9 Answers
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Hard foods-
Anything that is hard cannot be chewed with braces on. Remember, braces are fragile, and strong forces from hard foods will break them off. Damaged appliances will extend treatment time. Extended treatment time will increase the risk of cavities and stains on your teeth.
Sticky foods-
Braces can be pulled apart with sticky foods. Again, this could extend your treatment time.
Anything high in sugar-
Braces make it harder to keep your teeth clean. Sugar will feed the bacteria that cause cavities. If you do eat any foods high in sugar, brush your teeth immediately.
EXAMPLES OF WHAT TO AVOID
Ice....Definitely NO!! It totally destroys braces.
Nuts
Peanut brittle
Hard pizza crust
Corn on the cob
Ribs
Doritos, corn chips, hard tacos, cheetos, fritos and the like
Popcorn
Hard pretzels
Hard rolls and bagels
Raw carrots
Bubble gum
Carmel candy
Beef jerky
Suckers
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You can eat any type of food -- some are just more likely to get stuck and require more time flossing/brushing than others. For instance, caramel, apples, sticky candy, pretzels ... those may require you to clean out the braces more than usual, or cause some pain when you eat at first.
If you're having pain right now because the braces were just put on, stick to soft, room temperature foods. Foods that are too hot or too cold will make your teeth more sensitive. For example, you can eat yogurt, drink a smoothie or eat oatmeal (once it's cooled down a little). If you can chew a little, try a jelly sandwich. In a week or less, your pain should be gone, and you can eat anything you want.
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Yeah gum never really affected mine either, although you may not want to go with the sugar free type since it tends to stick to the braces. The little squares of gum are too hard to really chew, so I'd stick to stick chewing gum if you're desperate for it.
Otherwise just watch out for everything hard, stick to soft things, but sometimes even then things pop off. (I was eating a pizza crust and one of my braces poped off!) Don't really eat things that you bite into, like apple or corn on the cob. If you want an apple, cut it up first, corn, you should eat off the cob.
And they also suggest not eating popcorn, the shells get stuck in your braces, believe me they do, and believe me they hurt so much that it's not even worth it to eat the stuff while you still have braces.
You may want to cut down on the sweets too, and brush your teeth a lot. Sometimes when they take the braces off, the tooth part underneath the braces can be discolored! And you have to go through a whitening process. Just take extra care of your teeth while youre with them, and try your best to floss, since things get caught in ther eand can hurt or cause cavities.
Good luck! It's really not as bad as somepeople say. You get REALLY used to them 🙂
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Hard or sticky foods will probably damage the appliance by distorting the wires or breaking brackets off the teeth. This will, of course, prolong your treatment time and ,if repeated often enough, will compromise the expected result.
All these sort of sweets will ruin your appliances, and if continually taken, will make a successful outcome to your orthodontic treatment impossible.
Fizzy drinks contain carbonic acid and if taken in excessive amounts will also damage your teeth
You should also avoid hard foods other than sweets. For instance, hard nuts, popcorn, hard crusts, gnawing at 'spare ribs' as this will likly damage the front teeth brackets, breakfast cereals with hard seeds and nuts, tough meats and rind of bacon, etc. The list is much too complex to list here. Use some common sense when selecting your food
Most normal foods such as chicken, veg, fruit, fish, bread, meats, salads etc. are fine
More specifically Avoid the following:
Apples (don't bite into a whole one! Cut it into wedges first.)
Bubble gum (some orthodontists allow sugarless gum, but check with yours for approval)
Candy (caramels, taffy, nut brittles, fruit-flavored chewy candies, gummi anything!)
Carrots (avoid sticks, cut into thin curls)
Corn on the cob (remove the kernels from the cob, then enjoy!)
Corn chips/crisp tacos
Hard foods (they're tough on braces, causing bending and breaking)
Ice (no crunching!)
Lemon juice/lemons (pure lemon juice is very hard on your tooth enamel)
Nuts
Pizza crust/crusty breads (outer edges)
Popcorn
Pretzels (the large, hard varieties)
Sticky foods (can bend wires and pull off brackets)
Sugary foods (avoid these as much as possible; if you do eat them, brush your teeth within minutes or as soon as possible, or at least rinse your mouth with water)
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You can eat whatever you want. But if your teeth are aching avoid to eat hard stuff that you need to chew for quite a long. For those days it would be really good if you could eat think like pastas or puree and avoid candies. Besides all that, take care of your toothbrushing so when your braces are removed your teeth look fine :).
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actually its best to stick with soft foods, and best of all mc donalds. Thats all i ate wen i first got mine. if they told u that you can't chew gum, you can. Its doesn't afect them at all.
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I wouldn't try chewing gum for a while or have any caramel candy.
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braces such!! dont eat anything
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eat wat ever you wat thats wat i did it dn't make a difference the only thing you should'nt eat is toffee it gets stuck in you braces but everything else is fine:)