Foods to avoid

Foods to avoid when wearing braces

During your orthodontic treatment in Charlottesville or Zion Crossroads, whether you’re wearing braces or Invisalign®, there will be several lifestyle changes you’ll have to make in order to ensure your treatment goes smoothly. For example, if you’re wearing braces, you’ll have to spend some extra time monitoring your diet and staying away from any foods that could be harmful to your braces. For your benefit, we at Charlottesville Orthodontics would like to give you a quick list of foods that you’ll need to avoid when wearing braces.

Hard foods

The first type of food that you should watch out for is hard food. Hard foods can potentially break or damage the brackets and wires of your braces. Some examples of hard foods include:

  • Nuts
  • Hard taco shells
  • Bagels
  • Chips
  • Pizza crust
  • French bread crust
  • Apples
  • Carrots
  • Jolly Ranchers

Sticky foods

We also recommend avoiding sticky foods. Sticky foods are problematic because they can get stuck in your braces and pull on them, causing your wires and brackets to either loosen or break off. You should avoid the following sticky foods:

  • Gum
  • Caramel
  • Starburst
  • Licorice
  • Toffee
  • Tootsie Rolls

Sugary foods

Unlike the previous two categories of foods, you actually don’t need to avoid these foods – just eat them in moderation. Whether you’re wearing braces or not, sugary foods aren’t good for your teeth, which is why you’ll want to limit the amount you eat. Sugary foods include:

  • Cookies
  • Cake
  • Ice cream
  • Candy
  • Pie
  • Soda
  • Sweet tea
  • Kool-Aid
  • Gatorade
  • Contact your Charlottesville and Zion Crossroads braces providers

    If you have any questions about the foods you should avoid or our orthodontic treatments, please feel free to contact us. If you’d like to schedule an appointment with us at one of our three convenient locations, we encourage you to fill out our online appointment request form. We can’t wait to hear from you!