Handy Tips for Surviving and Enjoying Christmas 2020 with Braces

With the holiday season just around the corner, we have already started dreaming of the delicious food and mouth-watering treats the festive season brings along. It is crucial to care for your braces to stay intact and in great shape during such times.

Here are a few essential things to keep in mind for taking good care of your braces.

Keep your braces clean: Keeping your braces clean at all times is critical for oral care. Taking out time to floss, brush, and get your teeth super clean should be a priority. From maintaining an excellent brushing technique to flossing at least once a day, It’s vital to follow this, especially when you have an erratic routine or traveling during holidays.

Avoid damaging your braces: Holiday food can be intimidating. You have to be prudent that you’re not eating anything too sticky or hard and that you eat carefully, so you don’t break your braces. With lots of yummy and gummy, and chewy, and hard candy, and treats, and chips to eat, your braces can be at risk. You might encounter issues like broken or loose braces, which can leave you feeling uncomfortable by an edge or wire poking into your gums, tongue, or cheek.

Manage what you eat: Smartly choosing what to eat and a little extra care will ensure you enjoy the festival to the fullest. Mince pies are a traditional favorite, but they are quite sticky in structure and can pose a threat if they stick to your teeth or under your braces. You may choose food items like shortbread biscuits, soups, etc., to avoid any casualty. Consumption of alcohol should also be moderated as most of the spirits are relatively high in sugar and acid, which can have a malignant effect on your teeth.

Here are a few categories and food suggestions on what you should take a little extra care with this Christmas and the festive food you can gorge on while maintaining your braces.

Alarming Foods:
Hard foods are the worst and can probably damage or break the brackets or wires of the braces when consumed, which is why any food that falls into this category needs to be avoided. Hard food includes mostly Christmas treats such as Gingerbread Cookies, Candy Canes, Peanut Brittle, Pecan Pie, etc. Another kind to be avoided is sticky food. The problem with moist food is that it can get stuck in the braces and tug on them, sometimes loosening them or even pulling them off completely. Some examples of these sticky foods include Caramel Apples, Toffee, Sticky Puddings. Refrain from eating sugary food because they likely will create stains around your brackets as well.
The holidays are often a time to indulge in fudge, caramels, toffees, and other sweet treats. Make sure to avoid these foods if you have braces to make sure they don’t get stuck and end up pulling off a bracket or damaging a wire.

Cautious Foods:
Relishing a few BBQ food staples can potentially damage braces or make cleaning them a daunting task. BBQ favorites like corn on the cob or tough or stringy meat should be avoided or, if consumed, should be carefully eaten. The most important thing to remember is to be cautious of hard, chewy, crunchy, sticky, or gooey. Another category of food, i.e., nuts like almonds, peanuts, and pecans, which are a part of the majority of desserts, should be eaten with great care as they are hard and might accidentally bend or break your brackets or wire. Crunchy or raw veggies can also pose a threat and be harmful to your braces’ wires and brackets. They can familiarize your braces if you are not cautious.

Safe-to-Eat Foods:

Soft food items like different meats, poultry, and seafood are all excellent choices. You can be carefree and dig into your favorite meatballs, chicken sandwiches, or fried fish. Sticking to fruits with softer texture like bananas, berries, and vegetables like mashed potatoes, steamed spinach, beans are safer options. Indulging in dairy items like cream cheese, custard, ice cream, yogurt, milkshakes, or soft grains like soft slices of bread, tortillas, muffins, pancakes, pasta, or rice are braces-friendly.

Keep in touch with your orthodontist:

Regular visits to your orthodontist are essential, although the holidays are a busy time for everyone. Try scheduling appointments for routine check-ups or repairs ahead of time to not forget about them amidst the holiday excitement.

Wrong food items are the main reason when it comes to broken brackets and snapped wires. To conclude, try avoiding anything that can stick to your braces and damage them while chewing. Caring for braces is more complicated and tedious than regular oral hygiene, but it’s also critically important.