What you can eat after implant surgery, week by week

Day 1 — cool and liquid

Nothing hot on the first day. Heat opens blood vessels and restarts bleeding, and it is easy to underestimate the temperature of soup while part of your mouth is still numb.

• Cold or lukewarm: yoghurt, milk, smoothies eaten with a spoon, cooled broth, ice cream.
• No straws. The suction is the problem, not the drink.
• Nothing with seeds or grains that can lodge in the site.

Days 2 to 7 — soft, and still not hot

Warm is fine from day two; genuinely hot is not, until the swelling starts to go down. Everything should be soft enough to break apart with a fork — if it needs a knife, it needs more cooking.

• Eggs, mashed potato, well-cooked pasta, soft fish, minced meat in sauce, soup.
• Bananas, avocado, stewed fruit, porridge left to soften.
• Chew on the opposite side from the surgery throughout.

This is also the week people lose weight without noticing, which slows healing. If chewing is tiring, eat five small meals rather than three that you cannot finish.

Weeks 2 to 6 — back towards normal, carefully

Most foods come back in this window, but the limit is set by what you are wearing over the implants, not by how you feel. A temporary bridge is acrylic. It is made to look right and to let you eat comfortably — it is not made to survive a crusty loaf or a lamb chop on the bone.

• Avoid: nuts, hard bread crusts, ice, boiled sweets, apples bitten whole, anything you have to tear.
• Cut hard fruit and vegetables into pieces instead of biting into them.
• Sticky foods — toffee, chewing gum, soft nougat — can lift a temporary restoration off.

After the final restoration

Once the permanent bridge or crown is fitted, the diet restriction ends. Zirconia and titanium are stronger than enamel, and there is no list of foods you have to avoid forever.

Two habits are worth keeping anyway, because they break natural teeth as well as restorations: do not open packaging with your teeth, and do not chew ice.