My Jaw Surgery Recovery: Favorite Recipes

You may have seen me mention that I had jaw surgery a little while ago. Well, today I wanted to do something a little different from what I normally post. I want to talk about my jaw surgery recovery, and more importantly, the recipes that have made this whole process a little more bearable.

Food is my passion, and cooking is my favorite hobby. However, following jaw surgery I was really restricted in the kinds of foods I could eat. This has forced me to be more creative, both with what I cook, and how I eat (I’m now a master of cutting food up into itty bitty pieces!). Both before and after the surgery, I’ve tried to research jaw surgery friendly recipes online. However, I never found a master list that satisfied my foodie self. So I decided to make one myself! So enjoy my complete Jaw Surgery Recovery Recipe Guide!

First, let me tell you a bit more about the surgery to give you some context. I had Double Jaw Surgery (DJS), which means that the surgeon operated on both my upper and lower jaw. The surgeon also operated on my chin, moving it forward an entire inch! Jaw surgery is usually performed along with a corresponding orthodontics plan; I didn’t do any orthodontics treatment before the surgery, but after the surgery I’m doing Invisilign treatment. This is a pretty intense surgery. I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was a teenager, but that surgery doesn’t even compare to DJS! I spent the night of the surgery in the hospital, and was super weak for many days following it.

Week 1: Liquids Only

For the 10 days or so, I was restricted to a liquid diet, meaning that I couldn’t chew anything at all. This was definitely the toughest part; not only was I in a lot of pain and discomfort from the surgery itself, but I was so miserable not being able to eat anything substantial!

During this time, I mostly survived off Soylent (chocolate is my favorite flavor by far), Gatorade, and thin smoothies consisting of blended Oat Milk, fruit juice, and flavored Greek yogurt. I attempted to eat blended soups during this time, but I couldn’t stomach them easily. I don’t know why, but something about liquid savory soup just grossed me out! I attempted to drink a blended, watery broccoli cheddar soup, and it was pretty disgusting, at least to my sensitive post surgery stomach! So I pretty much stayed away from soup, oddly enough.

During this latter portion of this phase, I started to experiment with slightly thicker, more substantial foods. I found apple sauce and pudding cups to be really satisfying snacks. Of course you can make both these from scratch, but during this first week I simply didn’t have the energy or motivation to cook anything, so I used store bought.

A few recipes I did try during this time that my mom or boyfriend made for me include:

• Healing Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup
• Spicy Pumpkin Soup

Week 2: No chew

About two weeks following the surgery, my surgeon cleared me to start eating no chew foods. No chew foods are pretty much anything you can easily eat without any chewing. This means either stuff you can swallow whole, or that you could squish up on your palette.

When I was cleared for this phase, the first thing I did was go home, warm up a can of refried beans, and eat it with cheese, sour cream, and salsa. It was pretty amazing after only having liquids for so long! Some other favorites during this phase were scrambled eggs, oatmeal, rice pudding, and buttermilk pancakes drenched in lots of maple syrup.

Here are some of my favorite no chew recipes:

• Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Pancakes
• Vanilla Panna Cotta with Mixed Berry Compote
• Spicy Sofritas Veggie Bowl (just skip the pinto beans, eat with refried beans instead)
• Savory Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Weeks 3-6: Soft chew

After my bones had the chance to heal enough, it was time for me to relearn how to chew! This phase is the ‘soft chew’ phase, for I was only supposed to eat soft foods that I could chew very easily. A rule of thumb I used was that if I was able to squish the food between my fingers without much resistance (and without any crunch or noise), it was fine for me to eat.

I was so excited to reach this phase and start eating again! Of course, chewing felt super weird now that my jaw was in an entirely new position. I had to take it slow, and make sure to cut up my food into teeny tiny pieces. I often joked during this period that it took me twice as long to eat half as much food!

During this food, I was able to enjoy a much wider variety of foods. In particular, I ate lots of Mexican and Indian food. The first meal I had after being cleared for soft chew was Paneer Shahi and Malai Kofta with Basmatic rice Naan torn into small pieces and soaked in the curry sauces until soft. It was pretty darn incredible.

Some of my favorite soft chew recipes include:

• Butter paneer
• Cake! The first thing I did once I was cleared for soft chew was get a big slice of Chantilly Cake from Whole Foods! One of my favorite cake recipes is this Strawberry Tres Leches Cake.
• Muffins! These Lemon Poppy Seed Zucchini Muffins are super soft and tender.
• Korean Soft Tofu Soup. I couldn’t eat the daikon in this recipe, but the soft tofu was so yummy!
• Mushroom Risotto
• Enchiladas: These Cauliflower and Pepper Enchiladas are always a fave in my house, and we also love these Poblano, Black Bean, and Quinoa Enchiladas.

If you or someone you know is having jaw surgery, I hope this helps reassure you that you can still enjoy delicious food while you’re recovering! Even though it was a tough thing to go through, I’m so happy with my results and I’m definitely glad I had this surgery!

Share your favorite jaw surgery friendly recipes in the comment, or let me know how your recovery went!

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