Metal Mouth Message Board

I've had my braces on for two days, and so far all I've eaten is pudding and soup. What kind of food is ok to eat? When I try chewing even small bites of stuff, I'm afraid that I'll break a bracket off. Is this very easy to do? I mean this is a great diet, but I'd rather eat haha. Any help is appreciated!

Everyone's pain tolerance is different, and everyone's braces cause them different amounts of pain. I've seen posts by some members who were eating steak within two days of getting their braces on. For me, it took an entire week of soft foods before I could eat solid food again.

I ate a lot of mushy foods that didn't really require chewing, like:

oatmeal
soup
mashed potatos
other mashed veggies like squash, sweet potato, turnip, etc
pudding
small pasta
rice pudding
canned peas
vegetables that are roasted or boiled until they are mushy, like carrots or sweet potato
smoothies
soy ice cream
dahl
gelled desserts
bananas
canned fruit like peaches
toast (i toasted it, cut the crusts off, lathered it with margarine, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and then microwaved it for a few seconds so that it would be soft and mushy. sometimes i drizzled it with maple syrup. pathetic and labour-intensive, yes, but it was tasty.)

Thanks for the quick reply, Katica! The list of food is great, I'll have to try some of the suggestions! My worry isn't dealing with pain, however. My teeth don't hurt, I'm just worried that chewing food will damage the braces. However, it sounds like this is not so?

Hi Buckeye,

You should check with your doctor. Depending on the adhesive, it should be pretty well cured by now (I can't imagine otherwise). If you are like me, the only thing you are really suppose to avoid is the hard stuff (like nuts). I keep pressure off of the archwires and brackets by primarily chewing with my molars. By doing this I have eaten vegetables, chicken, beef. . . really whatever I wanted. I even very carefully ate some nuts. I guess that's the rebel in me. Be sure to cut up things like an apple into bite size pieces and chew with the molars - taking a bite off the core will put a lot of pressure on the backets and archwire. Just alter the way you chew to keep the pressure off the braces. I don't like the way food gets trapped above the upper braces and below the lower braces, but that's about it. Some people take some tylenol before they eat because of the pain from the additional pressure on their teeth.

Happy eating

Wow, thanks for the replies! It makes me feel a lot better knowing that it's still possible to eat everything as before. When he asked if I had any questions, I never really thought about it ... then I went to eat and stuff kept getting caught, so I had no idea if I should stick to soups and pudding or not haha. Also, I had two brackets pop off Saturday ... I don't know why, but that didn't help my nervousness at all. Thanks again for all your comments, I really appreciate them!

osubeanbags,

I think you see your ortho ASAP. You shouldn't have brackets breaking off if all you have been eating soup and pudding. Be sure and tell your ortho what you have been eating.

LuckyOne wrote:osubeanbags,

I think you see your ortho ASAP. You shouldn't have brackets breaking off if all you have been eating soup and pudding. Be sure and tell your ortho what you have been eating.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna stop by Monday ... I don't think these two cured right. I was sitting on the couch and felt a weird click, then checked in the mirror and noticed that they popped off ... whoops! I tried eating a piece of pizza about 10 minutes ago, too ... even in small bites it's very sore ... I guess I'll just have to wait, hopefully it'll go away!

Well, I'd stay away from caramel and hard candy and I'd cut up apples, and eat corn OFF the cob,but other than that, you should be able to eat pretty much anything that doesn't hurt. I even eat popcorn (Sshhh!)

I got my braces a week ago and still am having trouble eating anything that's not super soft. One thing I've found and love are Entenmann's "Little Bites". Not sure if it's a regional brand, but they have things like mini muffins. The blueberry mini muffins have been a godsend. They are very soft and small, so you can easily break each one in half and chew them with no problems. They taste really good too! I'm addicted. I hope I'm able to get back to a normal eating pattern soon though. Everyone told me I'd lose weight when I got braces, but with eating things like pudding, milkshakes, lots of soft breads, etc., I'll be lucky if I don't gain weight! I'm trying new things every day so I can get used to it quicker, but my molars are pretty sore (and have been since I got the spacers 3 weeks ago), so it's difficult.

I'm feeling a lot more optimistic after reading these replies as I thought I'd be on the soup and oatmeal diet the next 14 months. It's just been a week but I find it uncomfortable eating what I did pre-braces but hopefully I'll get used to chewing again. I'm craving pizza big time

BritGirl,

So far I have been able to eat pizza if I kind of remove the hard crust on the bottom. It's a bit of work, but for someone like me who eats pizza ALL THE TIME, it does satisfy my cravings!

This morning, I was able to eat cereal without waiting for it to get super soggy, yay! Progress!

Yesterday, I was cracking myself up in my cubicle at work eating a bagel with a fork and knife. I looked so ridiculous, but it was worth it! I'm not giving up New York bagels for a whole year and a half, no way!

i've had my braces for nearly 4 months now and i'm very naughty because i eat EVERYTHING! steak, chewy sweets, nuts, crisps, popcorn, burgers, sandwiches..don't think i;ve tried corn on the cob yet but i;m sure it wont defeat me! i've had no problems with any brackets coming off at all, i'm careful when i eat that nothing hits them or gets stuck. once the soreness goes away and you're used to having extra equipment in your mouth it becomes very easy to eat normally. at first i felt like that even when i put my lips together (after putting lip balasm on) that my brackets were gonna come off but i soon realised that they're quite hardy little things and that i didn';t have to worry quite so much!

I eat everything I ate before with the exception of whole apples, chewy sweets like toffee and chewy meat like steak. I don't take any particular care with my brackets and none of them have come off.

I did eat popcorn and paid for it with a gum infection. I hadn't got a piece of popcorn out of my gums and the consequences weren't fun at all. I also don't eat sticky candy, but I do eat smooth peanut butter.

With things like steak, I cut much smaller pieces than I did pre braces. I also love nuts and raw veggies, but no longer eat nuts and my veggies are cooked. If I feel I want more calories, good old Carnation Instant breakfast drink helps!

With your brackets popping off, it might be a matter of your teeth somehow hitting them. Make sure at your ortho's office, you do a lot not only up and down motion with your jaws, but sliding back and forth, side to side, also. I had a problem with popping a bracket, it was because of the side to side sliding situation. Your orth might also need to move the brackets lower or higher on the teeth (depending if they're on the lower or upper jaw).

Good luck!

Jembrace

It hurts if I eat anything that requires chewing. I tried to have a salad sandwitch but I found myself picking at it and chewing tiny bites. I think I'll stick with mash and yogurt.