Orthodontics can have a deep impact on our overall health, and, as a new patient, you might not know what to eat the first week you get your traditional braces. Please note that the recommendations we gather about your dietary habits will apply if you’re using Damon self-ligating braces; however, if you’re one of the lucky patients to have their Sturbridge teen Invisalign treatment with us, you won’t have to worry too much about your choice in foods.
There are countless advantages of getting straight teeth, including decreasing the risk of infections that could spread through the bloodstream. You might not believe it, but proper tooth alignment helps new patients in several aspects. Before we go over a list of what you can eat with braces, why not check some of the benefits of Sturbridge Orthodontics?
Here we list some of the most crucial:
Improves Oral Hygiene
Aligned teeth are easy to clean, as the brushes can smoothly pass through the interdental spaces clearing debris.
Improves Occlusion
A perfect occlusion means teeth match at the bite. Misaligned teeth might damage adjacent teeth or create unwanted friction wearing the teeth on the counter jaw to a breakage point.
Improves Digestion
An improved occlusion also means better digestion as the patient triturates food more efficiently, facilitating the digestive system’s nutrient assimilation process.
Improves Sleep
In some cases, a sleep disorder derives from causes like a narrow and deep palate, being the orthodontist the first professional to identify the problem. Although a physician is a qualified professional to diagnose this condition, they often recur to an orthodontist to change the position of the teeth and supporting structures to clear space and solve the obstruction problem.
So, now that we’ve created a picture of the importance of orthodontics, why not tell you that little sacrifice you must make in exchange for a healthy and beautiful smile?
We refer to dietary restrictions, especially the foods you might want to avoid during the first week of orthodontic treatment with braces. If you want more information on other foods you can have during your treatment, and what you have to avoid at all times, you can check out our other blog post article right here. This article addresses this point and provides some options that will help you survive this moment.
What Not to Eat With Braces Along the Entire Treatment
It is not that orthodontists don’t like you to eat the food you love; orthodontists seek patients to get the best out of their orthodontic treatment. So, for your treatment to succeed, orthodontists recommend patients stop seeing the forest for the trees and focus on what they have ahead; a healthy and beautiful smile.
Brackets might fall off, a tooth might break, gums can get inflamed, and there is a higher risk of caries. All this means is that numerous factors contribute to complications in your orthodontic treatment, delaying it and increasing treatment time.
So, here we have a list of the foods you must avoid or at least what you need to do to prevent dental problems:
Raw Fruits and Vegetables
- carrots;
- celery;
- pears and;
- apples.
You can cut these foods into small bite pieces to chew them directly with the occlusal portion of your teeth. For corn, you can thresh the cob or buy a can of corn instead.
Fast Foods and Meats
- ribs;
- chicken wings;
- hamburgers and;
- pizza.
If you want to eat these foods, use a knife and a fork to make little bite pieces before eating them to avoid tearing them down with your front teeth.
Hard-To-Bite or Crunchy Foods
- Hard bread or bread crusts;
- bagels;
- Pizza crusts;
- Pretzels and;
- Popcorn.
Orthodontists firmly oppose to hard-to-bite foods. At first sight, brackets, and wires might look all right after eating a bag of pretzels, but the strain caused by bitting could deform the wires altering their intended structure and performance.
Nuts
- almonds;
- cashew nuts;
- hazelnuts;
- macadamias;
- pecans;
- pine nuts and;
- pistachios.
At the top of our list, we find nuts. Unfortunately, all types of seeds and nuts are hard to bite, so you must be careful at eating soft, moist cakes that contain almonds or macadamias in full. Moreover, cross them from your diet during treatment.
Sticky Foods
- gum (except ADA-approved gum that contains xylitol);
- chewy candy and;
- gummy bears.
We don’t recommend patients chew anything that could stick to the braces or wires, as these foods might adhere to the appliances making them hard to remove.
Also, sugary gum that sticks to teeth might become a breeding niche for bacteria to accumulate. In some cases, dentists recommend ADA-approved gum sweetened with xylitol.
Chewing gum helps patients produce saliva, a natural defense mechanism against bacteria. Xylitol reduces the prevalence of dental caries by augmenting salivary flow, decreasing the (Helicobacter pylori) bacteria population.
What Not to Eat With During the First Week with Braces
During the first week of braces, avoid eating any of the foods listed in the previous section, and you might also add chewy foods or any other food that requires a slight extra effort at bitting.
For instance, instead of eating bite-sized pieces of chicken, try to shred chicken into strips and make soup. The boiling heat will make the meat tender, and the broth moist it, facilitating trituration by teeth.
What to Eat With Braces the First Week
You can eat primarily soft, very soft foods. But, for instance, there are braces-friendly foods you might eat during your treatment with braces, like tender meats. But, during your first week with braces, even tender meat will be too hard to bite.
We recommend patients replace their source of protein the first week for fish that requires a minimal effort to triturate with teeth. Following this example, we prepared a list of foods that will make your life easier during the first week:
- soft fruit;
- soft cheese;
- eggs;
- fruit smoothies;
- oatmeal;
- cereal in milk;
- yogurt;
- pasta;
- soup (chicken broth) and;
- mashed potatoes
You might feel discouraged after reading this list and feel it lacks something or that the food noted there seems like hospital food. But don’t be disappointed, we thought of a solution, so we brought some delicious recipes you can prepare at home that will make the first week with braces pass as quickly as a blink.
Soft Delicious Recipes After Getting Braces Installed
A week goes by so quickly you won’t notice the discomfort fading away. Nevertheless, here is a short list of delicious recipes you can eat during the first week with braces.
Chicken Broth
To prepare a homemade chicken broth, you will need the following:
- a cup of water
- two and a half pounds of chicken meat;
- two onions
- two pieces of celery with leaves;
- two carrots;
- two bay leaves;
- half a teaspoon of dried and crushed rosemary;
- half a teaspoon of dried thyme
- eight peppercorns
Preparing a chicken broth is quite simple. First, cut all the veggies into chunks and the onions into quarters. Next, shred the chicken meat into small strips. Then, add all the ingredients to a pot to boil. Reduce the heat to the minimum and leave the mix uncovered for three hours.
Ensure you don’t overcook the veggies, as they might taste bitter.
Cheese Scrambled Eggs
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so here we list the ingredients for a delicious early meal:
- a tablespoon of butter;
- eight eggs;
- half a cup of milk;
- four ounces of cream cheese;
- a tablespoon of minced fresh parsley;
- a tablespoon of minced chives;
- half a teaspoon of minced thyme;
- an eight of a teaspoon of salt and;
- an eight of a teaspoon of white pepper.
Mix all the ingredients except the butter in a bowl and whisk them until you get a consistent mixture. Meanwhile, heat the butter in a skillet. Pour the mixture into the skillet, checking for any liquid remains to thicken.
Sweet Salmon in Ginger
We told you that you don’t have to skip protein the first week for your new braces. Fish is an excellent source of protein and is safe to chew with braces discomfort. Here we have a recipe that has a good amount of protein that you will enjoy; here are the ingredients:
- a salmon fillet
- a third of a cup of orange juice
- a third of a cup of soy sauce
- a fourth of a cup of honey
- a green onion
- a teaspoon of ground ginger
- a teaspoon of garlic powder
The first step is to make the marinade. Mix the juice, sauce, honey, onion, ginger, and garlic, place two-thirds of it into a shallow bowl, bathe the salmon in the mix, and refrigerate for half an hour. Next, grill the salmon on medium heat for fifteen minutes, basting it with the remaining marinade for the last five minutes, and there you go; you have a healthy, delicious, and soft meal.
What to Do in Case of an Orthodontic Emergency the First Week With Braces?
Our friendly team will help our patients get healthy and beautiful smiles. To do so, we give plenty of advice about their diet, how to protect their teeth, and all they need to know to have a happy smile. But, sometimes, things happen differently than expected.
Brace issues happen sometimes. Instead of calling these issues emergencies, we want to name their hardships. For instance, a patient might have bitten a pretzel and gotten a broken wire. She can use a tweezer and cut the poking wire. Another patient might have eaten a nut and gotten a derailed wire; he might have used a pencil eraser to affix a wire back to the bracket.
However, sometimes, kids forget to use a mouthguard while playing football or at their karate lessons; these are immediate care emergencies. So, in case of a hardship or a primary care emergency, call Dr. Ferdinand Sabelis for immediate Sturbridge Orthodontics emergency treatment and assistance.