What can you eat with dental implants?
Dental implants transform your world. Built to act like your natural teeth, you’ll be able to eat what you want for a lifestyle you’ll love.
Eating with dental implants
Restore your confidence and get back to the moments that you miss. With dental implants, the menu is designed for you and your lifestyle.
Live it up at game time
Barbecue with your friends and dig in like you used to.
Get back to dinner
Enjoy family dinner again and order the meal you miss most: a juicy steak.
Enjoy a movie
Take a seat and enjoy popcorn or sweets at the movies.
What to eat after dental implant surgery
Getting back to normal with implants may be faster than you expect. Learn when you can start enjoying your new smile after your implant placement surgery.
Day of surgery
On the day of your surgery, it’s best to give yourself 2 to 3 hours before you eat again. When you’re ready, focus on liquid foods, and don’t use a straw. If you’re experiencing discomfort, take any pain medication or antibiotics prescribed by your implant expert.
24 hours post-surgery
Within the first few days of your placement surgery, it’s important to take eating slowly. In the first 24 hours, focus on:
Mashed potatoes
Liquid smoothies or juices
Yogurt
Eggs
Expert insight: eating soft foods is key. Anything that you can mash up with your fork is likely okay for you to eat.
5 days post-surgery
As you begin to heal, you can return to a normal diet and start enjoying food from home or at your favorite restaurants. Healing varies from a few days to few weeks, so slowly integrate:
Meats, like chicken & steak
Veggies, raw or cooked
Fruits, raw & cooked
Remember: if you have an implant denture, skip chewing any hard foods for extensive periods of time, and slowly start adding hard foods back into your diet after 1+ weeks.
Foods not to eat with dental implants
72 hours after placement
Within the first few days of dental implants, there are things you’ll want to skip:
Spicy foods
Hot tea or coffee
Alcoholic beverages
Seeds or anything that can irritate your mouth as it heals
After your mouth heals for at least a week, slowly reintroduce these foods as you want.
What chew need to know
The value of chewing right
How you chew your foods matters as much as what you eat. Chewing your food correctly, by taking normal-sized bites, chewing slowly to break down you food, helps aid in digestion so you stay healthy overall.
Live your way with dental implants
After a week of healing, you’ll be ready to eat what you want and get back to living your life your way. Learn what other benefits come with choosing dental implants and how they’ll transform your smile for the better.
Eating FAQs
More questions about eating with implants? We’ve got you covered.How do I chew properly with dental implants?
Dental implants are design to help restore you ability eat and chew properly. In fact, they enable you to get 90% of your chewing ability back, which is the highest among any teeth replacement solution. Because they function like your natural teeth, you can bite and chew similar to how you would with your natural teeth. Unlike with traditional dentures, they also allow you to use all of your taste buds by not covering the roof of your mouth.
Can I eat anything with implants?
Dental implants improve your comfort so you can enjoy the foods you had to give up due to tooth loss. Enjoy these foods again with implants:
Nuts
Apples
Chips
Popcorn
Steak
Wings
Celery
While most tooth loss treatments and tooth replacement solutions require special care and diet restrictions to prolong their longevity, they’re the leading option for eating the way you did with your natural teeth.
How long after dental implants can I eat normally?
Depending on how many dental implants you have placed and how long it takes for your jaw to heal, you may be eating normally in as little as a few days to a few weeks.
What happens to my jawbone when I get dental implants?
When your dental implants are placed, they are implanted into your jawbone so they can fuse into the bone and act as a tooth roots in your smile. This provides stimulation to the bone to prevent bone loss while supporting your teeth. It also means that dental implants have 5x chewing ability that traditional dentures do.
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