Traditional braces can often be accompanied with restrictions on certain types of food. It is a certainty that some items have to be placed off the menu while having braces. While avoiding hard candy and mixed nuts is recommended, there are other foods you can eat during braces treatment. Some of these foods are ones you may come across at parties as well.
What Kinds of Foods Can I Eat With Braces?
Chocolate is one ingredient that fits within the braces schedule. However, most orthodontists recommend is avoiding sticky caramel. Most chocolates melt quickly, which means you do not have to deal with them sticking to teeth. For optimal oral health, dark chocolate is our best recommendation. When having chocolate-based deserts, select more soft options such as thin-molded chocolates. Important items to avoid are chocolates with fillings inside that can damage orthodontic appliances.
If you have an appetite for fruits and cheese dishes, some thinly sliced applies can fit in your plan. In addition, you can enjoy these snacks with a little lemon. Be sure the pieces are thin so they do not damage your braces. Other available varieties include Honeycrisp or jazz apples. Grapes are another braces-friendly treatment. You can add some calcium-rich and sugar-reduced cheeses to your fruit plate.
As far as vegetables go, steam them to soften them up as much as possible. Try to avoid raw carrots and celery, both of which are famously crunchy. Other than that, most vegetables should be just fine.
Meat and dairy should also be fine, though as with vegetables, it helps when the meat is soft and tender rather than crunchy. Pasta, though, is notorious for the problems it poses to braces wearers. Depending on the size of the noodles, they may get tangled in the wires, especially long, thin varieties like angel hair pasta. We won’t tell you not to eat pasta since it’s unlikely to damage your appliances, but be prepared to spend a few minutes picking it out afterwards!
Finally, though we dentists usually tell our patients to avoid sugary snacks, a little dessert can go a long way. Ice cream, frozen yogurt, pudding, smoothies, and applesauce all go well with braces: anything that melts in your mouth. Occasionally, it’s OK to give yourself a little reward for making it through your treatment.
For additional information on what diet plan you should follow with braces, contact I Song Orthodontics at (510) 528-2220. We proudly serve the Berkeley, Albany, and El Cerrito areas.
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