One of the biggest expenses parents have to make for their growing children is getting them braces. It’s almost like buying a used car! That’s why, when you do decide to invest in an orthodontist, you don’t want your children to make any mistakes that could damage the braces. As parents help their children adjust to braces, they should be aware of what foods kids should avoid when they have braces to prevent any accidental dental mishaps.
Hard Candies and Treats
If they advertised a candy as being able to break your jaw, that should be an obvious sign that it will be working adversely on your mouth’s health. Hard sweets, cookies, and other treats can break or bend braces as kids try to bite into them. Cookies dipped in milk to soften them up are okay to eat.
Whole or Raw Vegetables and Fruit
Much like hard candies, raw vegetables are too tough to bite into. Serve cooked vegetables to your kids instead of raw ones because the cooking process will give them a preferred soft texture.
Also, kids with braces shouldn’t eat fruits like apples or pears whole. Instead, they should cut them into slices for safer eating.
Sticky Foods
Once something gets stuck inside of the crevices of your braces, it’s nearly impossible to clean out without professional help. Sticky foods like caramel, bubble gum, some queso, or taffy can become wedged in the braces, creating discomfort. They can also get stuck to the braces, then pull them off of the teeth while chewing.
Hard Bread
The excessive chewing required for eating French bread and pizza crust makes it a poor mix for braces. As your child tries to work through the tough food, they could loosen their brackets or bend a wire.
Don’t worry about their not being able to eat pizza! Pizza is still okay, just don’t eat the crust.
Meat on the Bone
When eating meat, you should take it pulled off the bone before eating. When someone with braces bites into meat on the bone, they run the risk of scraping the metal on the bone. That scrape could scratch the braces, damage them, or worse, rip a bracket off.
Knowing what foods kids should avoid when they have braces will help you avoid unwanted expensive repairs and orthodontist bills.
Mom on the go in Holy Toledo 