Having braces can pose a lot of limits, especially with food intake. You can’t just eat anything you want because chewing and biting is painful, and some of what you eat can mess up the way the teeth are supposed to set. Worse, food can break the wires and cut the bands of your braces, which means you may have you to go through the needless process of redoing the whole thing.
So early on, your orthodontist will have told you that certain foods must be avoided so that treatment can progress well. Some changes in eating habits and preferences must be done, especially in the first few months of brace wearing.
Foods to Avoid
The list under this can go on and on. The unspoken rule for people with braces is that anything hard or crunchy, and chewy or sticky cannot be eaten.
- Hard or crunchy food can break the dental appliances. And with your teeth a bit sore and loose, since it’s moving and setting in its new places, you could risk permanent damage like having your teeth come off, when you bite or chew on something hard.
- Sticky or chewy food can get trapped in the braces’ wires and brackets, which will make it harder to clean and remove. The constant chewing may also force the bonds to come loose, thus, your braces will have to be re-adjusted, which is what you must avoid.
- Sugar-rich candies can cause cavities that will lead to tooth decay, especially since this can lodge into the wires like sticky food. Although proper brushing should be done regardless if you have braces on or not, people with braces have to clean extra hard. Eating candies will only add to the task of an already elaborate oral hygiene.
- Highly acidic food can make the enamels of your teeth brittle, making it prone to chipping and breaking off.
Foods to Eat
At this point, you will need a lot of calcium and vitamin C to make your teeth and gums stronger, aiding in the treatment process.
- Perhaps the one bright side to wearing braces is that you can go nuts with eating ice cream. It may be rich in sugar, but the ice cream soothes the gums. Sugar, in this case, can also be easily washed off with brushing and constantly drinking water. Plus, ice cream contains milk, which is rich in calcium.
- Cheese and yogurt are also calcium-rich foods. Unsweetened yogurt is better than sweetened yogurt, and can add this to salads and oatmeal, if you prefer.
- Steamed vegetables are softer and easier to chew or bite on, while soup provides all of the other nutrients you need, if you can’t handle biting meat for the meantime.
Chew carefully with each bite and don’t be in a hurry to finish your food. Remember to clean well with each meal. Any time a brace is damaged because of what you have eaten, this instantly translates to more appointments and more inconveniences both on your side and the side of your dentist.