Foods To Avoid

Dr. Cohen Discusses Foods That Can Harm Your Braces

When it comes to knowing which foods to avoid when wearing braces, common sense will help you make most decisions of what is and is not safe to eat. You should always steer clear of hard, sticky and gooey foods as well as foods high in sugar. Hard foods can easily break or damage your wires and brackets. Foods that are sticky can become trapped between your wires and brackets. You should minimize the number of sugary foods you eat as they can cause tooth decay and other dental problems.

Caring for your braces also involves not chewing on your nails, pencils or any foreign objects. You also should never use your teeth as tools for opening stuck bottle caps or ripping cloth, etc. as doing so can also damage or break your braces-in fact, even if you don’t have braces, these are still things you should avoid as they can damage your teeth.

Examples of Hard Foods to Avoid

• All types of nuts
• Hard taco shells
• Ice
• Hard-crusted breads
• Corn on the cob
• Apples & carrots (unless cut into very small pieces)
• Pizza crust

We recommend checking your braces regularly to look for bent or loose wires and brackets. If you do discover that something is bent or loose, give us a call right away to schedule an appointment so we can repair the problem.