BRO’s Unbeatable Braces Friendly Diet: It’s Healthy & Fun

If you or your child just gotten braces for the very first time, one thing we’d like to share with you is our braces friendly diet plan!

While the benefits of a perfect smile will pay dividends for years to come, many overlook the changes they’ll be facing over the course of their treatment. How do you brush around a wire system that covers most of your teeth? What about flossing?

Even more pressing than either of those questions is, what can a person eat when they have braces?

Fortunately, our orthodontic team has all the answers and we’ve developed our own braces friendly diet. While braces come with specific dietary restrictions, especially during the holidays, and it might include some of your favorite foods. But please don’t worry! The purpose of this post is to explain your dietary options and show you how to keep dinner fun and delicious without risking the investment you’ve made in your oral health.

Foods to Avoid on Our Braces Friendly Diet

First, let’s start with a list of foods that you should avoid if you have braces. This is not only to protect the braces, but also to ensure comfort for the person wearing them.

The below foods all have a high risk of getting lodged or stuck in between brackets, teeth, or wires, and can loosen or damage braces in some instances. You probably don’t want to make an emergency trip to one of our orthodontic offices in Western North Carolina if you don’t have to.

Foods that are off limits:

• Hard candies and nuts
• Hard vegetables (like corn on the cob or carrots)
• Popcorn
• Peanut butter
• Corn Chips
• Hard shell tacos
• Pretzels
• Pizza crust
• Gum, caramel, taffy, or other similar substances
• High acid foods like limes, lemons, or soda, which can cause discoloration

An easy way to remember what not to eat is to avoid foods that are crunchy, chewy, sticky, or gooey!

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Now, while the above foods should be avoided, there are also some items that anyone with braces should be extremely cautious with but may consume. For parents, this mostly means ensuring that the below foods have been cut up into small, bite-sized pieces before serving them to your child.

Foods to be careful of:

• Raw veggies, which should be cut up into small pieces and chewed with teeth in the back of the mouth
• Burgers
• Chips
• Hard breads, like bagels or French breads
• Sandwiches
• Certain fruits, especially apples and pears. They should always be cut up first before being consumed

Foods That Are Braces-Friendly

Now that you’re familiar with the kinds of foods that our orthodontists don’t include in BRO’s braces friendly diet, let’s discuss what foods get a thumbs up!

Your Braces Meal Plan for the First Week

When you first get braces, it may be a good idea to stick to foods that are very soft just to get used to how eating feels with your braces on. Don’t worry parents, there are more options than just ice cream to nourish your kids during this trial period.

Smoothies

One of the best go-to’s for anyone in a situation that impedes their ability to eat normally is smoothies packed with nutritious fruits and vegetables, and the same is true for those wearing braces. Smoothies can be made in a thousand different ways, so you’re not likely to get bored eating them, plus they taste great. What’s already become a morning staple for on-the-go office types can also be the braces breakfast of champions!

Soup

This may seem obvious, but everyone who’s gone through the braces diet dilemma realizes just how valuable soup is by the end of it. Like smoothies, soups can be incredibly versatile and include a number of hearty vegetables. A good tomato basil soup for lunch will keep you full and won’t harm the structure of your braces.

Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes

Not only is this dish filling and nutritious (especially if you use sweet potatoes), but it also makes for the ideal dinner on the braces diet. Everything is soft and easy to eat, which will be crucial for the first couple of nights.

Regular Diet Moving Forward

Once you or your child has gotten acclimated to the feeling of eating with braces on, you may start to expand your diet as long as you stop at the list of foods mentioned at the top of the post. One of the most important things for a person to learn while they have braces on is to do the vast majority of their chewing at the back of their teeth.

To make this easier, encourage your child to cut up their food into small bites prior to the start of their meal, or do so for them. This will keep them from having to tear things apart with the front of their teeth and possibly damaging their braces in the process.

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So what kind of food is essential to the braces diet? Below, we’ve broken it up by meal.

Breakfast

To start the day off right, especially before work or school, you’ll want to load up on nutrients and protein. Our suggestions for good breakfast foods are:

• Smoothies made of fruits, yogurt, and other additives
• Scrambled eggs
• Soft egg and cheese casserole with zucchini and tomato
• Oatmeal made with milk and including cinnamon, mashed bananas, or mashed pears
• Yoghurt with mashed fruit on top and crispy rice cereal at the bottom

Lunch

Lunch can be tricky, especially if your child goes to a school that provides lunches to their students. Just reiterate to them the importance of cutting everything up into bite-sized pieces before eating them and chewing with their back teeth. If you are packing a lunch for yourself or your child, consider these options:

• Soup
• Chili
• Pasta salad with tomatoes and peeled cucumbers
• Tuna salad on soft bread
• Mac n cheese
• Fish
• Tofu scramble

Dinner

Perhaps the hardest meal to plan for, especially with families, is dinner. Since you will be eating at home and won’t be pressed for time, most items should be okay, as long as they have been cut into small pieces. Some easy and braces-friendly options for dinner include:

• Ravioli and other noodle dishes
• Soup and salad
• Mac n cheese
• Fish and steamed veggies
• Spaghetti and ground beef
• Loaded baked potatoes
• Meatloaf and mashed potatoes
• Grilled tofu
• Soft cooked beans and rice, as well as guacamole and tortillas

Snacks

For those who work long hours, exercise regularly, or have children in school, snacks are a crucial part of their daytime eating routine. Unfortunately, braces make consuming most standby snack food impossible (including dried fruit, pretzels, nuts, and hard vegetables like carrots). There are some foods, however, that make a killer snack and satisfy the braces diet requirements.

• Bananas
• Applesauce
• Yogurt
• Jello
• Clementine oranges
• Raspberries and other soft fruits
• Soft cheese

Conclusion

Though braces can certainly present their own set of challenges, eating and cooking around them doesn’t have to be one. If you stick to the above diet and foods similar to it, you will find that eating with braces is much easier than you anticipated. Your treatment will fly by without any issues, and you’ll have a brighter, straighter smile before you know it. And don’t forget to indulge in a little ice cream!

Have any questions about braces and other orthodontic treatment options that we didn’t answer above? Get in touch with us or schedule an appointment to come by and consult with one of our doctors at no charge to you.