Foods to Avoid with Braces

When people first get braces there’s plenty to worry about.  Learning how to properly clean and care for them can be a job in itself.  So learning which foods to avoid and how to deal with others can sometimes be overlooked until it’s too late.  Before you end up spending the better part of an evening trying to pick gum or some other food from your braces, take some time and review this list of foods to avoid and foods to approach with caution.

Eat With Caution

The wires and brackets on braces can be traps for chewy foods as well as larger crunchy foods.  So while some foods should be avoided completely, others simply need to be eaten carefully.  This rule holds true especially for crunchy foods which are typically eaten bite by bite.  One of the best examples of this is the simple apple.  Apples need not be avoided completely, but people who wear braces should slice the apple up and then cut those slices into small, bite sized chunks.  The same goes for crunchy pickles and pears.  Crunchy cookies can be safe as long as you soften them up by dunking them in milk.  Chicken wings and ribs are two foods which were often avoided but for those who simply can’t resist the urge, they are both okay to eat as long as you remove the meat from the bones with your hands or a fork before eating.  Braces won’t get you out of eating vegetables either.  Corn on the cob is okay to eat provided you remove the kernels with a knife before eating and crunchy vegetables such as carrots should be boiled or steamed before eating.

Time to Say Goodbye

Some foods are simply completely incompatible with braces no matter what you do.  The following list will give you a good idea about what to avoid completely and they can also offer a good indication on what other foods to avoid.

• Lollipops and Candy Canes
• Hard Candy
• Bubble gum
• Fruit Roll-ups
• Gummy fruit snacks
• Nuts (all kinds)
• Popcorn
• Pizza Crust (though the rest is fine)
• Pretzels and crunchy Chips
• Sugary Candy
• Taffy and Caramel

All of these foods are either crunchy or chewy and that is why they are so bad for your braces.  Chewy foods can bend wires or get stuck in the brackets.  Extremely crunchy or hard to chew foods are also major culprits of bent wires.  As a result any food in the above list or foods which share those characteristics are best left alone.  By avoiding these foods and eating wisely, you will be able to avoid the pain of bent or broken wires as well as the time and cost of additional dental visits in order to fix the problem.