Oh - how well I remember having my wisdom teeth removed. It was 15 years ago, and yet I recall it as if it were yesterday. Without going into all the gory details, I didn't just have the four wisdom teeth tae out, but also two other lower teeth whose roots had been destroyed by my impacted wisdoms growing sideways (yuck!), so I admit mine was perhaps a more extreme case than so, but my face swelled up so I resembled a miserable hamster - well according to my partner anyway - and the thought of food was the furthest thing from my mind.

In fact, I didn't eat anything solid for about 3 weeks. At first it was far too painful, and then after a week or so, I guess it became a psychological thing with me - sort of "I know it's going to hurt, so I just don't want to try". So how did I survive those 3 weeks? And what would I suggest to others in the same predicament, when it comes to what foods they should eat?

Well soft foods obviously. After wisdom teeth extraction, your gums are sore, and your jaw aches so much it's impossible to open your mouth too wide, - so crunching on an apple or crispy French bread is out of the question. I ate a lot of soft scrambled egg for the first week (no toast - far too "crunchy") and I also ate mashed potatoes and loads of yoghurt. Strangely, I couldn't face soup at all, as the soreness in the gums meant very hot food is impossible, and luke-warm soup is somehow very unappealing. I also developed a liking of tinned Ambrosia creamed rice, and cold custard out of a tin, and by the second week I could eat a soft breakfast cereal like Weetabix, if it was mashed up with lots of milk like a baby would eat it.

Worst thing I recall about wisdom teeth recovery is that even drinking is difficult, because you can't open your mouth wide enough to drink as proper cup or tea or coffee, so everything has to be taken through a straw, and the sucking method used to drink through a straw is actually too painful while the gums and wounds are healing. Very small sips of water from a baby cup with a spout, was the most I could manage for a while, and you must watch for dangers of dehydration.

Of course as time goes on, things et easier, so as your wounds heal, the pain gets less, and every day you find you can experiment with sometingmore adventurous than "baby food". I do remember that the first time I ate a slice of toast it felt like a major achievement, and even then I had to remove the crusts first!

So I guess my advice to everyone facing this operation, and wondering what to eat afterwards, is just to be patient and know it will take time to recover completely. It isn't the most pleasant of ordeals, but I tried to think of it as a good way to lose some weight, and it certainly achieved that!

Learn more about this author, Rose Conrad.
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