental extraction

A collection of soft diet ideas that worked following dental extraction. The recipes are simple and easy to make and also tummy satisfying delicious. 

The experience of dental extraction.

To know how much you should value food you just need to take yourself to the dentist for treatment. A couple of days following the dental treatment you will pretty much be thinking just about food. Trust me!
Recently, I had to have an impacted wisdom tooth extraction and I can surely tell you, I felt like a giant hungry baby after that. It was a difficult extraction and with all the pull and pressure on the jaw, a whole side of the face felt alienated, swollen and painful. In spite of all the pain, all I could think of was what can I eat!!!
As usual, the doctor gave me a list of dos and dont’s. No smoking, no alcohol, pain relief measures etc. Then he said, you can have a soft diet starting with liquids for the first couple of days. I was all cool, half-face numbed to realise as this eases it is going to be harder to keep satisfying my hungry belly.
Over the week, I am sure I have gone through a lot of ideas that brought me back memories of baby food. In fact pleasant memories of yummy mashes and purees and some yucky ones too. Thankfully I had documented the soft diet recipes that worked for me this time. When you see this long list you will probably wonder do we need so much. here is the paradox! you have an adult tummy with a mouth that can only open up like a baby! So have fun feeding yourself more times than ever!! 

Smoothies and shakes

While fruit provides a lot of energy and is a good way to fill you up without additives and preservatives. Over this time, I retested all the milkshake recipes on the blog. It was fun having a banana shake with a numb tongue, which kept telling me the shake was salty and warm! Make yourself a large smoothie, don’t use a straw as it really makes the bleeding worse. Here are some that kept me filled up.
Pear orange smoothie

Carrot halwa shake ( without the toppings)

Choco chip mint avocado smoothie ( blend the choco-chip)

Muskmelon milkshake

Rose and fig shake

Cherry Watermelon smoothie

Soups and broths

The savoury opposite of smoothies works perfectly to cheer up lunchtime. Go for fully blended ones as chewing is what you are avoiding. I went for simple carrot, potato and pumpkin-based ones.  Somehow I avoided tomatoes as they bothered my tummy and the sourness did not really help my sore mouth. 

Curried carrot and celery soup

Lauki shorba – bottle gourd soup

Blended beetroot and carrot soup

Roasted pumpkin soup

Chilled honeydew melon soup

Watermelon gazpacho (avoid the nagabon relish added to it)

Greens and Finger millet soup ( blend the greens fine to add to the soup)

Sorbets and ice creams

When it hurts there is no moral support better than the cold pop. I had a stash of sorbets that we  cleared off successfully during this time. They helped me manage the pain too as it was frozen cold. SOrbets are better than popsicles which can get painful for your jaw muscles.
Blueberry sorbet.

Mango Basil Sorbet

Watermelon slush

Jelly

This is what I actually enjoyed more than icecream and sorbets. I guess the smooth clear flavours of jelly as out wobbles its way into your belly made a happy one.
Lemongrass jelly is what I loved as it was much easier than drinking water. Once the healing started it was easier to have the orange jelly too.

Yogurt lassi and raitha 

The probiotic bacteria in the yogurt are so beneficial for healing. So it is very important to provide yourself with some good quality yogurt. Have them sweet or savoury in a bowl or blend them up as lassi. To start the lassis were good and as I could start a bit of chewing the raitas gave such a lovely relief. 
Mango lassi

Avocado lassi

Vegan Strawberry lassi

Tangarine lassi shake

Brahmi neer moor

As soon as you can add small bites make some grated cucumber raita or cacik which you can have with the soft pongal or kichuri is really filling. The potato raita with some blended greens was perfect as a soothing meal. In between the meals, the banana raita was such a blessing to keep my tummy satisfied.

Porridge and mashes

As soon as you can return to a soft diet with a bite you do want to get something more substantial to eat.
Oatmeal thinned out with a bit more milk a bit more is so comforting to have. Remember to not have nuts, seeds and big chunks of fruit in it. Also,you may want to cool it down before you have it as hot foods trigger off extra bleeding.
For savoury, you could try a simple Millet savoury porridge or a basic potato mash.
Any pureed vegetable or hummus is a great one to keep having. Don’t get the curry or spice into any of them, just flavour gently with salt.

Soft food

As time progresses you will be able to take small bites. You will be amazed how fast the body does its repair jobs. Here are the ones that came so good for me. This was especially better as I just could make these for the whole family. The most important one here is to remember is to keep out of spicy, hot foods. The tissues around your mouth are tender and sore and it is best to irritate the lining the least.
Here are the ones I made that finally made my tummy happy. 

Oats bagalabath

Kichuri with vegetables.

Paal aval – Flattened rice raw porridge.

Ven Pongal

Set dosa – sponge dosa crepes

Brown rice Congee

Payaru kanji – Rice and green gram gruel.

Soft Quinoa Idly

Stay connected

I surely know I have not covered it all, this is what helped through my soft diet after a dental extraction, so hopefully, it will be useful to someone. Most important is to follow the advice from the Doctor as to what works for you. There is no medical advice here to be provided and consult your doctor before planning out your meals. 
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