Getting braces tightened may not be comfortable for you. Then, when you are about to take a meal with that, you start thinking, what are the soft foods to eat after braces tightening?
You should take soft or liquid foods after your braces are tightened. Pain persists for the first few days after braces are adjusted. So, taking solid foods may cause more pain. Moreover, it’s best to take soft, non-sticky, and non-sugary foods during treatment with braces, as they are braces-friendly and keep your teeth clean.
If you can follow the proper diet for braces, you can get braces off faster. However, if you just got the braces, you may also check our other article on “How and What to eat with braces the first week”.
In this article, we’ll provide you a list of soft foods to after braces tightening.
The relation between foods and tightening of braces
If you don’t know about the braces tightening, let’s know. Orthodontists at first put brackets on your teeth. Those brackets can’t move their teeth by themselves.
So, they put the wire along with the slot of brackets. Then, wires are tightened to apply a force on teeth. This creates pressure on the bone that holds your teeth.
Because of the force and pressure changes occur within the bones and teeth start to move. After the braces tightening appointment, when you come back home, you feel the pressure and mild pain for the first few days.
When braces get tightened for the first time, you may feel more pain. With this painful condition, it may become a difficult task to chew foods.
If you choose the wrong food or don’t give a break from chewing foods hard, it may hurt you more. So, it’s important to pick the right food after the tightening of braces.
Moreover, picking the wrong food can make your teeth sensitive. Since you are wearing so many things on your teeth like brackets, wires, or elastics, it’s hard to clean teeth thoroughly while wearing braces.
So, take foods that you can clean easily and don’t cause any tooth decay. Furthermore, you have to be careful so that the foods can’t damage those wires or brackets.
List Of Soft Foods To Eat After Braces Tightening
Here are some soft foods you can eat after braces tightening-
Mashed potatoes
You can mash boiled potatoes and make a dish for the launch or dinner. Though this is a side dish, it’s one of the most effective food braces wearers.
This food is also very significant. It’s served in American thanksgiving dinner. You don’t have to eat potatoes. You can add salt, pepper, milk, and butter to make a dish.
However, it’s up to you how you will prepare it. But, don’t add anything bad for braces. You can also follow a mashed potatoes recipe and prepare your own.
Smoothies
There are a ton of ideas for braces foods, one of them is smoothies. There may be a restriction of certain fruits and vegetables to eat with braces, but you can prepare a smoothie.
You can add ice cream, cheese, honey, yogurt, or milk to make it tasty. Smoothies are very healthy.
If you add milk, honey, or maintain the ingredients properly, you can get more nutrition than fruit juice or milkshake alone. Moreover, it can be one of the best choices to take this after getting braces tightened.
Soups
Another common food for braces is soups. It’s more helpful to take after the tightening procedure.
You can prepare chicken and vegetable soups. Consistency can be thick or thin. It doesn’t cause any problems with braces.
Soft and cooked vegetables
You can eat most of the vegetables. Avoid taking hard and uncooked vegetables like carrots. Make sure the vegetable is soft when you cook. You can eat the following vegetables while wearing braces:
- Soft cooked broccoli florets
- Chopped cooked spinach
- Cooked zucchini without seeds
- Soft cooked carrot
- Green beans, etc.
Soft Fruits
Stay away from hard fruits or avoid making a mouth wide open while eating them. You have to be careful about eating apple or guava. However, you can eat the following fruits by wearing braces without having any problem:
- Cooked or puréed fruits
- Applesauce
- Cooked peeled apples
- Peeled ripe peaches
- Avocado, bananas
- Cooked pears, etc.
Noodles
Braces wearers can eat noodles or chow mein, as they are soft and easy to chew. However, you have to be careful while adding other ingredients to the noodles.
Don’t add any hard or crunchy ingredients. You can mix eggs, soft chicken, and soft vegetables to it.
Scrambled eggs
There is no such restriction of taking eggs while wearing braces. However, you can stir or beat eggs with gentle heat and mix salt and butter to make scrambled eggs, which you can eat after braces are tightened.
You can add other ingredients to increase the taste like ground black pepper or tomato sauce.
Rice
When you are wearing braces, you can take rice for your launch and dinner. You can take it with soft cooked vegetables and soft cooked chicken.
However, you can prepare soft rice and eat it after each Braces tightening schedule.
Oatmeal
You can eat oatmeal safely with braces. Take it at breakfast or dinner if you like. You can cook it with milk or water. You can also add soft fruits if you want to make it tasty.
Tortillas or soft flatbread
If you are thinking about bread, then here it is. You can eat thin flatbread or tortillas. You can eat it in your breakfast. They cause any issue with braces.
Dairy products
There is no problem in taking dairy products such as soft cheese or yogurt during braces treatment. However, don’t take those dairy products regularly that contain high amounts of sugar.
Yogurt
Yogurt is a nutritious food that is rich in calcium and protein. It improves your digestion and increases the healthy gut bacteria. As it’s a liquid type of food, you can take it every day while wearing braces.
However, it’s better to take unsweetened types of yogurt if you take them every day. It acts as a probiotic and prevents you from many diseases.
Desserts
You may wonder what desserts are braces-friendly. You can take any if they aren’t hard, crunchy, highly sugary, or sticky. If you maintain the ingredients, you can take puddings, custard, mousse, sorbet, or ice cream.
Custard
You can prepare a custard with soft fruits like bananas or grapes and add ice cream or soft moist cake. It’s very healthy and good for brace wearers. However, be careful of the amount of sugar.
Pudding
If you are worried about what you’ll prepare for a child while wearing braces, you can choose this one. Kids like pudding and it’s braces-friendly.
You can make it at your home. Rice or milk pudding can be a good choice.
Moist cakes or Soufflé
Braces wearers can eat moist cakes, slice cakes, or Soufflé. Try to avoid pastries as they can stick to your braces and teeth. Soufflé is also very soft and doesn’t cause any hard braces.
Stew
You can make a stew with different vegetables and may also add meat. But, you have to make all the ingredients soft and boil more if you want to take after getting braces tightened. You can add a little bit more water than usual to make it more liquid.
Curry dishes
Usually, these are foods prepared in the Indian subcontinent, but you can choose this food while wearing braces.
Just be cautious and avoid the hardness and stickiness of the ingredients. You can make vegetable or chicken curry. However, you have to boil it more.
Get Chicken recipe ideas with braces.
Meatloaf
Grounded meat prepared with mixing other ingredients can be braces-friendly food. You can smoke or bake it to make the dish. You can add cheese or vegetables to increase the taste.
Fish without bones
Don’t let the fish bones hurt your brackets or wires. So, it’s better to eat fish without bones. You can pick tinned fish or prepare a fish without bones by poaching, steaming, or boiling.
Which Foods To Eat After Braces Tightening Appointment
Take the same foods that you eat after the first time your braces are tightened. So, eat soft, non-sugary, and non-sticky foods after each Braces tightening appointment.
You may not feel the same amount of pain after the other adjustment appointments as you feel for the first time.
However, you may feel a bit sore or sensitive teeth after each adjustment procedure. Moreover, eating hard, crunchy or sticky foods can cause more pain, damage the braces as well as your teeth. So, ignore them.
The tightening schedule isn’t a fixed thing, It varies from case to case. Usually, you may have to visit your orthodontist every 4 to 6 weeks.
It also depends on him or her. However, be more careful about choosing your foods after every adjustment appointment.
A regular tightening process is required to keep your teeth moving. Teeth can only move when it’s tightened.
However, any type of tightening doesn’t move your teeth. Your orthodontist put an idea force to produce an adequate teeth movement.
Excessive tightening damages the teeth permanently. But, you don’t;t need to worry if you see a licensed orthodontist.
How to relieve pain after a meal with tightened braces
The first day after getting braces tightened may not be a good day for you. You feel mild pain or discomfort. Sometimes the pain may increase after a meal. So, what should you do to relieve the pain? Let’s take a look at that:
- Take pain killer medicine or oral anesthetics that your orthodontist prescribed
- Use ice pack
- Call your orthodontist if the pain is unbearable.
- Take a liquid and soft diet.
- Use a soft-bristled toothbrush to clean teeth.
Foods to avoid after braces tightening
Avoid hard and crunchy food after getting braces tightened because biting on these foods will increase your pain. Your braces may get loose or broken and wire may be popped out when you chew them.
Next, you have to avoid sticky foods, as they can get stuck between the teeth and braces. You can’t clean them completely because it’s hard to clean those surfaces with braces.
One of the most common examples of sticky food is candy or chocolate. You have to stay away from it while wearing braces.
You have to also ignore sugary food because when you can’t clean them adequately they cause tooth decay. Picking the wrong food can also cause gum disease.
Here are examples of some foods that you can’t eat after braces tightening.
- Hard/chewy candies
- Hard vegetables and fruits (apples, carrots, etc)
- Nuts
- Chips
- Pretzels
- Bagels
- Granola
- Tough meats
- Jerky
- Gum
Get a full list of alternative eating ideas.
How long after getting braces tightened can you eat normal or solid foods?
If you want to eat normal foods with braces, you can do that because you don’t need to avoid all foods. But, if you want to eat solid foods with braces, it may not be possible during that time as it can cause pain or discomfort, even braces can get damaged.
So, avoid hard and sticky foods not only after getting braces tightened but also as long you are wearing braces. However, you can prepare a solid food in a way that it doesn’t hurt your braces. You have already discussed it here.
Conclusion
You can’t take the same diet as usual after your braces are tightened. You have to maintain the health of braces and teeth. Moreover, choose the foods that don’t increase or cause pain due to braces.
So, soft and non-sticky foods are a great choice to eat after braces tightening. However, clean the food particles gently after each meal and maintain oral hygiene.
If you like the tips, you can pin it.
