Foods to Avoid With Braces

Braces can make even simple tasks like brushing, flossing, and eating a challenge. While the results of braces will be worth it, some sacrifices should be made in the meantime to keep your gums healthy and mouth happy. One such sacrifice is avoiding some specific foods while you have your braces. Here are some specific food categories to avoid.

Sugary Foods

Sugary foods refer primarily to candy and other sweets. The primary reason to avoid sugary foods has to do with gum health. With brackets and wires filling your mouth, proper brushing and flossing is much more difficult. This means that even with vigilant cleaning, it is still more likely that spots may be missed or not cleaned as thoroughly. Avoiding sugary food helps to reduce the risk of developing cavities and other diseases associated with this.

Sticky, Crunchy, or Hard Foods

Sticky foods such as gum or caramel, crunchy food such as popcorn and chips, and hard food such as nuts or corn on the cob, can damage the braces themselves. Biting into these foods can cause damage to the brackets or even the wire of the braces. This can cause them to get bent, or even come loose, meaning an extra trip back to the orthodontist.

These foods can also irritate teeth that are already under a lot of stress from having force applied to them and are best avoided.

This may seem like a lot of things to avoid but fear not. Soon you will be back visiting your Surrey orthodontist office, having your braces removed in Vancouver, and enjoying a straight smile, and perfectly healthy gums and teeth.

Dr Wang

Dr. Wang, DDS, MSc, FRCD(C)

ORTHODONTIST

Orthodontic specialist, founder of PacificWest Dental Group. Helping people get the perfect smile since 1994!

Dr Kevin

Dr. Kevin Lee, DMD, MSc, FRCD(C)

ORTHODONTIST

Specialist in Orthodontics, UBC alumni. Love helping patients get a beautiful smile. Part-time clinical instructor at UBC. 

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