Food!

July 20, 2010, 9:13 pm
Filed under: Braces, Braces friendly food, Class II, Deepbite, Food, Overbite, Recipes

Hello!

Before I get started telling you about food, I wanted to show you guys an updated photo of my teeth. They’ve moved a lot! See those little red circles? They’re there to point out to you the hooks I use for my elastics. I started wearing elastics to help correct my class II deep bite. I can already feel the changes! Some of you may be able to see the changes in my teeth compared to my last photos.

In my last post I mentioned some foods that I’ve found easy to eat with braces. I thought it would be nice if I went over food in a little more detail. Here we go:

Your teeth are not tools! You should never use your teeth to open packages or to bite into anything that isn’t food. With that in mind you should eat your food delicately with braces. Tearing bread, bagels, or pizza crusts is a surefire way to break a bracket. The best way to go about eating foods like that is to break them into small pieces and chew gently with your back teeth. Same goes for raw fruits and veggies. Cutting them into small pieces versus biting into them whole is your best bet.
Sometimes it’s not what you chew, but how you chew it… Sounds funny, but it’s true. I’ve known patients who have broken brackets on hot dogs! For example, if you are chewing on your right side and notice that when you bite down you feel pressure on your brackets, try chewing your food on the other side. Brackets don’t break themselves off so pay attention to what you’re munching on!
Avoid sugary foods! We all love a good sweet treat once in a while. Unfortunately with braces your teeth become harder to keep clean. If you consume lots of sugary foods and have poor oral hygiene habits, you run the risk of getting decalcification (white tooth scarring that is permanent!) No one wants to go through months and months of orthodontic treatment to end up with their teeth looking like this: