What can you eat with braces?
With fixed braces you can eat most foods if they are soft or cut into small pieces: eggs, rice, pasta, fish, cooked vegetables, soft fruit, yoghurt and hummus are all fine. Avoid hard foods such as whole nuts, ice and hard sweets, sticky foods such as toffee and chewing gum, and biting straight into apples or corn on the cob. At Creative Arts in Dubai our specialist orthodontists go through this at fitting; with Invisalign, trays come out to eat.
Why do some foods cause problems with braces?
Brackets are bonded to the enamel with an adhesive that holds up to normal chewing but not to cracking a nut or crunching ice. Foods cause trouble in three ways:
- Hard foods such as whole nuts, ice, hard sweets and popcorn kernels can snap a bracket off the tooth or bend the wire.
- Sticky and chewy foods such as toffee, caramel and chewing gum wrap around brackets, tug on the wire and pull elastic ties loose.
- Sugary and acidic foods and drinks do not break anything, but plaque collects around brackets, and frequent sugar there can leave white chalky marks on the enamel that stay after the braces come off.
A broken bracket is rarely an emergency, but the tooth it holds stops moving as planned until it is re-bonded, and repeated breakages are one of the commonest reasons treatment runs long. Our guide to how long braces take explains why.
Which foods are fine with braces, and which are best avoided?
Most foods fall into the middle column: fine once they are cut, cooked or eaten a different way.
| Food group | Usually fine | Fine if prepared differently | Best avoided |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fruit | Bananas, berries, melon, mango, grapes | Apples and firm pears sliced thin; fresh dates pitted and eaten in pieces | Biting into whole apples; chewy dried fruit |
| Vegetables | Cooked and steamed vegetables, potatoes, avocado | Raw carrots and cucumber grated or cut into thin sticks; corn cut off the cob | Raw carrots bitten whole; corn on the cob |
| Bread and grains | Rice, pasta, soft bread, oats, harees | Crusty bread and manakish torn into small pieces | Hard crackers, hard pretzels, crunchy taco shells |
| Meat, chicken and fish | Fish, minced meat, tender stews, soft kofta | Shawarma and grilled meat cut into small pieces; meat taken off the bone | Ribs, wings and anything gnawed off the bone; tough dried meat |
| Dairy and eggs | Yoghurt, labneh, soft cheese, milk, eggs | Hard cheese cut into small cubes | Nothing in particular |
| Snacks | Hummus, soft cheese and crackers that break easily | Nuts ground or as smooth nut butter | Whole nuts, popcorn, sunflower and pumpkin seeds |
| Sweets | Ice cream, custard, plain soft chocolate, umm ali | Syrupy sweets such as luqaimat as an occasional treat, then a brush | Toffee, caramel, nougat, chewing gum, hard sweets, lollipops |
| Drinks | Water and milk | Tea, coffee and karak with less sugar and with meals | Fizzy, energy and sugary drinks sipped through the day; chewing ice |
If your orthodontist gives you a specific list for your appliance, follow it over this general guide.
What should you eat in the first week with braces?
For the first three or four days teeth are tender to bite on, so plan meals that need little chewing. Our guide to whether braces hurt explains why that soreness peaks around the second or third day.
- Breakfast: scrambled eggs, labneh with soft bread, yoghurt, porridge or a banana smoothie.
- Lunch: lentil soup, rice with a soft stew, pasta, or flaked fish.
- Dinner: harees, mashed potato, soft kofta in sauce or well-cooked vegetables.
- Snacks: hummus, soft fruit, custard or cold yoghurt, which many people find soothing.
Cut food small and chew with the back teeth, because biting into food with tender front teeth is what most people notice. By the second week most people are eating close to normally, again choosing softer meals for a day or two after adjustment visits.
How do you eat everyday Dubai favourites with braces?
Several local staples need a little thought rather than being off the menu.
Dates
Soft and very sugary, so they cling around brackets. Remove the stone, eat them in pieces with a meal rather than as a grazing snack, and rinse or brush afterwards.
Shawarma and wraps
Biting through a tightly rolled wrap pulls on the front brackets. Cut it into rounds and chew with the back teeth.
Nuts and seeds
Whole almonds and pistachios, and seeds cracked between the teeth, are a frequent cause of broken brackets. Ground nuts in sweets and sauces are fine.
Karak, tea and coffee
The risk is sugar sipped slowly over hours, not the drink itself. Strong tea and coffee can also stain clear elastic ties until they are changed at the next visit.
Ramadan
Eating moves into the evening, so brush after iftar and again after suhoor. With clear aligners, fasting hours make full wear easier; build tray-out time around the two meals.
It is not only food that breaks brackets
Chewing on pens, pencils or fingernails, crunching ice, biting thread and opening packets with the teeth put the same sharp forces on brackets as hard food. These habits are worth breaking for the length of treatment.
What can you eat with clear aligners?
With clear aligners such as Invisalign there is no food list, because the trays come out for every meal and every drink other than plain water. The rules are about timing and cleanliness instead:
- Eating time counts against wear time. Aligners need to be worn about 20 to 22 hours a day, and snacking little and often uses up the spare hours fast. Our guide to aligner wear time explains what happens when wear slips.
- Clean before trays go back in. Food trapped under a tray sits against the enamel for hours. Brush, or at least rinse well with water, before putting them back.
- Hot and sugary drinks come out of the routine. Take trays out for hot drinks, which can distort the plastic, and for anything sweet, which seeps underneath. Tea and coffee also stain trays.
- Elastics come off to eat if your plan includes them, and go back on straight after.
For how this works on a school day, see Invisalign for teens, and for how aligner treatment is planned, Invisalign at Creative Arts.
Considering braces and wondering how they would fit your routine? Our specialist orthodontists in Dubai explain the appliance, the daily care and the alternatives in a written plan.
Explore bracesWhat should you do if a bracket breaks while you are eating?
Stop chewing on that side and check what has happened. If a bracket has come off completely, keep it and bring it with you. If it is loose and spinning on the wire, leave it in place and press orthodontic wax over it if it rubs. A wire end that pokes can also be covered with wax until it is trimmed.
Then contact the clinic during opening hours, 10:00 to 20:00 daily. A broken bracket is not usually urgent, but it should not be left for weeks, because that tooth stops following the plan. Our page on braces emergencies explains what can wait for your next appointment and what should not.
How do you keep teeth clean after meals with braces?
Food collects around brackets and under the wire after almost every meal. Brushing after eating, angling the brush above and below each bracket, and using interdental brushes under the wire keep plaque from settling. When you cannot brush, at school or work, a thorough rinse with water clears most debris until you can.
Fluoride toothpaste helps protect the enamel around brackets, and professional cleaning during orthodontic treatment reaches what home care misses. Our page on teeth cleaning with braces explains how it is done. At Creative Arts our specialist orthodontists, Dr. Muhannad Kazzaz and Dr. Valeriia Kozachenko, check gums and enamel at every review and say early if plaque is building up.