Caring for an Elderly Parent With Special Dental Needs
Stock Up On These Supplies Before You Go In For Dental Implant Surgery
Joe Lawrence
If you're scheduled to have your dental implants inserted soon, you're probably thinking a bit about the recovery process and how you're going to go about eating and managing your pain while your mouth is healing. To make recovery a lot easier on yourself, it's essential to stock up on the supplies you need before surgery, so you don't have to ask a friend to shop for you -- or worse yet -- shop for yourself when your mouth is throbbing post-surgery. Here's a list of items you should purchase (or make sure you have on hand) prior to your dental implant surgery:
Salt: Your dentist will likely recommend you rinse your mouth out with salt water several times per day, so make sure you have more than a little shaker of the stuff on hand.
Gauze: Your dentist may send you home with a little gauze, but it never hurts to have extra on hand. You'll want to bite down on some gauze for the first few hours after you get home, so it can absorb the blood from the incisions.
Ibuprofen or naproxen: Your dentist may prescribe a pain reliever for you after surgery, but if your pain is not too terrible, you may want to reach for an OTC pain reliever instead. Ibuprofen and naproxen are the best choices, since they relieve inflammation while also alleviating pain.
A soft toothbrush: Brushing your teeth will be a bit painful at first, but with an extra soft toothbrush, it won't be nearly as bad. Buy one with the softest bristles you can find.
Frozen veggies: These aren't for eating; they're for icing your face. It's a lot easier to mold a bag of frozen corn or peas to your face than a bag of ice cubes.
Yogurt: You're not going to want to eat solid foods for a while after surgery, but you are going to want something filling so the pain relievers don't bother your stomach. Yogurt is high in protein, so it will fill you up. Greek yogurt is an even better choice.
Bananas: It's good to get some vitamins and minerals into your diet when you're healing from surgery, but many fruits and veggies are too hard. Bananas, however, are the perfect, soft consistency to gently chew with your sore mouth. Try to buy them a few days in advance so they are soft and ripe by the time you have your surgery.
Orzo pasta: This tiny pasta is about the size of grains of rice. Cook it until soft, add your favorite pasta sauce, and you have a filling meal that you barely have to chew.
In addition to the items above, make sure you buy any other soft foods you enjoy. Applesauce, pudding, ice cream, and mashed potatoes are all good choices when you're recovering from implant surgery. For more information, contact a company like Mount Royal Dental.
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Caring for an elderly parent tends to be tough enough without the added stress of dealing with dental implants or dentures. But, the prospect is not the end of the world—there are many things you can do to ensure that your parent's dental health is not compromised without having to spend a lot of personal time doing the care yourself. Between working with the right dentist, hiring a service provider for part time work, and giving your parent the tools he or she needs to care for his or her own dental health at home, you'll find that dental health for your loved one isn't so tough or time consuming after all. Hopefully you are able to get the support and information you need right here.