If you’re new to the world of braces and Christmas – with all its goodies, mounds of food, and candy galore – this may be a daunting time for you. While this was never a concern before, the prospect of eating so much food with so many people around and a new dental structure to consider may be a daunting one. If you haven’t had the chance to speak with your orthodontist, here are some of iSmile Orthodontics easy tips about foods you can eat and foods it’s best to stay away from.

Vegetables
You may be thinking all vegetables are essential to maintain healthy dental hygiene, which is true, but brace wearers should be selective with their greens. Stay away from raw, low cooked, crunchy vegetables which can cause pain and discomfort, and may even get lodged in your braces and damage them. Of course, keep up your vegetable intake, but limit it to soft, well cooked, or mashed variations.

Fruit
Use the same caution with fruit. Bananas and oranges will be easy on your braces, but stay away from hard fruits such as apples, or anything with lots of seeds in like strawberries that may get caught and difficult to remove even with floss. Cutting up fruits can also make them easier to handle, and we recommend this for snacks such as apples, pears and raw carrots.

Sweets
You already know that candy and sweets are not a great food item to be consuming, but hey it’s Christmas. It’s hard to avoid all candy completely, but anything too hard, chewy, or sticky – like candy canes – are a no no. Soft, but not chewy, sweets are okay, and soft desserts have a pass too. Make sure you brush and floss afterwards!

‘Bitty’ food
Any food that leaves itself in your teeth for hours after without braces is definitely a bad idea with braces. ‘Bitty’ foods like popcorn or corn on the cob can leave kernels and husk strings, which will be twice as bad with braces, potentially damaging the wiring and leaving you with a lot of discomfort.

Nuts/pretzels
If you love snacking on nuts, you have some bad news in store. These are top items on the no go list. On the plus side, you can eat as much meat and stuffing as you like!

After dinner care
After such a huge meal, make sure you keep up with your dental hygiene. Brush your teeth carefully using a mirror as your guide, making sure to take your time with your new routine. Floss after you brush to get in between those wires and get every particle of food that may be stuck somewhere.

It may take some time to get used to your new braces, but you will easily adapt after a little practice. Need some more tips? Get in touch with iSmile Orthodontics to talk to one of our orthodontists for a personal one to one chat.