Food you shouldn't eat

There are certain foods that can damage orthodontic appliances and braces. Eating the wrong foods can distort wires, causing treatment delays and extra visits for repairs. Hard, brittle, crunchy and sticky foods should be avoided during orthodontic treatment. Hard crunchy foods can bend and break the brackets and wires, while sticky foods may loosen them.

 

	Any hard or sticky candy, caramel, bubble gum, gummy bears or similar must be avoided, hard candy damages the brackets while sticky candy gets all over the appliances and wont come off.		Popcorn: You can eat them but you must be extremely careful when eating them, avoiding the hard seeds that didn't pop.
	Do not suck on lemons or limes because citric acid in juice can damage tooth enamel.		Do not chew ice cubes because they break the bonding of the bracket to the tooth.
	Whole fruits: You must avoid biting fruits like apples or pears with your front teeth; you should cut it into slices and chew them with your back teeth.		Raw carrots and other vegetables, like celery: You must cook the vegetables so you don't eat them raw, they are too hard!
	Pizza: It's the outside crusty edge and not the pizza itself we worry about. You can eat pizza, but avoid the hard burnt edge. It's the same for hard or toasted bread.		Doritos, hard tacos, tostitos, cheetos, fritos and similar. All can break the bonding, it's better if you avoid them.
	Corn may be eaten if sliced off the cob.

Other things you must avoid:
Keep fingernails, pencils and other objects out of your mouth.
Don't chew any type of bone.
Don't tear things with your teeth
Don't bite or suck your lip.