Life with the braces changes drastically. You start taking care of braces for what you can eat while wearing braces. First thing that comes to your mind is what can you eat with braces. It becomes essential to understand the guideline to protect your braces for your entire orthodontic treatment.

It is no surprise to have braces to align and straighten your front teeth. Sometimes, orthodontists may recommend braces to treat teeth gaps, underbite, or overbite issues.

You will need to get adjusted to a change in the smile. However, your will adjust your eating habits and take proper care to allow the braces to remain undamaged to yield the best results in minimum time.

The good news for you is that your food will be far from boring. You may stick to eating soft foods for the next one or two years of your treatment. There is plenty of food available that you may take during your orthodontic treatment and prevents you from tooth decay.

It is important to keep your teeth clean and have proper hygiene to avoid cavities forming around your braces. Unless you regularly clean your teeth, braces may accumulate tartar, food debris, and plaque around it that may cause white spots to the surface of the teeth.

What Can You Eat With Braces

Your mouth may feel sensitive after the braces. It gets difficult to chew normally. You should avoid food that has a solid and tough texture.

Since you will be learning to chew the food differently, your doctor might recommend you few changes in your diet.

Listing down the soft foods that you might take after getting braces:

• Rice
• Pasta
• Peas
• Mashed Potatoes
• Oatmeal
• Grains
• Soft Cheeses
• Scrambled eggs
• Moist Desserts
• Pasta
• Soup
• Yogurt

Scroll down to the details to see the recommended diet plan by the orthodontists.

What to Expect When You Get Braces

Once an orthodontist puts on your braces, you will likely feel pain and discomfort for 1 to 3 days. You may feel the same after having adjustment of braces by your orthodontist.

It is essential to eat soft food that does not put extra pressure on your teeth during these times. The softer the food you take, the easier it would be to chew.

It is essential to brush your teeth with extra care to avoid any damage to your braces. Do brushing and flossing if food gets stuck behind your teeth.

Why Avoiding Certain Foods Necessary With Braces?

The food you can eat must be braces friendly to avoid any problem during the treatment.

Awareness of ‘’good’’ or ‘’bad’’ foods for braces is the first step in protecting your braces, including bands, arch, brackets and wires that are easily damaged by certain types of food.

The breakage of orthodontic appliances may hamper the pace of required results to yield. The orthodontic appliances usually break due to the strong biting strength while taking solid food.

The muscles of mastication are responsible for the chewing movement of the mandible at the temporomandibular (TMJ) joint in your mouth. These muscles can close the mouth with an average bite force of 160 psi for bite sized pieces, the force enough to break the braces with certain solid food.

The muscle of mastication drives its maximum force from back molars, where the breakage of orthodontic appliances is mostly seen that often delays the treatment.

Change in Eating Lifestyle with Braces  

The braces on your teeth require significant change in your diet plan for the safety of braces. It takes few weeks for adjusting to this changing experience in taste and bite. The braces make things that you previously loved difficult to eat normally.

Studies with the aim of  understanding the impact of orthodontic appliances on eating reached to the conclusion that two main problems that emerged with the treatment are food choice and eating process. The aspects of orthodontic appliances restrict the food choice of participants of study. The process of eating also takes more time while chewing becomes messy and taste changes.

However, with in few weeks you start to get used to braces. After two week you might feel yourself normal to eat all the food but not all the food for you is equal after having braces. You will need special attention to pay and weigh whether the particular safe foods for your braces or not.

You will need to avoid the food that may damage, break or bend your new braces. Your tendency to comply by the food instructions given by your doctor will determine the impact of how well your treatment goes.

Your doctor might give you the list of foods that you might take or avoid based on safety of braces and your initial consultation with orthodontist.

Guideline to Eat Food Properly

Having braces does not mean you have left no fun in life. You can still eat the food you love. You need to follow guidelines and care tips with braces on.

• Take Soft Food: Make sure to eat softer food and cut the food into smaller bites. Avoiding bigger chunks of food that take more force to bite can damage the braces.
• Use Sides to Eat: Ensure using canines and bicuspids to bite the food into pieces. In addition, the orthodontists recommend using sides of mouth safer to eat.
• Chew Slowly: You need to chew the food for proper digestion completely. It is crucial to chewing food slowly but completely since it becomes difficult and delicate to chew with braces. Take proper care to avoid biting your cheeks, tongue, or lips.

The Meal in the Morning

If you prefer to start your day with a heavy breakfast, you need to hold it off. Instead, your morning meal can start with soft and nice eggs to start with.

Another interesting choice for breakfast could be Pancakes with French Toasts. You may enjoy it with or without the crust.

Yes, yogurt is great to go in breakfast that is nutritious and delicious. With different flavors available, your breakfast is far from being boring.

To make it more ideal, you may consider choices in breakfast such as oatmeal, soft toast, and cereals that can be softened with milk.

Side Dishes in Lunches or Dinner

You need not worry about side dishes in lunches and dinners to get your boredom away.

Pasta, rice, and mashed potatoes give room for versatile food. You may have it with butter or cheese on alternate days. You may also bake them or add sour cream to give them a special touch.

Sweet potatoes are good to go with as they are low in carbs and calories. The delicious taste is guaranteed added with butter or cheese.

Other options to go with are cooked vegetables. Vegetables are nutritious whether you boil, bake or put them on steam.

Main Course of Dishes

You may find a variety of dishes to choose from while wearing braces. A great choice is to have soup for the first few days after braces, as it provides almost no chewing and is nutritious.

Clear broth can be delicious and nutritious. You may spice it up by adding pasta or steamed vegetables. They may also add potatoes to make the filling and delicious.

You may also enjoy your meal with soft meat like poultry or meatballs, which are easily chewable.

Fish can be a great choice to keep meals easy to chew and nutritious.

Not to Forget About Fruits and Ice Cream

Complete nutrition is necessary for a healthy body, and it cannot be possible without fruits. A banana is a complete course of nutrients your body needs for the whole day. You may eat a banana without any discomfort with braces.

Other nutritious choices of fruits include blueberries, ripe pears and peaches. Fruits are the best choice to make a superb dessert. You may also add fruits to yogurt or cottage cheese to make it healthy and delicious.

You may sweeten your dessert by adding a little bowl of ice cream. You may also use frozen yogurt for this purpose. Not only are these desserts delicious but quite soothing to teeth and gums, lips and cheeks due to their cold temperatures.

These are the little adjustments in your meal to keep it delicious, healthy and safe for your braces.

Food to Avoid When You Get Braces

Since you understand how the changes appear in your teeth once you get braces on. Teeth become sensitive and require special care while chewing and biting to keep the orthodontic appliances safe.

You should try to avoid a certain food during your orthodontic treatment. Sugar is not good for teeth as it turns into acid after mixing with saliva. Therefore, it is always best to take food low on sugar.

Although, it does not mean that you do not take pleasure in sweet ice creams and desserts. However, it is necessary to keep your teeth and braces clean.

After getting braces, the hard food you would want to avoid are nachos, tacos and hard fruits. Fruits like apples, unripe peaches and pears are considered hard that can cause damage to braces.

Certain fruits are usually avoided due to the small seeds that can go under braces. Such fruits with small seeds include blackberries, strawberries and raspberries, which should be avoided or consumed with care and caution.

Raw vegetable should also be avoided, which requires a lot of pressure to chew and bite at. Such raw vegetables include carrots, broccoli and corn on the cob. Biting or Chewing such vegetables requires pressure that may damage the wire or brackets of braces. The braces may also need readjustment after consuming such raw vegetables.

Orthodontic specialists consider popcorn kernels a must be avoided with braces. The kernels of popcorn can wedge in gums and under the bracket that may cause pain and swelling if not removed timely. Sometimes, cleaning requires the complete removal of wires and braces.

You should avoid chewy and sticky food such as ice cubes. The biting of nails and smoking are also to be avoided as it may cause staining underneath the orthodontic appliances.

Read Also: 6 Surprising Ways to Strengthen Your Teeth Inside Without Braces

Conclusion:

It is vital to eat with care for the safety of your braces. At first you need to adopt a different lifestyle with braces on the teeth. There are certain food that you should avoid while orthodontic treatment to ensure its timely completion.