Braces are delicate and require special care in order to avoid any emergency visits to our office with any broken brackets or wires. With that being said, we know that Thanksgiving will be here before we know it and you may be wondering what foods you should try to avoid eating with braces at the dinner table. Unfortunately, we understand the struggle of braces and feel for you when we say it can be difficult to avoid certain foods, but it is not impossible by any means!
Foods to be mindful of and avoid with your braces:
- Chewy foods — bagels, licorice, Starbursts, Skittles, Lollipops, Laffy Taffy, Air Heads, Fruit Roll ups, Gummies, etc.
- Crunchy foods — popcorn, chips, ice, granola, croutons
- Sticky foods — caramel candies, bubble gum
- Hard foods — nuts, hard candies
- Foods that require biting into
Some tips to consider with these limitations may just require eating the food in a different way. For example, foods that you may need to bite into like corn on the cob, you can still eat the corn it just requires that you use a knife and cut the corn off of the cob. Similarly, whole apples cannot be eaten, but you can eat an apple if it is cut into slices. So if grandma makes famous baked cinnamon apples at your Thanksgiving table, have no fear because you can eat these and the added softness of the apples will definitely be better for your braces!
Foods you can eat with your braces:
- Dairy — soft cheese, pudding, milk-based drinks
- Breads — soft tortillas, pancakes, muffins without nuts
- Grains — pasta, soft cooked rice
- Meats/poultry — soft cooked chicken, meatballs, lunch meats
- Seafood — tuna, salmon, crab cakes
- Vegetables — mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, beans
- Fruits — applesauce, bananas, fruit juice, berries, melons
- Treats — ice cream without nuts, milkshakes, Jell-O, cake
Even though you will have certain restrictions with your braces during Thanksgiving, this certainly doesn’t mean there aren’t all the other yummy alternatives you can enjoy at the dinner table. This just gives you a little more reasoning to take extra helpings of the really good stuff— the mashed potatoes and stuffing!
Certainly, you are aware that you still can enjoy your Thanksgiving meal this year even with your braces! However, if you have other questions or concerns about what foods you can or cannot eat this year, please contact Gladwell Orthodontics today!
