Keep Your Teeth and Braces Safe With the Foods You Eat

When wearing braces, your food choices become crucial. Certain foods can harm your braces or cause teeth stains, such as berries, curry sauce, or grape juice. Safeguarding your new bands, archwires, brackets, teeth, and gums becomes a top priority!

Your teeth become more vulnerable when you consume a lot of sugary and starchy foods because these foods produce plaque acid, leading to tooth decay and gum disease. With braces, food particles can easily get trapped between them and your teeth, making regular brushing and flossing even more crucial. Cavities are already troublesome, but plaque and tartar can also cause unsightly stains on parts of your teeth that aren’t covered by braces.

Foods To Avoid

Sticky foods can cling to your braces and are very hard to remove. Caramel, jelly beans, licorice, taffy, toffee, and other sticky, hard candies might break brackets. Gummy candy may bend archwires and get stuck under brace attachments. Chewing gum can also get trapped between your wires and be difficult to remove.

Other foods are so hard that they can damage your braces and wires; toffee bits can damage brackets and bands, and tough meats like chicken wings and ribs can even dislodge a bracket. Beef jerky, pizza crusts, nuts, and seeds with large pieces, and raw vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower require a strong bite, which can harm braces. Steam or cook your vegetables, and if you’re eating hard, crusty bread like bagels, soften it with soup or sauce and cut it into small pieces.

There are also a few things that you shouldn’t eat because they can harm your braces, so keep them away from your teeth! Chewing ice is the most common way braces can get damaged, so avoid doing it. Even chewing on pens, pencils, paper clips (ouch!), or biting your fingernails can cause problems for your braces. The main aim is to keep your braces and smile safe, help align your teeth, and not prolong the time you need to wear them.

Foods To Eat

Eat a well-rounded diet to keep your teeth healthy and strong once your braces are removed. Make sure you get enough protein, calcium, vitamins, iron, and fiber every day. Foods with a soft texture are beneficial for your braces, especially right after they’re tightened.

• Soft fruits: ripe pears, nectarines, tangerines, kiwis, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, applesauce, and fruit that can be diced and chewed with the molars.
• Vegetables, steamed or cooked, also contribute to keeping your smile healthy.
• Dairy: low-fat milk, yogurt, smoothies, and soft cheeses feel pleasant in your mouth.
• Eggs, scrambled, hard-boiled, sunny-side up, or in omelet form, are excellent choices.
• Meats: tender selections such as meatloaf, fish, chicken, turkey, or tofu are both healthy and safe.
• Grains: soft-textured grains such as pasta, rice, or quinoa are beneficial for you.
• Soft bread: muffins, pancakes, tortillas, and biscuits are tender on your teeth.

If you find that the foods you can eat with braces are dull or uninspiring, try exploring new recipes that will delight both your taste buds and your orthodontic appliances. With the holidays approaching, it’s important to be cautious, as many traditional treats like candied apples, peanut brittle, and candy canes can be harmful to your teeth and braces. Feel free to reach out to our orthodontic team if you have any questions or concerns.