Your dentist’s goal is to provide you with a beautiful smile. This can only be accomplished if the braces stay attached to your teeth. Some types of foods are capable of breaking your bands or brackets, bending your wire, and breaking the cement under your bands or brackets so that these leak and possibly cause decay. All of these PROLONG TREATMENT TIME.
A careful patient can eat a nutritionally balanced diet and do no harm to their braces. The foods listed below are the ones that we have found to be the most common causes of loose bands, brackets and broken appliances.
HARD FOODS
These HARD FOODS are especially bad when you have braces on your front teeth: carrots and apples (may be eaten if cut into small pieces), corn-on-the-cob (may be eaten if sliced off the cob), ribs, peaches or anything which a hard center (may be eaten if taken off the bone or pit).
• Ice
• Hard edges of pizza
• Popcorn (hard kernels)
• Hard corn chips or tortilla chips
• Hard candies
• Nuts
STICKY AND CHEWY FOODS
Foods of which you should be careful include: gum, candies like Now and Later, caramels, Gummy Bears, Sugar Daddy, taffy or toffee or anything else sticky.
SWEET FOODS
Care should be taken to limit the intake of sugary goods and drinks. Although they may not cause damage to your braces, they promote cavities. If you cannot avoid these items, limit them to once a day or less, and brush immediately after you eat. it you cannot brush, at least rinse your mouth out with clear water.
Foods of which you should be careful include:
Cake Ice Cream
Pie Cookies
Candy Sweet Drinks like Cokes and lemonade