Pizza is one of the delicious foods for all aged people. So, when you are about to get braces, you may ask, Can you eat pizza with braces?
You can eat the soft-crust pizza with braces that contain easy-to-chew toppings. However, you should avoid a hard or thin-crust pizza that can damage your braces or get lodged between the braces, wires, and teeth. In short, you have to be tricky if you want to eat pizza with braces.
Even if you eat that, you must use some special techniques. In this article, we’ll take a look at the pizzas that are braces-friendly and know how to eat them as well.
If you want, you can also know how you can eat a burger with braces.
Which types of pizzas you should avoid with braces?
You need to be careful about picking the right foods, especially after getting braces tightened or soon after the placement of brackets.
Here is the reason why you can’t eat certain types of pizzas while wearing braces.
Hard bread or tougher crust
When you have braces, you can’t eat any hard foods, as they may damage your braces.
The bread of the pizza is often hard. Some may feel soft but you have to give a lot of effort during chewing.
When you chew that tougher crust, your teeth feel a lot of stress. The stress isn’t good for brackets.
Bonding between teeth and brackets may get weak and brackets may fall out or get loose. So, avoid the pizza having hard and chewy bread.
Sometimes, the bread is overcooked which makes it harder and crunchy. It’s bad for your braces.
Raw and hard Vegetables
The next problem is the toppings or the ingredients that the pizza contains.
Some pizzas are prepared with raw vegetables or fruits such as pineapples, which are hard, especially in vegetable pizzas.
Again, they can break the braces. However, soft cooked vegetables don’t cause any harm to the braces.
So, choose the right variety of pizza to protect your braces.
Meat
Many of you like those pizzas with meat such as mutton and beef. But, those meat pieces may not be friendly for your braces.
Tough and overcooked pepperoni is bad for the braces. You have to give the effort to chew the meat pieces and that’s how your braces may get loose or fallen out.
Moreover, if the part of the meat or fibers get stuck between the braces and teeth, you may face trouble to clean that.
The reason for that is it’s hard to clean teeth thoroughly with braces on teeth.
So, if those fibers of meat remain on your teeth for a long time, you will have tooth sensitivity or cavities.
Crispy chicken
Chichen pizza with soft pieces may not cause any problem with the braces. However, some varieties which are hard and crunchy such as crispy chicken.
Sometimes, those may damage your braces. But, if we talk about pizza, other ingredients and bread cause the main issue with braces.
Sticky or hard cheese
Any sticky foods should be avoided with braces, because they may damage the braces as well as teeth. Hard or sticky cheese such as Pecorino or Parmigiano-Reggiano may damage the braces.
Sticky cheese adheres to the brackets, wites, or between teeth and braces. This may damage the brackets and wires.
However, mozzarella or, some sticky cheese isn’t like other sticky foods and rarely does the damage.
But, the problem is it’s difficult to clean completely. So, that debris may cause excess plaque as well as tooth decay.
That’s why don’t forget to floss your teeth properly after eating cheesy pizza.
High acid condiments
It’s bad for teeth with braces to eat acidic foods like a tomato. Acidic foods make your teeth yellow or stained.
So, you should avoid ketchup, mustard or, those condiments made of tomato.
How to eat pizza with braces?
Here are the ways to eat pizza with braces:
1. Make small slices
First of all, you have to make a smaller piece of pizza as possible. Take a fork and knife and cut into small pieces.
Taking a big bite can hurt your braces.
2. Bite and Chew slowly
People want to know, can you bite into pizza with braces? Yes, you can if you get a perfect pizza for you and your braces.
When you eat pizza with braces, take time to chew the pieces. You may end up with broken braces if you chew fast.
3. Soft bread
Pizza crust or bread should be soft and easy to chew. If it’s hard, it’s still harmful to braces even if you cut them into small pieces.
So, always prefer a soft and thin crust pizza.
4. Be aware of topping or ingredients
The topping or ingredients of the pizza must be friendly for braces. They should be soft, non-sticky, and easy to chew.
Here is some braces-friendly pizza topping:
Soft vegetables
It’s better to eat vegetable pizzas, vegetables are usually braced friendly. But, the vegetables should be boiled and soft.
Soft chicken slices
It’s also safe to choose Chicken toppings. But, it needs to be soft. Besides, pieces should be as small as possible.
Other toppings
Soft small mushroom toppings of pizza are absolutely fine to eat with braces. You may also choose pizza with soft and crumbled bacon.
It’s also safe to eat the pepperoni if it’s thin and easy to chew.
5. Homemade pizza
You can make pizza at your home. You can try the Pan Pizza, that’s ok to eat with braces.
Moreover, when you prepare pizza by yourself, you can make the toppings based on braces-friendly foods, as you know what’s best for your braces.
6. Low acidic condiments
As you should stay away from high acidic condiments, you can choose cream-based condiments that contain less acid.
You can eat mayo and guacamole, which are completely safe for braces.
7. Floss after eating
You may find an alternative way to eat pizza, but if you don’t clean your teeth after eating pizza, you’ll face a lot of trouble.
Floss your teeth using the proper method of flossing wearing braces.
You can also use a toothpick to remove those pieces of pizza from your teeth and braces.
In addition, rinse your teeth every time after taking food. Moreover, brush and your teeth regularly.
Conclusion
It’s better to avoid pizza that’s hard and sticky and may break the braces. But, you can eat soft crust pizza with braces-friendly toppings.
However, you need to clean your teeth and braces after eating any type of pizza.
Pallab Kishore is a certified dentist and the owner of Orthodontic Braces Care.
He completed BDS in 2014. Now, he is an MS resident in Orthodontics, BSMMU. He likes content writing and has 12+ years of experience in blogging.