Don't Let Food Interfere With Your Perfect Smile
To keep your orthodontic treatment on schedule, it is very important to take care of your braces. This includes not damaging them with what you eat. Avoiding chewy, sticky, or crunchy foods will greatly minimize your chances of breaking brackets or damaging appliances, which can lead to additional visits to the orthodontist and a longer treatment time.
Foods to avoid with braces
- Chewy foods — bagels, chewy candies, granola bars
- Crunchy foods — popcorn, chips, ice, hard taco shells
- Sticky foods — caramel, sticky candies
- Hard foods — nuts, hard candies
- Foods you must bite into — corn on the cob, apples, carrots
Foods you CAN eat with braces
- Dairy — cheese, yogurt, milk, frozen yogurt
- Breads — soft tortillas, pancakes, muffins without nuts
- Grains — pasta, soft rice
- Meats/poultry — eggs, ground meats, chicken (off the bone), lunch meats, hot dogs
- Seafood — tuna, salmon, crab cakes
- Vegetables — mashed potatoes, cooked vegetables, salads (minus crunchy nuts or croutons)
- Fruits — applesauce, bananas, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, kiwi, pineapple
- Treats — ice cream without nuts, milkshakes, Jell-O, cake, chocolate, pudding
By exercising a little self-control now, you will be back to eating popcorn and snacking on crunchy chips again in no time!
