Dental Care for All of Us

You should aim to protect your dental implants at all costs, especially during the recovery phase, and an important part of this process involves knowing what not to eat. In terms of comfort, appearance, and toughness, dental implants mimic natural teeth. However, you must allow the implants to heal and your mouth to recover before you can expect these benefits. Make sure you exercise caution and understand what you should not eat during your recovery. 

Raw Vegetables

Don't eat any raw vegetables or hard fruits, such as apples. These foods are thick and crisp and require a great deal of force to bite through. Applying force around the dental implant incision site can prevent proper healing. 

When you press down to bite these hard foods, the metal healing button that rests just above your gum line can shift and loosen. If this fixture does not heal and settle correctly, neither will the implant. Stick to cooked vegetables and diced fruit until you recover. 

Popcorn

With natural teeth, popcorn will land and get stuck in just about any available crevice; much is the same when it comes to dental implants. However, with your natural teeth, you can floss and remove the popcorn, but not with implants. If the popcorn pieces settle around the incision site, bacteria can grow, and infection can set in. 

If the site around the incision is still open, the infection can travel inside and become especially dangerous if it were to enter the bloodstream. Don't eat popcorn or any other food that could break apart and get stuck in the opening around the implant. 

Gummy Candy

Gummy candies latch on to the tooth and almost function as somewhat of an adhesive, in that they make the teeth stick together. The main problem with this is that the candy will stick to the implant just as easily as it would a tooth. As a result, when you open wide to bite again, the adhesiveness of the candy will tug slightly on the implant. 

Since the implant is still healing, it has not properly fused to the bone. Any jolting movements around the implant site can cause it to detach or loosen and prevent it from healing correctly; not to mention, any movement around the incision area can be especially painful.  

If you have more questions about what food choices you should avoid after your dental implant procedure, make sure you speak directly with your dental health provider.