While in braces, Dr. Wood encourages you to stay away from or limit your intake on three types of food; sugary foods, sticky or chewy foods, and hard foods.
Sugary Foods
The reason that we suggest to limit the intake of sugary foods is that when having braces it is already hard to brush and keep your teeth clean. Lowering your intake of sugary foods such as cake, ice cream, pie, candy, and cookies.
Sticky or Chewy Foods
Sticky or chewy foods are one thing that can cause some serious damage to your braces by getting stuck in between the wires and brackets. There is also a chance that when eating sticky foods, you will break a bracket or wire and need to have it repaired. Some foods to stay away from would be gum, sugar babies, licorice, tootsie rolls, starburst, and caramel.
Hard Foods
The main reason we suggest not eating hard foods such as nuts, apples, carrots, chips, and corn on the cob is that it is very likely to cause a bracket or wire to break. Replacing wires and brackets can get pricey after so many replacements, so it’s better to stay away from foods that can damage your braces.
Here at Wood Orthodontics, we want to educate you on the best way for you to take care of your braces so that your treatment can go as planned. We encourage our patients to start to break bad habits of chewing on fingernails and foreign objects to limit the risk of breaking your braces. Breaking brackets and wires can extend treatment time.
If you have broken a bracket or a wire come visit our office in Weatherford, TX so that we can get it replaced as soon as possible!