The whole team at Braceland Orthodontists knows that a bright, confident smile can do wonders for your self-esteem. Braces (or one of our other orthodontic treatments like Invisalign) can help you achieve that beautiful smile, but to get the best results as fast as possible it is important that you take care of your orthodontic treatment along the way. Part of that means avoiding certain foods that could be harmful to your orthodontic appliances.
Hard, Sticky, & Sugary
In general, the types of foods that it would best to stay away from while wearing braces are foods that are overly sticky, hard, or sugary. For sticky foods, that mainly pertains to different kinds of candies like tootsie rolls, starburst, and taffy. For hard foods, we recommend avoiding nuts, hard bread, hard candy, and chewing on ice whenever possible. These hard foods can potentially break your brackets and wires while sticky foods can get caught in between them and could cause damage as well.
As for sweet foods, while as dental care professionals we obviously want to encourage the consumption of teeth-healthy foods, we understand the need for a periodic sweet treat. Sweet foods will not necessarily damage your orthodontic appliances (unless they are hard and/or sticky candies).
The main reason we suggest shying away from eating a lot of sweets while you have braces is that braces make it harder to clean your mouth and maintain proper oral hygiene. As such, if you are going to have a sweet, we suggest having it at the same time as dinner so that after your meal you can thoroughly brush off the sugar. This can be a part of the daily four times our orthodontist recommends you brush your teeth.
Common Sense
In most situations common sense will help you determine what foods could potentially be bad for your braces. That being said, if you ever have a question on a specific food feel free to ask your orthodontist, Dr. Stanley Markin, at your next appointment. A common question we get, for example, is can patients with braces eat popcorn? And the answer to that is yes, so long as the kernels have been fully popped
Visit Braceland Orthodontists Today
Patients across North Scarborough trust Braceland Orthodontists with the development and care of their smiles. To make an appointment with our orthodontist, please fill out our online request form or contact us directly. We look forward to hearing from you and helping you smile brighter!