I've compiled a list of foods I ate/drank after my jaw surgery (divided into stages) and some other helpful jaw surgery tips. I hope you enjoy:
Helpful things to have after jaw surgery:
- A very nice blender (I stole my mom’s Ninja blender and it is amazing!)
- An infant toothbrush (the faster you can brush the inside of your mouth the happier you will be). Try to find one that has the narrowest plastic head.
- A very tiny spoon that has a thin bowl (think ice cream sample spoon since even infant spoons were too thick initially)
- An adult sized bib or many towels (you will drool and drop food all over yourself so I made a large bib that could be wiped down after each meal)
- Boxes of soft facial tissues (see the above reference to drool and you will also have nosebleeds if you move around too much)
- Dimetapp (to clear the sinus congestion and it doesn’t taste as bad as the other stuff)
- Listerine (since you can’t brush the inside of your mouth or your tongue for a long time)
- A notebook and pen or a small dry erase board so you can communicate when your jaw is banded shut. There are also websites (naturalreader.com) where you can type and it will speak for you.
- Ice packs and heat packs (my ice machine had a hard time keeping up with my demands for ice for my face)
Helpful Tips:
- Once the rubber bands have been removed after surgery, try to drink from a cup as soon as possible. You may need to practice in front of a mirror over a sink since it will be messy but it is much easier to get enough nutrition from a cup than using the syringe.
- The liquid pain medicine tastes disgusting and it made me gag (gagging is not good when your mouth is clamped shut) so I dealt with the pain and when the rubber bands came off I asked for the tablet pain pills that I could feed into the tiny opening of my mouth and swallow them with water.
- Ask for the antibiotic in pill form (the capsule can be broken up and mixed with water and that tastes better than the nasty flavoring inside the liquid antibiotic. The flavor was some sort of tropical melon concoction and it was gross)
- Stay in the hospital as long as possible: they pump you full of wonderful antibiotics (ie you don’t have to take the nasty stuff by mouth), intravenous nutrition (I dropped 11 pounds in the 7 days after my surgery so IV food is highly recommended), and pain drugs. They also have the wonderful suction tube to clear out all the phlegm and excess icky stuff inside your mouth and throat.
- You will need to eat about every three hours when you are on a liquid diet since your body finds it hard to absorb as much nutrition. Try to supplement the liquids with a soluble fiber supplement (like benefiber) to try to keep your intestines happy.
- You will not start to feel human or up to daily tasks for at least a week. I basically laid in bed shaking from malnutrition and dehydration for a week until I figured out how to use a cup and could get enough sustenance, but I was still weak for at least another week.
Liquid Foods:
- Peanut butter and chocolate milkshake
- 3 scoops of chocolate ice cream (I used Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate)
- ⅓ cup milk chocolate carnation instant breakfast
- 1 really big spoonful of creamy peanut butter
- cover it 50% with vanilla almond milk
- cover it the rest of the way with 1% milk
- Optional: 1 scoop of plain or vanilla greek yogurt (it makes it taste slightly sour but it increases the protein content)
- Blend until smooth
- Strawberry Milkshake
- 3 scoop of vanilla ice cream
- 1 packet of strawberry carnation instant breakfast
- a small handful of frozen strawberries
- cover it 50% with vanilla almond milk
- cover it the rest of the way with 1% milk
- Optional: add in two big spoonfuls of creamy peanut butter to make a PB&J shake
- Optional: 1 scoop of plain or vanilla greek yogurt (it makes it taste slightly sour but it increases the protein content)
- Blend until smooth
- Blueberry Milkshake (warning: this like to get stuck in your braces but it is delicious)
- 3 scoop of vanilla ice cream
- 1 packet of vanilla carnation instant breakfast
- a large handful of frozen blueberries
- cover it 50% with vanilla almond milk
- cover it the rest of the way with 1% milk
- Optional: 1 scoop of plain or vanilla greek yogurt (it makes it taste slightly sour but it increases the protein content)
- Blend until smooth
- Other delicious milkshakes-- be creative (I contemplated a maple and bacon milkshake but it seemed a waste of good bacon to only use the grease and not the bacon itself)
- Apple Juice (I would stir in some Benefiber before drinking it)
- Boost drinks (get the Boost Plus since it has more calories)
- Ensure drinks (get the Ensure Plus since it has more calories)
- Carnation Instant Breakfast Shakes
- Sprite, ginger ale, other sugary sodas (if you are on a liquid diet for an extended period of time there is no need to worry about sugar content since you are trying to consume as many calories as possible to maintain your energy)
- Protein Shakes (I blended the protein powders with milk, almond milk, and greek yogurt to make them even more nutritional)
- WARNING: There are drinks that won’t taste very good until you can drink from a cup because all your sweet taste receptors are on the front of your tongue:
- Gatorade
- Grape Juice
- Orange Juice ? (I never tried to drink it since I don’t like it in the first place but it is pretty acidic)
- Other drinks with acidic or bitter undertones
Really Soft Foods: Easy to eat when the splint is still in your mouth and you can’t open very wide (weeks 2-4)
- Pudding (there are many flavor options to choose from and my personal favorites were butterscotch, chocolate caramel, and ice cream sandwich)
- pasta alfredo (I over-cooked rotini pasta and then covered it in sauce. I had to feed the rotini in one by one with my fingers and mash them gently with my lower teeth and the splint before swallowing)
- Mashed Potatoes
- Oatmeal (explore your flavor choices to break up the monotony)
- Cream of Wheat (I mixed in sugar and cinnamon and added 1 TBSP of heavy cream to richen it up)
- Grits
- Macaroni and cheese
- Applesauce
- Canned peaches
- Canned pears
- Canned pineapple (chunks or bits)
- Eggs
Soft Foods: After the splint is out and you can open wider (at least 1.5 finger widths)
- All the foods on the previous list
- Angel hair pasta with vegetable spaghetti sauce (Ragu Garden Combination is my favorite)
- Well cooked baked potato topped with chili (you can mash any large chunks in the chili with a fork before eating it and I used Hormel Chili with beans)
- Crustless quiches (I made a broccoli (florets only, stems are too hard) and cauliflower quiche and it was so good to have something savory after being on the liquid/pudding diet for a month)
- Soups with soft chunks:
- Ramen noodles
- Progresso Chicken Corn Chowder (the chunks were pretty sizeable but still pretty soft)
- Progresso Chicken Pot Pie
- Campbell Chicken and Rice
- Etc (I’m not big on soup so I haven’t really explored all the options out there)
- Note: avoid soups with bacon chunks inside since bacon is hard, bacon flavored is alright
- Baked beans (avoid the ones with bacon chunks mixed in)
- Pancakes and crepes (make sure the filling of the crepe is soft too, such as nutella, overcooked veggies, lemon juice with sugar, jellies. Make sure to cut off the bites with a fork before eating, no tearing with your mouth!)
- Nutrigrain bars (put small pieces into your mouth)
- Muffins (no nuts or other hard additions)
- Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (use creamy peanut butter and remove the crust. Tear off pieces of sandwich to put into your mouth)
- Oreos after being thoroughly soaked in milk
- Corn or Rice Chex cereal soaked in milk (let the cereal soak a few minutes to soften up, other cereals are too thick so they are still crunchy in the middle)
- Canned vegetables (peas, corn, green beans)
- Doughnuts (tear off small pieces to eat)
- Pizza ( My oral surgeon said I could eat pizza if the crust and toppings were soft and I used a knife and fork to cut off pieces)
- Fried rice (and other rice dishes)
- Lo Mein (and other soft noodles)
- Chicken Pot Pie (I ate the Stouffer’s brand)
Any more suggestions? Post in the comment section
