Food to Avoid with Braces
Food to Avoid
Going through the braces treatment is an amazing way to straighten your teeth, unfortunately, it comes at the cost of giving up some foods while you have them. Giving up some foods will help keep your teeth cleaner, keep your oral hygiene good, and reduce the risk of breaking a bracket or a wire.
When having braces Dr. Wood usually encourages you to stay away from or limit your intake on three different kinds of food; sugary foods, sticky 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 perfectly clean. Lowering your intake of sugary foods such as cake, ice cream, pie, candy, and cookies.
Sticky Foods
Sticky 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 replaced. 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!