Diet in orthodontics
After the braces are installed, we don't ask much of our patients. Basically there are two rules that they must follow:
1. Cleaning (we'll talk about this later),
2. Diet.
Before we go on to what and why you should not drink and eat while braces are in your mouth, I want to explain why this is so important.
We attach the braces to the teeth with a special composite. Since braces are precisely the particles that transmit the forces applied to the teeth by orthodontists, we certainly want them to stay firmly on the teeth. From the point of view of the duration of pressure on the teeth - it is very important that during the entire treatment the braces are kept on the teeth, otherwise this negative will affect the course, result and duration of treatment. But, on the other hand, they will have to be removed sometime and at the same time we should not harm the tooth enamel.
And these moments leave the orthodontist face to face with a difficult question: how to attach braces so that they are held on the teeth during the treatment and are easily removed at the end?
There is no answer to this question yet. Therefore, patients should take care of their braces during treatment.
And then the second question arises, how do they do it?
This is where the orthodontic diet comes in.
The diet consists of two parts:
1. What not to drink and eat,
2. What you can eat and drink carefully.
а. drinks with high acidity - coca cola, fanta, pepsi, sprite, etc. - the acidity erases the composite with which we attach the braces and damages the tooth enamel.
b. sticky food, candy, toffee, caramels, gum, corn, etc. ba.
c. solid, small food that can not be crushed-hazelnuts, chips, popcorn, crackers, dried fruits, etc.
a. solid food that can be crushed - solid fruits, vegetables, meat, bread, toast, hamburger, etc. All this should be crushed with a knife or hands before taking and ONLY CHEW with chewing teeth and in no case BITE with the front teeth.
b. food that contains solid particles - olives, peaches, apricots, meat, chicken, fish, etc. They all contain bones, which should be separated before ingestion and eaten carefully.
In addition, such bad habits as biting a pen, pencil or nails can also damage both teeth and braces.
