4 Foods To Avoid [While Wearing Braces]

Orthodontic work can be the key to ensuring your child has a straight, healthy smile. Unfortunately, many people tend to negatively judge those with bad teeth, meaning that the decision to put your child in braces could also be potentially important for their future career prospects. Of course, orthodontic work does come with its drawbacks. It's important that your child takes the process seriously and follows the orthodontist's instructions in order to achieve the desired results. This could potentially mean that your son or daughter is forced to give up their favorite foods until the orthodontic work is fully complete. This may sound cruel, but it's also absolutely necessary. Eating certain foods is a quick and easy way to damage the orthodontics. This will not only slow down the process but will also see you having to pay for unnecessary office visits in order to fix the damage.  

Understanding What You Can and Cannot Eat with Orthodontics

When your child first has their braces put on, they will be quite limited in their food choices for at least a few days. Generally, the teeth and mouth will be fairly sore for the first few days. Your child may experience tenderness and pain whenever they bite down. For this reason, it's usually best to try to provide them with either soft or liquid foods. Do this until the soreness dissipates. Any type of tough meat, raw vegetables or harder breads will generally be too difficult to eat for the first day or two. Nonetheless, your child should have no problems biting into most foods by the end of the first week. However, just because they can bite into something doesn't necessarily mean they should. In fact, there are a number of different types of foods that they'll basically need to avoid altogether or else risk damaging the wires or brackets. For this reason, it is important that anyone with braces stay away from all of the following food types.  

Overly Sticky Foods

This group includes things like caramel, chewing gum, jelly beans and many other types of soft candy. These sticky foods often get stuck in either the bracket or wire and can easily move things out of alignment. As well, these foods can also cause damage to the aligners used with Invisalign. They are best avoided by people with any type of orthodontic appliance.  

Foods That Are Too Chewy

Things like bagels, hard rolls and many other types of bread can also cause damage to orthodontics.    

Excessively Hard or Crunchy Food

Unfortunately, orthodontic work means there will no more eating popcorn, chips, nuts and most other hard or crunchy items. These typically aren't as much of a problem with Invisalign. But they can potentially cause damage to other types of orthodontics.  

Anything That You Have to Physically Bite Into

Apples, corn on the cob, carrots and other similar foods are also off limits. Biting into these foods is a good way to rip the brackets off the teeth, loosen wires or cause other damage. However, most of these foods are still safe to eat as long as they are cut into smaller bite-sized pieces first. The problem with most of these foods is either their hardness or texture. Both of which can loosen the individual brackets or wires. This forces you to schedule another trip to the orthodontist to have the bracket glued back in place. There are actually quite a few different types of foods that can lead to these problems. For this reason, your orthodontist will likely provide you with a complete list of all foods that your child needs to avoid. It's in your best interest to ensure that they follow these instructions as thoroughly as possible.  

Preventing Pain and Problems through Proper Care

Straightening and realigning a person's teeth is a complicated process. No matter whether using more traditional orthodontic appliances or something like Invisalign. As every person's mouth is different, an orthodontist must come up with a specific individual treatment plant to correct whatever issues are present. Unfortunately, the process is also quite delicate. This means that even minor damage like loose wires or missing rubber bands can drastically slow down the process. As well, these kinds of damage often lead to the bits of metal shifting slightly so that they begin rubbing on the inside of the mouth and creating painful sores. The best way to avoid these problems is to ensure that your child follows instructions and takes care of their orthodontic appliances properly. In this case, the process is more involved than simply taking care of your teeth through brushing and flossing. These things are still especially important due to the various food particles that tend to get stuck in orthodontic appliances. However, it is just as important that a person wears their rubber bands, uses their headgear or retainers and avoids eating any foods that could damage their orthodontics. Doing so will not only allow them to avoid any unnecessary pain that results from this damage. It will also ensure that the entire process goes much quicker and more smoothly. Your child will surely want to be done with their orthodontics as soon as possible. The best way to ensure this is to take proper care of them. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMYlWqVTK20[/embed]

Due Diligence

Any damage that is left unchecked for an extended period will obviously slow down the entire process. In turn, it will also eventually end up costing you more money. Therefore, ensuring that your child does whatever it takes to avoid damaging their orthodontics is both in their best interest and the best interest of your finances. Of course, no matter how diligent your child is about their eating habits, some small amount of damage is always to be expected. Loose wires and missing rubber bands can and do happen to everyone. The key is to ensure that the damage is repaired as quickly as possible. This will both help to prevent pain and also make sure that the damage doesn't slow down the process too much. It is easy to contact us at King Orthodontics. We can advise you on any orthodontic device you are interested in and the treatment involved.  

King Orthodontics 6460 Far Hills Ave Centerville OH 45459 Phone: (937) 433-0830

Foods To Avoid While Wearing Braces Checklist