When the time comes to get braces, be aware that there are some foods you have to avoid. It’s important to stay away from these items, so you don’t accidentally cause damage to your orthodontic equipment. Here are five types of foods you should stay away from while you’re wearing braces.
1. Foods That Require Biting Into
Large pieces of hard fruits and vegetables and on-the-bone meat, such as carrots, apples, corn on the cob, and ribs, are not safe to bit into with braces. These foods are hard enough to cause your braces’ front brackets to pop right off, and you have to make an emergency visit to your orthodontist Queen Creek. Fortunately, you don’t have to avoid these healthy snacks altogether. Simply cut these snacks into smaller, bite-sized pieces, pull the meat off the bone, and chew them with your back molars. Another option is to avoid eating these veggies raw and instead cook them until they are softer and easier to munch on.
2. Sugary Foods
Though foods full of sugar don’t directly interfere with your braces, they can cause damage to your teeth. Since brackets and wires make it difficult to clean your teeth, sugar can remain on your teeth. This residue causes the bacteria in plaque to create acid, which eats away at the enamel on your pearly whites and can cause cavities. This acid also causes white stains on your teeth, especially around the brackets, which are impossible to remove.
3. Hard Crunchy Foods
Did you know that crunching on ice is bad for your teeth? It’s even worse if your mouth is full are hardware. Biting on hard foods such as nuts, toffee, lollipops and popcorn kernels have a higher chance of causing damage to your braces. These foods can break wires, brackets can pop off, and you can even break your tooth. Chips and cracks in your teeth are very painful and require more work to your mouth with fillings and crowns. Even small pieces of nuts and hard candy can get lodged in between your teeth and wires, bending these wires and causing your teeth to move in a way other than your orthodontist intends.
4. Gummy Foods
If you love gummy bears or chewing gum, you need to come up with some optional snacks while you have braces. Sticky and gummy foods such as stretchy taffy, gooey caramel and sour gummy candies adhere to tiny crevises in your braces. These are very difficult to remove, which increases bacteria levels in your mouth. These things also stick readily to rubber bands, both the ones holding the wires to brackets and removable ones you wear. If you are removing these bands to eat these types of foods, it can decrease the movement of your teeth and increase the amount of time you need to wear braces.
5. Chewy Foods
Like gummy foods, snacks such as beef jerky, pizza crust and bagels are tough to eat with orthodontic equipment. Not only do these take extra time to chew, which may cause pain to your sensitive mouth, but pieces of these foods easily get stuck between teeth. Trying to get this stuck food out with floss is much more difficult with braces, which means the material is often left between teeth and on your gums. Even though these foods aren’t high in sugar, the bacteria required to break it down in your mouth secretes acid that decays your teeth.
You may be wondering what you can eat after reviewing this list of foods. You can eat sandwich bread, tortillas, soups, soft or mashed vegetables and fruits, diced meat, and ice cream, to name a few things. Soon enough, the braces are off, and you can eat all your favorites again.
