Metal Mouth Message Board

Hello,

I'm supposed to get braces tomorrow ("supposed to" because I've been trying to since last June, and my ortho keeps sending me to the periodontist!). I'm in my late 30's and am very happy, as the appearance of my teeth has always bothered me. So glad I'm getting them taken care of.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had a list of easy healthy foods to eat. I normally am a big salad eater (with lots of crunchy add-ins), so I'm interested in low-cal but filling substitutes.

Soups, of course. Do tomato-based soups stain clear brackets? What vegetables (cooked, I presume) are easy and less likely to get stuck in your teeth?

Thanks in advance, and looking forward to participating.

Hi Deb,

Welcome and good luck with your braces.

You can eat just about anything you want, really. The only things that you want to avoid are realy sticky things (like toffee) and perhaps some really hard things like nuts. Vegetables should be no problem.

In the first little while, your teeth might be achy so you may want to eat some softer things. Steamed vegetables are great, or tofu, or soup, or fruit smoothies.

Pretty much all vegetables will get stuck in your braces, but the stringier ones are the worst. Bascially, always carry a toothbrush with you, and just enjoy your food and don't worry too much.

Yes tomato soup stains your braces, but it's the ligatures, not the braces themselves that stain. ANd the biggest culprit is curry. I think it's the turmeric - it turns your ligs bright yellow. The next worst ones are red wine, tea, and coffee.

Hope that helps, let us know if you have any more questions.

For the clear ligs, I like to wait till the day before an appt to eat the foods that really stain, like curry. Whatever you are eating, I suggest keeping a water bottle handy, I like the ones with the flip tops, so you can rinse the clear brackets throughout the meal.

Well, I've got the brackets (ceramic) on -- the arch wires and bands come next week. I tried some mushroom bisque and found that those brackets catch everything. I'm considering ingesting nothing but Slimfast and margaritas for the next 2 years, ha ha.

I haven't noticed any soreness from the spacers so far (about 7 hours now). But the insides of my lips are definitely tender from brushing against the brackets.

BTW, my ortho gave me the cutest little travel kit with all the necessary goodies, and said that they'd replace anything (proxy brushes, threaders, wax, etc) upon request. How cool.