Reed Orthodontics: Tips on Foods to Avoid While In Orthodontic Treatment

At Reed Orthodontics, our goal is to provide you with a beautiful smile. This can only be accomplished if the braces stay attached to your teeth. We do not want to interfere with your nutritional intake, but we do ask that you watch the types of foods you eat. Some types of foods are capable of breaking your bands or brackets, bending your wires, and breaking the cement under your bands or brackets. All these things prolong treatment time.

A careful patient can eat a nutritionally balanced diet and do no harm to their braces. We hope that you will strive to be this type of patient. The foods listed below are the ones that we have found to be the most common cause of loose bands, brackets and broken appliances.

Hard Foods

1. ice (no crunching, please)
2. hard edges of pizza
3. peanuts (all nuts)
4. popcorn (hard kernels)
5. hard candy
6. carrots & apples (may be eaten if cut into small pieces)
7. Corn-on-the cob (may be eaten if sliced off the cob)

Sticky & Chewy Foods

1. caramels
2. taffy
3. gum
4. “Now or Later” candy
5. Gummy Bears
6. Milk Duds
7. “Snickers” candy bars
8. Jelly Beans
Sweet Foods

Although they may not cause damage to your appliances, care should be taken to brush your teeth immediately after eating very sweet foods. If you cannot brush at least rinse your mouth out with clear water.

1. cake
2. pie
3.candy
4. ice cream
5. cookies
6. sweet drinks (cokes, lemonade)

Be a good “brace watcher”. Please notify our Centennial or Denver offices if appliances become loose or broken in order that we might minimize prolonged treatment time.

Brushing is important at all times-but especially now that you have braces. Work hard to keep your braces just as shiny as the day they were placed. Then when your treatment is complete and your braces are removed you will be proud to smile, because a smile is forever!