Metal Mouth Message Board

Had my braces fitted a week ago and still finding eating very difficult.

I'm 6ft3 and 13 stone. So relatively slim.

At the moment I'm living of Pasta based food, bananas and protein shake. I find it difficult and painfull to eat things like Pizza and even mcdonalds! It takes me ages!

I ordered a prawn sandwhich is a bar the other day thinking "this will be easy to eat" they bought out a thick crust sandwhich (doorstep) much to my horror. Being known as a fast eater, I had to explan to my firends why is was taking 20 minutes to eat a sandwhich! This would normally take 5.

So does it get any easier or is it always going to be this difficult to eat food?

It gets easier, when i first got braces biting into a sandwich hurt so much i wondered how people lived with these things. But after a week or so i could eat alot more and now i eat everything, pizza hut, mcdonalds, crusty bread, apples and hard sweets.

But yesterday i had an adjustment and i cant chew as i got another set of molar bands so im feeling your pain especially since its my birthday tomorrow and i cant get a pizza to celebrate. Good job its my 18th and i can now legally enjoy a liquid diet.

Eating starts out to be a major pain, but after being in braces for a month or so you start to think less about it, but you will never get to a point where you never think about it. There will always be the self concsious smiles right after you eat if you haven't brushed yet. And you'll probably snack less and also snack on different things. Things that are easy to clean out of your brackets. Don't worry too much, you'll be fine!

It does get easier! I had to cut my sandwich's for a long time. I couldn't bite into anything for the life of me. I did loose 10 pounds but sadly they are back again

Hey AVFC_UK

I have had my braces on for just under two weeks now. On my third day i posted a furum about being "sick of Soup". Everyone that replyed to me ensured me that i would be able to eat semi hard food in due course. Last weekend i tried to eat a Mcdonalds but i could only eat the burger, not the chips (waste of money ) However, i am now on "normal foods" again and have eaten Pizza and Mcdonalds in the past two days, including the chips (well i deserved it after all, after being on soup for the past 8 days ). So just hang in their for a few more days

hey avfc!

i've also had serious problems eating in the beginning of my treatment and it got better month by month. actually now, after having braces for more than 14 months and after each visit to my ortho the pain is actually minimal and it's much easier to eat. just skip food which asks for much chewing. i workout like mad and i remember i got braces while trying to put on some good muscle mass, so it was a priority to eat well and a lot. my blender and i got to be best buddies...
when i think about it, first few months were much more painful in relation to hitting my teeth with spoons. like, teeth would move to new positions faster and my brain and my hands weren't accustomed to these new angles of putting food in my mouth... ouch, some hits were baaaad... lol!

If the fact that I'm sitting here crunching on raw baby carrots tells you anything, yes, it does get better. A few weeks from now you'll be eating pretty much everything you did before braces, just a bit more carefully.

Hi AVFC_UK

Congrats on getting braced..

I have had my brace on for nearly 7 weeks now. For the first 5 weeks I have to admit eating food was a nightmare.. It didn't get much easier after the first week and continued for what seems to be much longer than other guys n girls on this forum..

But I persevered and I must say now even after having my first adjustment which temporarily hurt for a couple of days, I can eat almost anything.

I have to chew more slowly as I have extraction gaps aswell which can be painful if you get hard food in them. BUT after a while you get used to it.

Its a case of almost learning to eat again, but in a way that isn't painful.

I was advised by the Ortho not to bite into hard crispy bread as it could break off the brace. AND, he advised me to cut apples and anything hard into squares to aid the eating process.

This has worked wonders..

Like you i'm slim and since having the brace on i've dropped down to the lower acceptable weight for my height. BUT, I eat healthily and spend alot of time with my smoothie maker!!!

Hi AVFC_UK,

It could be I'm just lucky and maybe the pain/discomfort has not set in but I'm not having much trouble eating the usual foods. I just got my braces on 5/19/06 and the only thing I have avoided eating are sticky/chewy things and raw vegetables. Otherwise, I have cut my meat in slighly smaller pieces. I'm not saying I don't feel any difference when I chew, but I look for an area in my mouth that seems to be comfortable to chew from - it may be one side one time and another side the next time. I avoided the raw vegetables because I want to avoid breaking a bracket but there are other ways to prepare vegetables. Because flossing takes a bit more time now, I am watching what I eat (which is better for me anyway) and am avoiding the sweet sticky things because I don't want to take the chance of not being able to remove it completely.

As I mentioned above, I just got my braces and have a very light archwire - it could be that's why I'm not having a real difficult time, I'll know after my first adjustment and/or when they change the thickness of the wire. Don't think you can't have sweets - you can eat ice cream, pudding, etc. and just rinse after you're done eating. I hope my method is going to work regarding keeping my braces clean, I'll find out at my next appt.

Somtimes I find people may not want to feel any discomfort while eating so they are having a difficult time eating their favorite foods. I think once you eat some of your favorites, you'll be more at ease eating other things.

Good luck.

ssfw

It does get easier after time has gone by. Ive had mine on for 10 months, and I've been eating anything I want! After about a month, you'll get used to it.

Yes, it does get easier. It may take another week or two, but you'll get used to it. And depending on the adjustment, you may experience difficulty eating again for a few days, too.

Suggestion: eat as much as you can of the stuff that you can eat! Stay healthy! And another thing. I was reeallly craving pizza the week after I got braces, and I was determined to eat it! So I cut it into pretty small bites and ate it with ease.

Same thing with say, a burger from McDonalds or something. Cut it into sections, then eat it. After a bit you won't have to do that with either a burger or pizza.

Depending on the food it may almost always take a little more time than you normally would without braces, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Thank you all, it looks like thankfully it will get easier.

I always rinse after food and clear everything out I think this is very important.

I've made the mistake many times of rinsing with cold water and the water going into the extraction holes. Ouch! does that hurt! Lesson here always rinse with warm water!

ssfw wrote:Hi AVFC_UK,

I avoided the raw vegetables because I want to avoid breaking a bracket but there are other ways to prepare vegetables.
ssfw

Don't worry about the raw vegetables. If you know how much raw vegetables I eat you probably wouldn't believe it. (Okay, I'll tell ya, it's about 4 cups -- tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, celery, carrots and some other stuff all mixed together with fresh lime juice -- and I eat that probably 4 times a week). I haven't had a single problem with any of my brackets. So go for it!

Hi AVFC_UK, I'd just like to add my 20c worth to what others have said: you will eat normally again.

I shouldn't of indicated raw vegetables meaning "all" raw vegetables in my post. I had attended a special event the evening I got my braces and there were various raw vegetables on a tray including carrots that looked like it may create a "problem" for me. The sliced cucumber, tomatoes, etc. looked like I would be able to eat but at that time I decided not to eat any of the vegetables and just ate things that I knew were 'safe'. My apologies to all if I confused you.

Ingyandbert, should I cut the carrots into small pieces or thin sticks?

ssfw