For several months I had pain in the teeth on the left side of my mouth. I couldn’t actually determine where the pain was coming from, but it was a daily problem.
After visiting the dentist and finding no solution, I visited an oral surgeon who confirmed my pain.
This actually goes back many years ago. Probably 5 or 6 years ago I had a root canal on a back, upper molar. Then about 2 years after that the crown had cracker, got infected, and caused excruciating pain. A second root canal was performed.
In November 2018 I felt pain again. It was infected again so I got ANOTHER root canal but this time at an endodontist.
Well, at the end of 2019 I started feeling pain again. It wasn’t constant but it was daily and very uncomfortable. The dentist took x-rays and said there was nothing wrong.
Finally I grew tired of the pain and knew the problem was the root canaled tooth. It was time for it to come out.
I got the tooth out and I haven’t had pain since! If you would like to see a photo of my tooth (*warning it’s really gross*) then you can see it here.
Anyway, the last time I had to deal with a tooth extraction was when I got my wisdom teeth removed years ago. I wasn’t vegan then though!
I figured I would share some yummy vegan foods I ended up eating after my extraction!
On the first day…
I stuck to soft, liquid foods for the most part. My jaw hurt to move around too much and you definitely don’t want anything getting stuck near the extraction site.
I wanted to make sure I kept my immune system healthy to heal properly and also make sure I was eating enough food.
On day 2…
I was very hungry.
I had some minor pain but felt good overall and felt comfortable eating more solid foods.
For the next several days I continued to eat these meals.
I also had a couple of smoothies or açaí bowls:
I absolutely loved the mashed sweet potato and avocado, it was a really good combo.
I completely avoided any added sugar but by the second week I was back to eating by favorite oatmeal bowl:
I made sure to brush my teeth/rinse my mouth after though so bacteria wouldn’t build up!
So those were the foods I ate while still healing from a tooth extraction!
It’s important to make sure you’re getting ENOUGH food and nutritious food in order to heal properly.
Luckily there are some great, simple options out there for us vegans!