Wearing Braces Means Avoiding These Foods
Your teeth are full of nooks and crannies where food particles can hide and feed the bacteria that cause gingivitis and plaque. Brushing and flossing regularly gets them out well enough, but then metal braces make things even harder by adding more hiding spots that are harder for toothbrushes to reach and metal wires that get in the way of floss. Certain hard foods can also snap off the brackets since the adhesive keeping them in place is weaker than your tooth enamel.
That’s why orthodontists give people a list of foods to avoid when they first put on the braces. But in case you lost your list or you’re looking ahead and want to be prepared early, you can use this list.
- Popcorn. The corn hulls are hard enough to pick out of your teeth without braces, and the brackets make it that much harder.
- Hard taco shells, corn chips, pretzels, nuts, hard cookies, and crackers. These foods can leave a lot of pieces in and between your teeth that are hard to clean out.
- Hard candy and ice. These foods are hard enough to damage or knock a bracket off your teeth.
- Sticky candy and gum. These foods can stick to your braces and become very hard to get off.
There are also several foods that aren’t so hard or sticky that you need to avoid them completely, but taking big bites into tough foods using your front teeth can damage the brackets on these teeth over time and weaken their hold. As such, the best way to eat these foods is to cut them into smaller pieces so you don’t have to tear pieces off with your teeth. These foods include:
- Corn on the cob and stiff raw vegetables like celery and carrots
- Loaves of bread with crispy crusts like French and Italian
- Hard fruits like apples and pears
- Thin-crust pizza and other pizzas with crunchy crusts
- Meat portions like steak and pork chops
- Sandwiches like hamburgers and subs
Still, there are plenty of other foods you can eat without any problems, and only some of them are the consistency of pudding. Hard cheese is soft enough when it comes to braces, and pasta is chewy enough to cause no problems. Softer fruits and vegetables are fine even if they’re a little stiff, like raw spinach and grapes. You also don’t have to worry about sandwiches made with soft bread and soft ingredients, like tuna fish salad and peanut butter and jelly.
Having to restrict your diet when you wear braces can be a real pain, but if the brackets break or snap off it’ll only make the whole process take longer. So make sure you take care of them and avoid the foods that could cause problems because then you’ll be able to enjoy those foods again later.