With everyone cooking at home more often these days, you and your family may find yourselves trying out a bunch of new recipes. In general, you may find yourself thinking more about what kind of food you’re eating. If you or your child has braces, one thing that’s definitely worth considering besides what’s nutritious and delicious is also what foods might pose a problem for the orthodontic hardware.
When someone gets braces that doesn’t mean they have to totally overhaul their diet. It’s just that certain foods aren’t your braces’ best friend, and you’ll be doing yourself a favor by avoiding those. Otherwise you might end up damaging your brace’s brackets or wires, which sets back your treatment, or making yourself more vulnerable to cavities.
Hard, Crunchy Foods
Hard, crunchy foods that require a lot of effort to chew and break down can be tough on your braces. For example, popcorn, nuts, ice, and hard candy. Biting down on these foods in the wrong way may cause your wires to loosen or a bracket to break off. If you’re looking for some alternatives to snack on, try something that’ll be gentler on your mouth like grapes, cheese cubes, and yogurt.
Sweet, Sticky Foods
Caramel, gum, and soda all fall under this category. When a food is sticky, it can latch onto your braces hardware and cause damage. When a food is really sugary, it increases the chance of developing plaque. Sugar is something for everyone to be careful with, but for those that have braces, there’s the extra issue of it being more difficult to clean this sugar away from your teeth due to the brackets and wires being there. When you eat sweet, sticky foods with braces, it’ll require more effort on your part to keep your dental health in great condition.
Contact Us for More Dental-Friendly Ideas
At River Vista Dentistry, we don’t want you to have to worry about giving up your favorite foods—especially not when times are stressful enough. We just want to make sure that we’re helping you take care of your smile so you can avoid the stress that can come with a dental injury or cavity. If you’d like more help finding dental-friendly snacks, don’t hesitate to shoot our Charlotte team an email. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible!