Figure Out What’s In Pineapple That Helps Reduce Inflammation, See If You Should Drink It Before Surgery, And Learn What Nutrition To Have To Help Heal Faster
You may have seen last year’s tik tok trend on how people dramatically reduced inflammation and swelling after wisdom teeth surgery by drinking 64 ounces of pineapple juice the night before. Or perhaps, you’ve heard that pineapple is nature’s anti-inflammatory and are wondering if it’s worth having the days leading up to tooth extraction.
Like with a lot of health trends, they start with some basis of truth, but then things can snowball and get taken to an extreme. Well, since you are looking to find out what the deal is with the pineapple juice for wisdom teeth trend, you’ve come to the right article.
As a registered dietitian nutritionist, I’m specifically trained to sift through the research, studies and science to uncover what all the fuss is about. I’ve done the digging to help you figure out if you should indeed drink pineapple juice as well as some other nutrition options that can help you feel confident and at ease before and after the procedure.
So, without further ado let’s see if this pineapple juice situation is true or just a trend!
What’s In Pineapple Juice That Makes It Helpful?
Pineapple juice contains an enzyme called bromelain. And a fun fact, pineapples are the only natural food source of this enzyme!
You can think of bromelain as nature’s anti-inflammatory as it helps to reduce swelling and pain. So, there is some accuracy to this tik-tok trend since pineapple juice may help reduce swelling due to its bromelain content.
To further back up this trend, a few clinical studies have shown that bromelain was effective in reducing pain and swelling after wisdom teeth extraction. If you are interested in diving into the data, checkout this meta analysis or this clinical trial.
However, pineapple juice is also filled with other compounds that can assist in wisdom teeth recovery. It contains vitamin C which helps supports a strong immune system and just like bromelain it also helps manage or reduce inflammation.
On top of vitamin C and bromelain, pineapple juice has flavonoids and phenolic compounds in it. These are types of antioxidants that can help your body fight off free radicals to assist in maintaining healthy cells. So yeah, in general, pineapple juice is a rockstar when it comes to reducing inflammation and supporting immune health by being packed with the enzyme bromelain, vitamin C and antioxidants.
Given this information, you may think it’s a no brainer to chug 64 ounces of it the day before your wisdom teeth removal, but there are a few more things to consider before you do that.
Things To Consider Before Drinking All That Pineapple Juice
Now, before you go ahead and drink all that pineapple juice before your tooth extraction there are a few things you should consider.
First, it’s important to make sure that your pineapple juice is fresh aka (also known as) it is not expired. Since drinking expired juice could cause a slew of potential health issues.
Secondly, pineapple juice is packed with sugar, which can impact your insulin and blood sugar levels. So, if you are concerned about this or have other health conditions like diabetes, then drinking large quantities of straight pineapple juice may have more risk than reward.
Third, pineapple juice is acidic which can harm the health of your teeth and could cause stomach and gastrointestinal discomfort. The chance of having stomach pains in the days leading up to tooth extraction is another thing to think about.
Okay, so by now you know the benefits and you know the things to consider before drinking pineapple juice, so if you are wondering why not just take pineapple or bromelain supplements, read on to figure out if that’s a realistic option for you!
Okay, Why Not Just Take Bromelain Supplements?
Food first supplement second is something you should try to go for but there are many cases where supplements are recommended and beneficial.
If you are thinking of taking bromelain supplements before your surgery its imperative that you speak with your doctor, pharmacist and/or qualified, credentialed nutrition professional (like me, a registered dietitian) as these supplements can have an adverse impact depending on your health status and other medications and supplements you may be taking.
Now, what’s the deal with bromelain supplements?
These supplements contain bromelain, the proteolytic enzymes found in pineapple. As you may know by now, bromelain supplements can help reduce inflammation and support your immune system.
Since your goal with these supplements is to help reduce inflammation the recommended dosage is anywhere between 200mg – 800mg. You should try to take the supplement in-between meals as this can help with absorption and immune support.
There are a lot of supplement brands out there, which one should you take?
Yup, there are a ton of supplements on the market, then when you look at just bromelain supplements there is still a lot to choose from.
So, when picking out a supplement make sure it is the dosage you are looking for. On top of that supplements are not like prescriptions, they are not upheld to the same regulations. Look for GMP and/or third-party verification such as USP or NSF on the label. This will at least ensure that you are getting the same exact ingredients and dosage with each pill in the bottle.
There are a few other things to consider when picking a bromelain supplement, but this will give you a general guide to help pick a good, quality brand.
Who should NOT TAKE bromelain supplements?
Bromelain supplements are not for everyone. Bromelain can interfere with blood clotting, if you are blood thinners then bromelain could impact your body’s ability to blood clot.
Additionally, bromelain may reduce your body’s ability to absorb antibiotics and it could increase the strength of sedative drugs. So, if you are on either or both antibiotics and/or sedatives then bromelain could have adverse impacts on them.
On top of that, taking bromelain supplements may cause nausea, diarrhea and/or vomiting. Although rare, this is typically seen at higher doses.
And lastly, if you do take bromelain, since it may interact with blood clotting it’s suggested to stop taking the supplement two weeks before your tooth extraction surgery.
You can learn even more about bromelain supplement’s pros and cons over at Examine or from this Mount Sinai article.
What To Eat To Ease The Pain and Swelling
What you eat before and after surgery matters when it comes to supporting healing and getting back to normal faster. Provided below are some suggestions on before and after-surgery healing nutrients and foods. And yes, pineapples and pineapple juice are included!
Before Surgery
Before surgery, you want to try to focus on nourishing your body with nutrient-dense healing foods. In particular, try to get plenty of vitamin C, omega-3, vitamin D, protein, calcium, collagen, vitamin K2 and anti-inflammatory nutrients as you can on a daily basis. Here’s a list of food examples that can help increase your healing nutrient stores before wisdom tooth surgery day:
- Protein, Calcium and Omega 3 rich foods
- Flax seeds
- Chia seeds
- Fortified eggs
- Walnuts
- Fatty fish like sardines, salmon or tuna
- Vitamin D and K2-rich foods
- Fortified eggs
- Broccoli
- Kale
- Fortified cheese
- Fortified milk
- Vitamin C-packed foods
- Fruits such as pineapple
- Pineapple juice
- Dark leafy greens
- Broccoli
- Carrots
- Peppers
- Collagen packed foods
- Bone broth
- Sardines
- Skin on chicken
- Anti-inflammatory foods, drinks and seasonings
- Turmeric
- Pineapple
- Pineapple juice
- Green tea
- Dark leafy greens
Some snack and meal ideas:
| Before Surgery Snack and Meal Ideas |
| tropical green smoothie made with greek yogurt, flaxseeds, pineapples, bananas, spinach and milk |
| turmeric scrambled eggs with cheese, kale with a side of fresh pineapples and green tea |
| skin on baked chicken breast with roasted vegetables and feta cheese |
| bone broth and kale chips and walnuts |
| roasted salmon seasoned with turmeric, black pepper and lemons with cheesy mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach |
After Surgery
Of course, please follow your surgeon’s post-surgery instructions when it comes to liquids, food temperature and soft food protocol. Every person’s wisdom teeth surgery is unique to them, so adhere to your care team’s food consistency guidance.
Regardless of your food consistency and how long you have to be on it, the same nutrients to fill up on before surgery are the same nutrients you should try to fill up on after surgery.
Provided below are some examples of soft food nutrient-packed meals and snacks:
| Nutritious Soft Food Meal and Snacks |
| lukewarm bone broth seasoned with turmeric |
| greek yogurt topped with finely crushed pineapple |
| tropical smoothie made of spinach, greek yogurt, collagen powder, pineapple and banana |
| mashed potatoes made with vitamin D-fortified cheese, bone broth and turmeric seasoning |
| scrambled eggs with fortified cheese and well-sauteed chopped spinach |
| a glass of lukewarm pineapple juice followed up with a glass of lukewarm vitamin D-fortified milk |
| cooked to softened salmon without the skin (should require minimal chewing) with cooked or microwaved to soften finely chopped carrots |
If you are looking for even more information, food and meal suggestions check out my other articles on this – Foods to Eat After Tooth Extraction and Foods to Eat After Wisdom Teeth Removal.
Final Thoughts
Yes, there is some truth to the pineapple juice pre-wisdom teeth surgery tik tok trend. However, a few people’s experiences are anecdotal and can be generalized to everyone. The ability of someone to recover quickly from tooth extraction surgery depends on a number of factors including how extensive the surgery is (aka how many teeth, how impacted the teeth were), health before the surgery, and nutrition before the surgery.
Please consider all the pros and cons when it comes to drinking 64 ounces of pineapple juice or taking bromelain supplements leading up to your surgery. As always, when it comes to health and nutrition we are all individuals and unique, chat with your doctor or a qualified nutrition expert before trying this trend to make sure it’s a safe option for you!
Registered dietitian Julie is here to help provide guidance on this and dental nutrition in general, for more information head on over to my contact page and feel free to reach out.
Cheers to pineapple juice’s anti-inflammatory properties!
Additional Resources
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33917319/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34681298/
- https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/greatest-pineapple-recipes/
