The longer you wear your braces, the more you’ll come to understand what you can and cannot do while wearing them. However, until you’re used to them, your orthodontist will provide you with a list of things you should avoid during your orthodontic treatment. This list is designed to prevent you from causing yourself pain, bending or shifting your wires, or breaking brackets.
Things To Avoid While Wearing Braces
Below are five things to avoid doing while undergoing orthodontic treatment:
- Chew gum – Chewing gum will cause the gum to stick to your braces, pulling on brackets, wires, and bands. This will put stress on the hardware, which could cause them to break off. Avoid gum and other sticky foods.
- Chew ice – It’s never a great idea to chew ice, but this is especially true when you’re wearing braces. Chewing ice can cause you to easily break a bracket off or bend a wire. These are expensive and uncomfortable problems to fix.
- Drink soda – Sodas and other sugary beverages are highly acidic. The acids in the sugar and carbonation can dissolve the glue that keeps your brackets attached to the teeth. This can cause the brackets to simply fall off.
- Grind your teeth – Many people have a habit of clenching or grinding their teeth when they’re under stress. This can cause damage to your teeth and your braces. If you believe you clench or grind your teeth at night, please talk to your orthodontist about receiving a night guard.
- Use your teeth as tools – Again, using your teeth as tools is always a bad idea, but even more so when you’re wearing braces. Please don’t use your teeth to open packages, chew on objects, or do anything other than eating. This can chip your teeth or damage your brackets.
For more information about how to properly care for your braces, please contact your orthodontist. If you have any questions about dental implants, please call Littleton Implants & Periodontics. Our office is located here in Littleton, Colorado.