Dentist and orthodontist trips are an unpleasant but often necessary part of life.
Getting your teeth worked on is never pleasant, though.
The worst part is the temporary discomfort of eating after an orthodontist visit.
Here are a few ideas for soft foods to soothe your mouth when it hurts to eat.
1.
Pudding Pudding is the classic fallback option for those who have just had their braces tightened or wisdom teeth out, as it is very soft and requires little to no chewing to eat it.
Your teeth may feel especially sore in the first few hours, and pudding works very well during that time.
It's best to try to eat your pudding cold, rather than warm it up.
This may sound counterintuitive, like it would hurt your sensitive teeth worse, but the cold temperature can actually help to alleviate some of the pain.
2.
Cooked Hot Cereal You can't live on pudding the whole time your teeth are adjusting.
Not only will you get tired of it, it's far too sugary to be eating all the time.
When it comes time for a good meal, there are some healthy options, such as cooked hot cereal.
Items like oatmeal or cream of wheat cereal are very soft against the teeth but provide substantially more nutrition and substance than pudding or Jell-O.
If your teeth are still sensitive to heat, let it sit for a little while before eating it.
3.
Fish Sticks Many of the foods you can eat after an orthodontist trip are nearly liquid, since chewing can be a problem.
There are also some good solid foods that are very soft and easy to chew, and fish sticks is one of them.
It's a good way to ease back into eating everyday foods.
Fish is often very tender and requires minimal chewing to eat.
It's tempting to subsist solely on a liquid diet until your teeth are back to normal again, but fish sticks give you something those liquids do not: protein.
4.
Vegetables Though many vegetables are very crunchy, such as celery, there are ways to eat vegetables without hurting your teeth.
This is good, because vegetable should be an essential part of your diet.
Try steaming your vegetables well to soften them, or put them in soups where they will soften naturally.
Peas and squash are two examples of vegetables that are naturally mushy.
You may be able to eat them without doing anything special to them at all.
These are four excellent foods to eat after a visit to the orthodontist.
The pain will lessen in a few days, but in the meantime you can reach for some of these whenever you feel hungry.