Re: Can you really eat after splint?

[Guest guest]

Hey Tonya,

It all depends on how much your jaw has healed. You will want to talk to your

doctor about it. But I can tell you, I have started eating some meals with my

family. I pick and choose what I eat from the meal, but like I said in a past

post, I was able to cut up flank steak into itty bitty pieces and eat that with

mashed potatoes and corn. As long as you can swollow stuff, you can eat it. I

had chicken nuggets last night, I just tore them up until they were small enough

for me to swollow. My doc said to expect at least another 4-8 weeks of not

chewing. When even things like noodles get between my teeth, and I between my

teeth accidentally, I can feel a lot of pressure when biting down, so I wouldn't

expect to bite on anything too soon. But look into verying your food by adding

soft/small veggies into the mix. You can have peas, corn and carrots and

broccoli if you cook them until they are mushy and you cut them up really small.

Sorry if this was not what you wanted to hear.

Talk to you later.

Austria

tonyag38 wrote:

Hey, my splint comes out in 11 days. I can open 2 fingers wide and in

11 days I will be 6 weeks post-op (can't believe it). I had upper and

lower. I've been on soft diet the whole time. Will I be able to eat

other things now or does it still take time? Will I be able to eat

like hamburgers or hot dogs? Chips? All the things that are bad for

you? I am so sick of soup and mashed potatos! But, what will I really

be able to eat at first? thanks Tonya

[Guest guest]

Hi Tonya,

I got my splint off last Tuesday. I had a 2 piece Lefort (upper only) 6 weeks

prior and had

been on a no chew diet the entire time, not banded or wired at all. I too can

open 2

fingers wide. Here is a little synopsis of what I have and haven't been able to

eat since

getting my splint off.

Easy to eat and chew - mac & cheese, pasta dishes, small pieces of chicken and

sausage,

breakfast foods (eggs, toast, pancakes), cheese on a stick and half a foot long

hot dog

(state fair food!), mcdonalds hamburgers and fries (I mostly ate the more soft

fries and

stayed away from the really crunchy ones), birthday cake, merangue crust pie

(YUM!),

cheese bread, pizza with thin crust (but I ate it with a fork), chipotle chicken

bol.

Harder to eat but able to kinda pull it off - salad (but I slowly ate about half

of it before

giving it to my hubby!), sandwiches (they are easy to eat but sandwiches today

are so

thick, I can't open my mouth wide enough yet to fully chomp down on the whole

thing),

frosted flakes cereal with milk, arby's regular roast beef (too thick again...),

smores.

Not really able to eat at all - cream cheese wontons (too crunchy), cucumber

slices, corn

on the cob (yes, even with braces I could carefully eat corn on the cob before

surgery).

This has been my experience so far, I'm sure it's very different than other

people's

experiences. It is VERY scary to eat at first and is kinda weird feeling. So

far it seems that

my bite fits together better on the left, but it's easier for me to eat on the

right. That said

you get over the weird feeling fast and just eat because it's awesome! (And by

those foods

can you see that we went to the state fair and then went on a short vacation?

)

Good luck.

Cori

upper/2-piece Lefort 7/20

> Hey, my splint comes out in 11 days. I can open 2 fingers wide and in

> 11 days I will be 6 weeks post-op (can't believe it). I had upper and

> lower. I've been on soft diet the whole time. Will I be able to eat

> other things now or does it still take time? Will I be able to eat

> like hamburgers or hot dogs? Chips? All the things that are bad for

> you? I am so sick of soup and mashed potatos! But, what will I really

> be able to eat at first? thanks Tonya