Soft Protein Foods: What are They and What is Best?

High protein foods are so important for maintaining a healthy muscle status, healing, and fullness. Protein foods may be difficult to get when you need to eat a soft food diet due to pain, dental work, or other needs. Protein can be found in many foods that is not just meat.

What is protein and why is it important for your health? Protein is the building block for tissue, muscle, and even hair. Protein acts an enzyme for your metabolism, builds anti-bodies to boost your immune system against infection, and carries oxygen and nutrients in the blood. Getting enough protein during healing from dental procedures or other surgeries is critical for your best health outcomes.

Eggs are a good source of protein and can be made very soft: scrambled, fried, etc.

What are High Protein Soft Foods?

High protein soft foods aren't as difficult to eat when you have face pain, post-dental work, or other jaw pain. Let's talk about which foods have high protein.

• Cottage Cheese 1 cup= 25g of protein

• Low-Fat Greek Yogurt 1 cup= 23g

• Salmon 3oz= 22g

• Tofu 1/2 cup= 10g

• Lentils: 1/2 cups= 9g of protein (soybeans also have a high protein 1/2 cup= 14g protein)

• Hummus (made with chickpeas 1/2 cup= 7g)

• Eggs: 1 egg= 6 g

• Oatmeal 1 cup= 6g

• Mashed potatoes 1 cup= 4g

Many of these foods can be combined to assist with a good nutrious meal while also staying soft for jaw pain, post-dental work, and tooth extractions. Let's talk about some receipes.

Cottage Cheese and Greek Yogurt are good choices for high protein and soft for jaw pain.

What are Some Meals to Make with High Protein?

I know that when you feel overwhelmed and under the weather after a dental procedure or with

Lentil Soup is a good alternative for protein when you have a painful jaw.

jaw pain it can be difficult to try to feed yourself as during this time of healing. Let's work together and give you some ideas.

• Lentil Soup

• Shepherd's Pie

• Baked Salmon

• Meatload

• Shredded Chicken

• Refried beans

• Hummus

• Egg Salad

• Greek Yogurt parfait with softened fruits

• Oatmeal

These types of meals can be used for a variety of times to make sure you are getting enough protein to heal the tissues after a surgical procedure, tooth removal, and/or chronic jaw pain in which the tissues have not started healing properly.

What to Eat After Tooth Extraction?

Ice Cream can be helpful after a dental procedure as the cold of the ice cream can act as an anti-inflammatory factor. Careful with the sugar content.

Many times we are at a loss as to what we should eat after a tooth has been extracted. You are cautioned about foods to reduce the likelihood of creating a dry socket. You are told to eat soft foods. You get tired of eating the same foods for a few days as you may have run out of interesting and fresh soft food ideas. Many of the above can be helpful. Remember that when you eat foods after extraction, you also need to be sure you are not using a straw as suction can cause a dry socket. This may eliminate the smoothies. You also want to be cautious with small food pieces such as noodles or small chunks of fruit (no sucking them up-slurping as the pressure is the same). Ice cream can be a good option but not if you are pre-diabetic or diabetic as you will want to choose more of the proteins above to reduce glycemic index needs.

What Soft Foods Can I Eat with Jaw Pain?

The foods are the same as above; however, if your jaw pain is more than a week or two and not managed with conservative care (using your guard, medications, and muscle relaxants), you should reach out to a specialized craniofacial physical therapist in order to address the causes of your jaw pain. There can be other areas that are producing your jaw pain such as the neck, shoulders, posture, etc. Also, jaw pain that is not responding to the conservative care within two weeks may require more formal intervention to assist the reduction. Call today to assist you in your pain relief.