Should you eat before a dentist appointment

Q: Is it OK to eat before a filling?

Its always good to avoid heavy meals before any dental procedure, and with local anesthesia, a light meal a few hours before should be fine. Again, if you know that you become nauseous — for any reason — during a procedure, you may want to refrain from eating much until after youre done.

Dependent on what type of appointment your child has scheduled is the primary deciding factor if he or she can eat/drink beforehand. If it is just an exam and consultation, your child can eat and drink small amounts to help prevent light-headedness and be more likely to relax, but have him or her brush and floss afterward to keep a clean mouth.

Table of Contents Show

Why No Eating or Drinking?
What About a Filling?
Should You Stay With Your Child?
Creating a Happy Appointment
What is the best thing to eat before going to the dentist?
Is it OK to eat before a filling?
Why should you eat before dentist?
What should you do before a dentist appointment?

If the appointment is for dental treatment that will require sedation or general anesthesia to undergo the procedure comfortably and safely, solid food must stop eight hours beforehand. Clear liquids such as water or apple juice may be consumed up to two hours before the appointment, but no milk or other dairy drinks are to be ingested.

Why No Eating or Drinking?

It is for your child’s safety. It is dangerous for a child to be sedated if even a small amount of food or drink has started the digestive process and a release of those enzymes into the child’s stomach.

What About a Filling?

A filling uses the alloy amalgam that takes approximately 24 hours for the filling to harden completely. It is recommended to wait at least one hour to eat anything and to wait 24 hours before adding solid foods. There may be sensitivity to hot and cold beverages and food for as much as three weeks after a filling, especially if the cavity was deeper.

Should You Stay With Your Child?

Although you usually stay with your child during the initial examination and consultation, during future more involved appointments for procedures, it is suggested that you allow your child to accompany just the staff to establish a closer rapport with the child, gain the child’s confidence, and overcome any apprehension.

Creating a Happy Appointment

Our friendly and highly trained staff at Pediatric Dentistry of Suffolk County in Commack and Medford is happy to schedule a child’s appointments at the parents’ convenience with evening and Saturday office hours, if necessary.

The office team strives to make the child comfortable in a “fun” atmosphere, create a good attitude about coming for a regular health exam and preventative care, and to see each child leave with a smile. For more information about your child’s appointment, contact us today!

Ok. So finally I am giving in. Everyone, including my staff, my wife, my friends, even my kids is telling me to start writing a blog. Anyone who knows me well, knows that me and writing goes together exactly the same as me and talking – not a good match. Two things that just absolutely can’t coexist. But if there are several things that I am passionate about and can definitely write about, they’re: health, nutrition, dentistry and sports.

With that in mind, I started writing down some questions that our patients ask me and my hygienists on regular basis. Today I will start covering some of them.

This question is actually the one that I ask my patients. I usually ask this before administering local anesthetic: “What did you have to eat before your visit today?” Unfortunately, the answers that we hear are not the ones that we would hope for. It’s usually “nothing really”, “coffee and muffin” or “bowl of cereal”, “soup and sandwich”. You get the idea. We all love and crave some processed carbs like bread, cereal and pasta. Unfortunately, those are not the best choices when it comes to pre-dentist visit meal. We want your pre-local anesthetic meal to serve several purposes. I will cover some of them today and will address the others in my next blog.

Helping our bodies deal with increased stress levels. As any other medical procedure, dental treatment does induce additional stress on our bodies. Each one of us already deals with everyday issues that cause stress like helping your kids with homework without either one of us ending up in a body bag (can you hear me screaming right now?). Daily stress is a pretty heavy task that we ask our body to deal with. With that in mind, one of the means to help anyone to combat additional stress is to make sure we provide ourselves with proper nutrients to be able to do

Keep you satiated for at least 3-4 hours. We don’t want you to be starving right after a long dental procedure and chew half of your lip up while trying to eat your lunch or dinner. Trust me, it does not look or feel good after the numbness wears off. Ingesting a meal that is high in processed carbs will fill us up initially but will make us very hungry shortly after, like we never even ate.

And for not having any meal at all before dental procedure that requires local anesthetic, I don’t know about you but I can’t go without some type of food for more than 3-4 hours. So, being hungry right after long dental visit, is just not a very good strategy to have.

That should do it for today. While you digest the information and try to make sense of it, I will continue adding to the list and will publish the remainder of it in the next blog. I will also address the nutritional strategies then.

What is the best thing to eat before going to the dentist?

A high-protein meal before you go to the dentist can help you to feel satiated for at least three hours. If you've got a long dental appointment coming up, a meal that is high in protein - such as eggs, nuts, or fish - can help you to continue feeling full throughout the procedure.

Is it OK to eat before a filling?

It's always good to avoid heavy meals before any dental procedure, and with local anesthesia, a light meal a few hours before should be fine. Again, if you know that you become nauseous — for any reason — during a procedure, you may want to refrain from eating much until after you're done.

Why should you eat before dentist?

Eating before your appointment can actually work in your favor, as it decreases the chances of getting lightheaded from stress or nerves, and will calm you if you fill up on something protein based. Being hungry tends to lead to nervousness and/or irritability. Our dentists will appreciate it as well!