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Protein shakes made with milk, you can add a scoop of peanut butter, a banana, or some chocolate as well. They come in all kinds of flavors and they're not just for meat heads! Most grocery stores now carry protein powder so you don't have to wander into a GNC or anything either. On a more "food" type effort try things like lentils or barley cooked with meat that is then removed, when they're cooked down they're pretty easy to gum so it shouldn't be a problem. And that whole week of no chewing thing is baloney, because I had all four wisdom teeth removed at once and my family went to Ruth's Chris that night and needless to say I couldn't turn down a steak, so I made it work with very little pain involved.

PS The meds you get almost make it all worth it too!! I loved that stuff!!

I ate a lot of yogurt when I had my wisdom teeth out. Just make sure you don't get any seeded types! Pretty sure that I had chicken noodle soup (the cambell's kind without anything fun in it) as something salty.
Everyone raved about the meds, but I still can't eat applesauce because of the vicodin.
I remember my first solid food post surgery- In & Out burger... hurt like a mother, but it was good.

When I was in junior high my brother got jumped by a bunch of guys and he had to get his mouth wired shut. He could basically only "eat" what he could suck through a straw. After a few days of chicken broth he threatened (in writing) to take the wires off with plyers if we didn't give him "real" food.
His girlfriend and I made- and this is SO disgusting- In-N-Out milkshakes. Essentially, we threw In-N-Out fries and cheeseburgers in a blender with some water and made a drink out of it. I realize now that this was pretty stupid and dangerous because had he throw up, he probably would have choked. Cute, right? My brother was nuts though, he probably would have gone after plyers.

1st, remember your stomach doesn't have any teeth.
oatmeal, put it in a bowl with milk or water that you're going to cook it in and take the immersion blender to it for about 10 seconds. microwave for 5 and top with whatever you want.

make a pot of chicken stock and use it as a base for any number of soups. my fav during the oral surgery last year was cream of broccoli and cauliflower.

for a quick soup boil some stock and whisk in a raw egg for egg drop soup

search this site for strawberry soup. the recipe posted here was awesome and saved me, for sure. *i even froze some of it and ate it as sorbet.

applesauce, peanut butter, some soft cheese might work, ice cream, sorbets, sherberts, yogurts of all varieties.

meat is another story, i never found a good way to get meat based protein.

when i was able to start 'chewing' soft foods i put cooked chicken in the food processor and ran it till it was very fine, almost a powder, then mixed it with salt, pepper, mayo and had chicken salad. was also able to start introducing very soft fish. it took a good while before i could have 'harder' meats like chicken, beef, pork. etc.

good luck with your surgery,hope all goes well for you.

I had gumbo sans rice after having all my wisdom teeth extracted (at the ripe old age of 27). I recommend it very highly. Less appetizing was the baby food and canned o-shaped pasta in sauce that I also sucked down.

(The oral surgery meds are all fun and games until you put a couple of doses too close together and end up with a toilet as your best friend. Not pretty.)

Jello, plain vanilla ice cream with whipped cream, mashed potatoes, pureed carrots....etc. etc.

Just be sure and do a slight salt water rinse to help keep the incisions clean. You don't want to create an abscess.

I loved the food my mother fed me when I got all of my wisdom teeth pulled in college, of course, during midterms. She fed me rice gruel but different flavorings each day with mustard cabbage, seaweed, shiitake, shrimp, chicken, etc. I didn't have to chew. The hardest part of the ordeal was swallowing the Tylenol 400 mg (wish I had something stronger...) tablets for the pounding headaches during the exams - didn't help that jackhammers were resonating throughout the building since they were rebuilding it.

For snack, I ate potato starch. It's still one of my favorite comfort snacks -- heated potato starch, water, and a little sugar. It like jelly and slides down your throat so easily and has a pleasant, delicate flavor.

When I had two back-to-back root canals, I subsisted on mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, and crabcakes -- and so did my sympathetic family.

I've had 8 teeth pulled at once and watched my brother go through three major oral surgeries (splitting the pallat and breaking/rearranging his jaws) - buy an immersion blender if you don't have a blender, and make pureed soups. If your jaw is wired shut, spaghettio's won't even be an option. And even if you're not wired shut, it still might be more effort that you want to actually chew even soft, overcooked food.

Try pureed soups like the thai spiced pumpkin soup from 101 cookbooks (she has a lot of pureed soup recipes that look super good), butternut squash soup, and smoothies of berries, bananas, yogurt, and dark leafy greens - they give you so many nutrients, plus the protein in the yogurt (add a little peanut butter or protein powder if you need more) and blend up. Immersion blenders are super easy to clean and do a great, albeit not always super speedy, job.

Cottage cheese with pureed fruit or a coulee(sp?) might be a nice option too for something lighter and nearly desserty.

@chisai ~ dry socket is a terrible complication, common when lower teeth are extracted. It is a very painful infection. If you smoke, stop. Don't inhale a lot of air (it disturbs the blood clot) as with a cigarette or a straw. If you must, cover the "wounds" with gauze pads and clench, so they're protected. Eat soft foods gingerly and no rice or anything small that could invade or get stuck. Always rinse your mouth out as instructed by your doctor, but not so vigorously that it could disturb the blood clot. Always keep that in the back of your mind.

As far as foods, pureed will feel more like food. Cold will help numb. Too hot isn't a great idea. Warm is better. it's only for a short time and more pain is the last thing you need. Good luck and feel better soon.

Baby food! Not the meats or veggies (unless that's your thing), but the fruits and desserts. After I had oral surgeries, I always liked a nice cold jar of peach cobbler or blueberry buckle. :) Seriously!

Thanks for all your suggestions guys! I totally regressed last night and had warmish chocolate pudding with whipped cream for dinner. And Yobaby yogurt for breakfast today. I can barely get my mouth open, so I'm thinking I'll follow @joyyyy's suggestion about the immersion blender for the next few days, and hmmm, maybe @pavlov's also, because the four-headed dragon wants to come out and play!

@PerkyMac - I've had dry socket and it is awful. I'm doing all I can to prevent that from happening again.

You know, you guys are great.

Soup and milkshakes. A few years ago I had a deviated septum fixed, and I lived off milkshsakes. The cat loved it as well. She waited by the door for my husband to return from the ice cream place and followed him through the house just so she could have some when I opened it.

Funny I had an operation today! so similiar situation, and the Dr. said only SOFT and NOT WARM! food, for 24 hours. I had yoghurt and youghurt, then fed up and made a great gezpacho, well smoothed out in the blender!

sorry to hear you're in pain! I tried all kinds of things when I had oral surgery... My favorites were soups (of course!) loose polenta with tomato sauce, mashed black beans with mole or chipotle sauce,and all kinds of oatmeal/warm cooked grains with different fruit purees and nut butters. I hope all of these suggestions (from everyone) help out and you heal quickly! Just think how great that next steak/pork chop/ sushi roll/whatever- is going to taste!

When I had my wisdom teeth yanked in college, I lived on ice cream / sherbet and over-microwaved breakfast Hot Pockets. They got nice and mushy with an extra :30 in there. My stomach was easily upset, and those were the only things I could get down.

I tried having sorbet, but it had seeds, and one got stuck in my wound, and man did THAT suck. Careful!

Am I the only strange person that ate a lot of gefilte fish after getting my wisdom teeth out? Hmm.

Congee - flavoured with soy sauce and diced ginger (maybe zest the ginger to make it even more fine)... add some small chunks of fish for protein. Mmm fish congee.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but when I was freshly out of my own oral surgery (four impacted widsom teeth and one impacted molar), I couldn't even think of anything that wasn't in some form of a liquid, custard. After four days I tried eating a boiled noodle... felt like chewing on a rock... so really stick to liquidy things for a long time. This would be a great time to treat yourself to the creme part of creme brulee. It's the best vanilla custard you've ever had if you're out of (can't eat) crusty sugar.

Last year, I had enough procedures to buy my dentist and periodontist a yacht, so I feel your pain! I was on mush for quite a long time, and after one particularly painful surgical procedure, I was told to keep food particles away from the wound. My standbys included:

Breakfast: Yogurt, ricotta with cinnamon and honey, oatmeal, almond butter off the spoon.

Lunch and dinner: Soft scrambled eggs, applesauce, membrillo (quince paste), brie/other soft cheeses, and pureed soups (tomato, broccoli-cheese, curried cauliflower-chickpea, peanut, pumpkin, maple-chipotle root vegetable, carrot-ginger, mushroom, zucchini-garlic). And, of course, ice cream.

Hope you're feeling better soon!

A simple and easy favorite of mine...Applesauce Jell-O. Sounds wrong but it is so good!

1 small box of cherry jell-o
1 & 3/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup of boiling water
1/4 tsp of cinnamon

Dissolve jell-o in boiling water and mix vigorously. Mix cinnamon in applesauce and combine to jell-o and water. Let sit until solid, about the same time as applesauce.

anyone else having phantom gum pain while reading this...right where the wisdom teeth used to reside?

i spent a week eating butternut squash soup after having my wisdom teeth out - i can't stand the sight of it now. i suggest you don't eat anything you plan to continue enjoying...

I'm sure the doc told you this, but do NOT use a straw, at least for the first few days. It could open up sutures or the wound. Avoid anything too hot. I agree with someone else's suggestion of yogurt. Not sure about spagetti-os though.. you have to chew even those. Follow the after care directions the doctor provided you with, which most likely suggested you use salt water or a mixture of one part hydrogen peroxide to three parts water. Do not use a mouthwash as the alcohol can cause big problems.

I remember when I had my wisdom teeth removed, all I could manage was yogurt, pudding, broth, then gradually moved on to cream of wheat, mashed potatoes the following week. I was 19 and it was the week before Thanksgiving.

Make some mac and cheese. Boil the macaroni down till its super soft - no al dente for you! Hope you feel better soon. :)
Also, I'm sure the doc told you, but avoid drinking through a straw for a while. The suction can loosen your stitches (if you have them) or pull off any scabs that are helping your mouth to heal.

+cheesecakes!!
+i basically ate potato mash, sweet potato mash...every which way
+burrito innards bowl- beans, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, salsa
+soft brownies...
+baked apples- whole golden delicious apples cored with cinamon and +sugar in the middle, bake(over bake til more on the mushy side) and serve with vanilla icecream
+scrambled eggs, omlets with cheese