First Days of Braces
After starting orthodontic treatment, you may experience tenderness for a few days. We recommend a soft food diet, for example:
| Scrambled Eggs | Spaghetti |
| Oatmeal | Baked Potatoes |
| Pancakes | Mac & Cheese |
| Cream of Wheat | Applesauce |
| Cottage Cheese | Canned Fruit |
| Yogurt | Jell-O/Pudding |
| Soups | Shakes/Malts |
| P-butter/Jelly | Mashed Potatoes |
Foods to Avoid
A well balanced diet that minimizes sweets and sugared beverages is important. Hard, sticky, and/or crunchy foods should not be eaten to avoid damaging your braces.
Hard Foods like: |
|
| Popcorn | Ice |
| Nuts | Hard Pizza crust |
| Peanut brittle | Granola Bars |
| Hard Tacos | Pretzels |
| Corn chips | Hard candy |
| Tortilla Chips | Hard Crusted Rolls |
Hard foods may damage your braces by bending your wires and/or loosening your brackets/bands.
Sticky Foods like: |
|
| Taffy | Sticky Candy |
| Caramel | Gummy bears |
| Beef Jerky | Tootsie Rolls/Pops |
| Fruit Roll-Ups | ABSOLUTELY No Gum! |
| Licorice | |
Sticky foods damage your braces by bending wires and pulling brackets/bands loose.
Cut These Foods Into Small Bite-Sized Pieces
| Apples | Pizza Crust |
| Pears | Bagels |
| Nectarines | Pretzels |
| Peaches | Carrots |
Chicken or ribs: DO NOT BITE INTO THE MEAT . . . take it off the bone.
Corn-on-the-cob: DO NOT BITE INTO THE CORN COB . . . cut it off the cob.
DO NOT BITE: T-shirts, blankets, objects such as: pens, pencils, crayons, fingernails, and water bottles.
NO SODA OR CARBONATED BEVERAGES!
The carbonation will dissolve the cement attaching the braces to your teeth and cause PERMANENT WHITE SPOTS on your teeth.