Taking Care of Your Braces

As the braces are designed to be removed at the completion of treatment, sufficient force from pushing or pulling on the brackets can result in the bracket debonding (becoming unglued from the tooth). As such, we kindly ask you to avoid certain foods that may result subsequent damage to the braces. Repeated breakages can result in undesired tooth movements and prolonged treatment times.

Please DO NOT eat hard, crunchy, chewy or very sticky foods, especially if they are in large pieces. These include:

• Hard foods – nuts, hard candies, pizza crusts
• Chewy foods – bagels, hard licorice
• Crunchy foods – corn nuts, ice
• Sticky foods – caramel, toffee or taffy, chewing gum
• Foods that require biting into – apples, carrots (please cut these into thin slices)

Please see the “No No Food List” under the Patient Handout section for more details.