Congratulations you have braces and are on your way to a healthy, beautiful smile! For your orthodontic treatment to be most effective, and stay on schedule, it is important that you follow Dr. Barden's instructions and take care of your orthodontic appliances. Breaking your brackets, arch wires, and other orthodontic appliances will slow down your treatment (resulting in wearing braces for longer time!) and result in more visits to fix and repair the damage.
This means that while you have braces, or other orthodontic appliances, you may need to make a few lifestyle changes and to be careful about what you eat. Eating the wrong foods can result in loose or broken brackets and bent arch wires. Take care of your braces and appliances by avoiding hard or sticky food. This includes things like popcorn and nuts. Also avoid sticky candy such as caramels, taffy, gum.
Hard vegetables and fruits like apples and carrots are healthy food choices, but eating them whole can cause broken brackets and bent arch wires. During orthodontic treatment we recommend cooking hard vegetables and fruits until they are soft or cutting them into small, bite size pieces.
Other things to avoid that can cause damage to your braces include chewing on ice or objects such as pencils (you should avoid doing these things even if not in braces as they can damage your teeth!)
Taking these precautions will reduce the number of broken brackets, reduce your number of emergency visits and help keep you on track to a healthy, beautiful smile. Ask Dr. Douglas Barden and his assistants if you have any questions about what you can, and can’t, eat while in treatment!
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