Overview
Overview
Braces don’t put dinner off the menu — but a few foods are worth avoiding to keep your brackets and wires intact.
The foods to watch are the hard and the sticky ones. Hard foods — nuts, ice, crusty bread, raw carrot — can snap a bracket or bend a wire. Sticky foods — chewy lollies, toffee, caramel — can pull brackets off altogether. Sugary drinks are best limited too, since they pool around the brackets.
The good news is that most of your favourites are still fine, especially if you cut firmer foods into smaller pieces and chew with your back teeth. Soft foods are your friend in the day or two after an adjustment, when teeth can feel tender.
When in doubt: if it takes real effort to bite through, give it a miss while you’re in braces.
