Eating With Braces

While you are wearing braces, there are some foods you should avoid and other foods you can eat with some precautions. Some foods can damage your braces. Other foods stick to your teeth or braces or get caught within your braces or between your teeth and your braces. These foods make cavities more likely. You can lean more from such sources as cosmetic dentistry Brooklyn.

Foods to Avoid

Avoid hard or chewy foods that can bend the wires of your braces or cause them to come loose from your teeth. Examples of foods to avoid include:

Hard, sticky, or chewy candies and chocolates or chocolate bars with hard, sticky, or chewy centers
Chewing gum and bubblegum
Hard cookies and crackers
Hard or crunchy snacks such as pretzels, popcorn, corn chips, nuts, and seeds
Hard or crunchy foods such as hard taco shells

Foods to Eat With Precautions

Consult with your dentist or orthodontist first, but some will allow the following foods if the recommended precautions are followed:

Remove meat from the bone, and cut it up into small bites
Cut corn off of the cob before eating it
Slice carrots and celery into thin strips, and steam other raw vegetables to soften them
Cut apples and other hard fruits into small bites
Soften croutons, and soften or cut up other hard breads or rolls
Cut sandwiches and pizza into small bites

After eating, make extensive use of your water flosser, brush thoroughly, and rinse vigorously with a mouthwash. Following these same tips for two or three weeks after your braces are tightened will help you to eat with less discomfort. In addition, bite into foods from the side of your mouth rather than the front, take small bites, and chew slowly.

Foods That Are Safe

Foods that are safe to eat with braces include soft foods such as:

Pasta, but cut spaghetti and other long noodles into short lengths
Mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes
Melons, grapes, bananas, and other soft fruits
Soft or light crackers and cookies and hulless popcorn
Peanut butter and jelly
Yogurt and soft cheeses

Braces don’t mean giving up everything you like.