A little over a week ago I visited the dentist to have some work done on a bad tooth.  The plan was to try to fill it, but if they found out it was too bad to fill, to pull it.  As it turned out, not only did they have to pull it, it took them 2 hours to pull it.  To say that it was not fun would be the understatement of the decade.  (Quite possible the most traumatic experience of my life is more like it.)

The practical result was that I had a good deal of trauma to my mouth that we hadn’t really anticipated, and couldn’t eat normal food for nearly a week.  (Apart from the injury to the gum, etc., my jaw was pretty traumatized from the length of the process and it was hard to open my mouth very far.)  As I’m (nearly) AutoImmune Paleo, this really left me scrambling for options!  But I discovered a few tricks along the way that I want to pass on.

 1. Eat Soft Foods

Okay, this one is probably pretty obvious.  Everyone knows that spoonable foods are a good option after dental work or oral surgery.  What isn’t always so easy is to think of what those soft foods might be — especially if your diet is fairly limited to start.  So here are some healthy options to get your creative juices flowing.

• bone broth
• gelatin (The storebought stuff is usually pretty junky, but you can buy grassfed gelatin like this and use your own fruit juice, flavored milk, etc. — even broth.)
• yogurt
• slippery elm porridge/gruel  (I’ll be honest; I haven’t tried this one yet, but it supposed to be very nutritious and readily digestible. It might be tastier prepared with broth than water.)
• applesauce
• vegetable purees, like carrot or cauliflower  (Cauliflower is nice because it doesn’t seem so out of place when it’s mashed, so it’s not gross.  It’s also really tasty cooked in broth.)
• hummus or refried beans

 2. Drink Your Calories

Drinking the majority of your calories is not typically a good overall option, but it can be a good one when chewing is difficult.  Be aware, though, that after many dental procedures (such as tooth extractions), you shouldn’t use a straw.  Keep that in mind.  Smoothies are an obvious option here, but you can also consider more basic shakes made with protein powder.

 3. Cut it Small

Maybe you can manage something with more substance than yogurt or pudding.  I suggest you still avoid things that are really hard or crunchy, at least at first, like corn chips or carrots.  But moderately-soft foods can be more accessible if you cut them up really, really small.  Think toddler-small.

I was eating things like turkey lunch meat (the quality kind, from the deli — it’s generally more tender than turkey prepared at home.  Or maybe I just overcook mine), cut into pieces about 1/4 inch square.  Cutting the food up really small like this makes it easier to get into your mouth, even if you can’t open very wide, and causes it to require less chewing.

 4. Use Baby Utensils

This was a trick I landed on out of frustration, but it worked really, really well.  Use a baby spoon or fork.  (Not the fat, chunky toddler variety.  The tiny infant variety.)  The small size of the utensil makes it easier to get into a not-open-very-wide mouth.  It also keeps the bites small enough they’re easy to contain to one side of your mouth.  I find that these really small forks are often difficult to locate, so you might try seeking out something like a pickle fork if you can’t find a baby fork of the right size.

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