What embarrassing moments have you had while eating?

[catfish]

So I went out to breakfast this morning. I was leaning over slightly to take a bite, when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I was shocked to discover that a small bit of drool had slipped over my lip and landed on the edge of the table! Thank goodness I was dining alone this time!

I never did this before I had braces, but I've had a few similar experiences since the braces.

How about the rest of you? What challenges and embarrassing moments have you had while eating with braces?

[Neptune]

The day after getting braced, I went out to lunch with my mentor at work. We were eating at a Vietnamese restaurant, and I ordered a bowl of soup/noodle (pho). Everything was going fine...until the food arrived. It was then that I realized that I couldn't chew!! Quickly, I explained to my mentor that I was new with braces and didn't expect it to be so challenging to eat, so we stared at my food and laughed. Eventually, I developed a plan to first eat all the soup, then use the spoon/ladle utensil to cut the noodles into tiny bits that I could easily slurp down.

It was so embarrassing and absolutely hilarious at the same time.

[SnowSara]

I spit a little fleck of food at a coworker during a c0cktail/hors d’oeuvres reception. Nice. I apologized, covered my mouth and laughed it off! I least I had the braces to blame!

[kirjax]

just the typical food flying out of the mouth while talking! I usually say, "excuse me, damn braces!" or if it doesn't seem like anyone's noticed I'll try not to say anything.

[laurahalvey]

I work in a front office, and we are required to work while eating. I was eating a sandwich, and a customer came in. I had no idea I had bread stuck under my wires until I went to the bathroom a few minutes later.

Yuck! I hope I didn't turn off that particular customer!

[RenaissanceGurl]

I posted this a couple of weeks ago in another thread, just remembered it:

Okay,
this is a bit embarassing, but especially after a couple of months into Invisalign, I often kept forgetting I was wearing them. I'm a teacher, and we were on this class-trip, and one of my students offered me a REALLY chewy caramell.
Since I hadn't been eating all day due to the tight schedule of our programme, I accepted it gladly and popped it in... Shocked
Oh dear... My aligners just stuck together, I just couldn't wrench them apart! I just kept making funny noises and started salivating like crazy. Fortunately, there was a bathroom nearby, so I just went there and took care of the problem. OMG, my pupils must have thought I had swallowed my dentures or something, hahaha... not funny...
I explained it to them afterwards, and it was embarassing for me because I never wanted anyone to know that I was wearing braces (hence Invisalign).
They were cool about it, though!

It was awful...

[purpleteeth]

Drooling, spitting, food FALLING OUT OF MY MOUTH, biting down wrong (causing me to yell ouch!), choking on pasta as it wrapped around my brackets and wires before sliding down my throat, food getting stuck everywhere... me missing my cup and having my drink spill on me. Oh, the list goes on --- it took forever for me to eat in front of others and those I did eat in front of, we had a *deal* that they wouldn't look at me while I ate... or say ANYTHING if something was stuck (including the broccoli).

Now, I just eat and get it overwith. My friends are used to me eating rather strangely, including the cutting everything into microscopic pieces routine and eating everything with a fork.

[Cor1]

Last year we went to visit my lil sis and family in Red Deer, Alberta, so as soon as we got in it was dinner time and I was starved.......so off to a buffet style Chinese restaurant........which was full of other hungry people, and I had just gotten a new elastic config........so whilst I was inhaling my food.......there was a lound snap..........everyone at our table heard it!!!!! So I was really hoping no body around us did, and that they were all just as hungry as me and wouldn't notice a tiny little round elastice in there Chinese!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! And just to let ya know it has happened many a times since!!!!!!

Cor

[catfish]

Drooling, spitting, food FALLING OUT OF MY MOUTH

I laughed so hard at this one!!!! I have experienced them all so far. And what is with the food just falling out of our mouths?! It amazes me that I will see that happen but not even feel it. You'd think you'd notice a chunk leaving your lips!

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. Your stories make these embarrassing moments a little humorous! It always helps to know that others are dealing with the same problems.

[artroxu]

There is this New York style sub shop/deli near my work that my husband and I go to for lunch every couple of weeks. After about a month in braces I was so excited when i was able to bite through things again, so we went. I got a sub sandwitch and about halfway through I looked up at myself in my visor mirror and there was so much doughy bread stuck in my front 12 brackets that i couldnt see the brackets or my teeth. I looked over at my husband and made a big huge grin like x 1000 and he almost spit out his food he was laughing so hard.

[catfish]

Okay, so this one didn't happen while I was eating. It DID happen while I was alone thank goodness!

I had to go out to our patio to rescue a bird from my cat. After I got the cat back in the house, I went back to the bird to check on it. I was leaning over the bird when I saw these drops on the concrete and I thought, "is it raining?" NO --- it was me DROOLING!!!!

How on earth does this happen without me feeling it? I'm afraid to think what I've done that others have seen and I haven't noticed!!!

The bird was fine by the way, and it eventually flew off.

[jackjack]

I do not enjoy eating out or around people cuz for some reason also as others have mentioned, I can not eat with my mouth closed!!!! its so hard to move the food around in my mouth, food sometimes falls out of my mouth or hangs on my lower lip and i try to catch it as fast as i can without anyone seeing!!!! ummmm always cutting food into tiny pieces even pizza which feels weird especially in public, like someone also said biting wrong or eating something too hard and yelling out surprising ppl lol they just turn and look at me! drooling occasionally...ohh and also eating soooooo slow lol wow braces are fun

[parsonsdeb]

Okay, now that I have been scared away from eating out! I already decided lunches at my desk will be liquid. But it is only day 4 with the braces.

I did have a formal dinner to attend last week while I had spacers on my teeth. I had requested vegetarian, which is usually pasta. Instead, I got a portebello mushroom- super tasty, but I couldn't chew it! I ended up chopping it super small (minced), let it soak up the sauce, and polished it off. By the time I was finished, everyone else at the table had finished their desserts!

[GiovanntiLawing]

This forum is funny!

My funny food experience was at my favorite restaurant Chipotle's. It's right around the corner from my office, so I run in to grab a Chicken Burrito Bol. Yeah, the rice they use has Cilantro (sp?) in it, and of course, rice is the worst and the best thing to eat with braces. For one, it stick in the wires, but it IS rather easy to get out of your teeth. Not the Cilantro though. I ate, returned to a 2pm meeting and before I could even get a sentence out of my mouth. My boss was like " Um, what's that green stuff in your teeth. "

Yeah...they laughed, I ran out, and came back and joined them in the laughter afterwards!

[catfish]

Oooooooooh I love Chipotle's! We don't have one where I live, so I only get to go when I travel.

And I hear you on the rice and cilantro. Rice is the perfect size to get stuck into many of the available spaces under our archwires. And it seems that any leafy green stuff loves to wrap itself around the wire. But it's worth the hassle of cleaning it all out when the food tastes so good!