What Not to Eat and Drink When You're Wearing Braces
Your dentist will give you lots of advice on how to maintain your braces, and how to clean your teeth with braces in. Even if you already do a pretty good job of keeping your teeth clean and healthy, it's important to follow this advice to make sure that you avoid the following problems:
- Damage to the brace: Eating the wrong kinds of food can damage your braces. If you need a repair, you may increase your costs and the time it takes to fix your teeth.
- Damage to your teeth: Your dentist is also likely to recommend that you take extra care to avoid certain types of food and drinks. You may find it harder to clean your teeth with a brace in, and you may damage your teeth if sugars or acids build up around its brackets.
Avoid Hard and Chewy Foods
Braces are very resilient, but they may still break or get damaged if you eat the wrong types of food. For example, your dentist is likely to tell you not to eat hard, sticky, crunchy or chewy foods, as these may snap the braces or pull their wires out of shape.
In some cases, it's best not to eat some foods at all, such as nuts, popcorn, toffees, bread with hard crusts and chewing gum; in others, you may need to change the way you eat certain foods. For example, you should cut hard fruits and vegetables into small pieces before you eat them, and take meat on the bone off the bone to eat with a fork, rather than chew on it.
Tip: If you bite your nails, make a serious effort to stop. The habit may damage your brace or its wires.
Avoid Excess Sugar and Acid
Cleaning your teeth when you're wearing braces isn't an easy job, as you have to negotiate around the brackets cemented to your teeth, making sure not to let sugars and acids stick around them and cause damage. For example, you may be left with decay or white spots on your teeth when your braces are removed, if you eat or drink a lot of sugary or acidic things and don't clean them off your braces and teeth correctly.
Although your dentist will give you lots of advice on how to clean your braces and teeth, you should also try not to eat or drink things that have a high sugar or acid content. It's a good idea to avoid the following:
- Eating lots of sweets.
- Drinking fizzy or soft drinks, including diet drinks and fruit juices.
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