After getting spacers for braces, you get worried about your diet. So, you ask, what to eat with spacers for braces?
You should eat soft and easy-to-chew foods with spacers. If you take hard or sticky foods, they may fall out. Moreover, inappropriate eating habits can cause pain for the first few days.
Here, we have provided a list of foods to eat or avoid with separators. Also, get the cleaning tips after eating with separators.
Foods to eat with spacers
Here is the list of foods that you can eat with spacers.
- Smoothie
- Mashed potatoes
- Yogurt
- Soups
- Soft cooked chicken
- Meatballs
- Hot cereal
- Pancakes
- Pudding
- Rice
- Low-sugar, non-carbonated drinks
- Soft tortillas
- Salads (without nuts)
- Steamed or boiled vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, spinach, beans, and others.
- Fruits juice
What not to eat with spacers?
Here is the list of foods to avoid with spacers:
- Nuts
- Chewing gum
- Sticky candy such as caramel, taffy, chocolates, and others
- Hard candies
- Corn on the cob
- Popcorn
- Pretzels
- Raspberries
- Crusted bread or tortillas
How to eat with spacers?
With spacers on teeth, you don’t need to follow such strict rules as eating with braces. But, you should follow the advice from your orthodontist.
Moreover, be careful before choosing food to eat. You also need to chew foods or take a bite cautiously while wearing separators.
Here are ways to eat foods with spacers:
1. Eat soft foods.
Try to eat softer foods to prevent spacers to fall off. During the first 2 days after getting spacers, you should eat liquid and softer foods to reduce the pain.
Soft foods are easier to chew and they allow your teeth to rest.
They also don’t get caught between teeth and separators.
Eat steamed or cooked vegetables to make them softer.
You should boil chicken or meat as much as possible to make them softer when you cook.
2. Avoid sticky foods.
Sticky foods normally get stuck between your teeth. On the other hand, spacers are placed between the teeth, and it’s hard to clean food debris from the area.
So, eating sticky foods with the spacer on teeth causes more problems. The food gets adhered to the spacer and stuck between it and the tooth.
This makes it more difficult to remove the food particles from there.
It leads to excess plaque accumulation and damages the enamel of the tooth.
But, the most important and immediate effect can be falling off the separator or feeling more pain and discomfort.
So, avoid foods such as chewing gums, caramel, or toffee.
3. Chew slowly.
Foods apply pressure on your teeth and spacers that cause pain and discomfort.
So, while eating, you should chew food slowly. You need to do that more with solid foods.
Chewing fast or biting hard can cause more discomfort.
4. Cut the food into pieces.
To make the chewing process easy, take small bites. If you still want to eat solid foods, you must cut them into pieces and chew gently.
Foods like apples, pizzas, or burgers make you open your mouth wide before taking a bite.
This may cause discomfort when you wear spacers. Take a small bite and help your teeth.
Problems may occur when you eat meat or chicken.
Remove the meat or ribs from the bone and make them small before you eat.
Do the same with Those who like to bite on bones, stay from it for a while.
5. Try to avoid hard and crunchy foods.
If you eat solid food, it will put pressure on your teeth as well as spacers. Because of the pressure, it may come off.
So, eat carefully while eating solid foods. If possible, stay away from these foods.
Besides, this pressure may cause pain in your tooth, especially for the first few days.
Stay away from foods like nuts, popcorn, hard candies, pretzels, crusted bread, or tortillas.
Raw vegetables and fruits
Raw vegetables like carrots and fruits like apples may not be good for your teeth with separators.
So, make a plan to eat them as you mentioned, as you need a healthy diet as well.
Ice cube
Some people have a habit of chewing an ice cube. It can dislodge the spacers. So, stay away from it.
Corn of cob
Eating something like corn on the cob can be a bad idea while wearing separators. It can result in falling out of the spacers.
However, if you still want to eat it, cut the kernel out of the cob with a knife before eating instead of biting on it.
Popcorn
The kernel of the popcorn is hard and can get stuck between your teeth as well as dislodge the spacers.
6. Cut down on sugary foods from the diet
Sugary foods and drinks aren’t good for your oral health. They cause tooth decay and sensitivity.
When you get separators, maintaining oral hygiene gets tough. The reason is you can’t brush and floss teeth normally because of the risk of the spacer falling out.
Besides, if sugary food particles remain with the spacer, it may cause more harm.
So, stay away from sugary foods such as candy or chocolate and beverages such as cold drinks or sports drinks while wearing separators.
How to clean your teeth after eating with spacers?
Let’s take a look at the methods of cleaning teeth after eating while wearing separators.
Brushing with precaution
Though there is a chance spacer comes off while brushing, you must not stop brushing your teeth.
Not brushing your teeth regularly can cause serious problems. As you are going to get the braces soon, you should be more careful about oral hygiene.
What you should do is become very careful while brushing your teeth with spacers. You get them on a few teeth.
Don’t move your brush up and down on that area, because the spacer may fall out.
Instead, you can move back and forth with gentle pressure.
This movement is not ideal for tooth brushing, because you should brush up and down on the outer surface of teeth.
But, you can do it with separators only for that area as you wear those for a few days.
Avoid flossing near the teeth.
Since a flosser or toothpick is used to remove food debris from between two teeth, it can easily dislodge the spacer.
You can floss your teeth with spacers only if you ignore those teeth where the spacers are placed.
So, try your best to avoid the situation like food getting stuck in between the separator and the tooth.
That’s why we tell you to stay away from sticky or hard foods that can get stuck easily.
Rinse mouth
You can rinse your mouth with spacers. But, avoid doing it forcefully. Switch your mouth slowly after every meal.
This removes a lot of food debris even before brushing. So, brushing becomes easier.
Takeaways
You don’t need to change your eating habit entirely for spacers. However, you have to be cautious so that foods can’t dislodge the spacers or cause pain.
So, eat soft and easy-to-chew foods and avoid hard, crunchy, and sticky foods.
