7 Things To Avoid While Wearing Braces

The longer you wear your braces, you’ll quickly come to realize what you can and can’t do while wearing them. Until you get used to wearing braces, your Dr. Lockett will give you some advice about the things you should avoid doing while wearing them. These precautions can prevent you from causing yourself any pain, bending and shifting your wires, or breaking off your brackets.

Things To Avoid During Your Orthodontic Treatment

1. Chewing gum – Anything that’s sticky or has a tendency to stick to your teeth will also stick to your braces. If you chew gum or eat sticky foods like taffy, it can pull on your brackets, wires, and even on the bands around your molars. This will place extra stress on your braces, which could cause them to break. Avoid sticky foods.
2. Drinking sugary or carbonated beverages – Your orthodontic treatment makes it more important than ever to stay away from sugar, especially in sodas. The acids in the carbonation and the sugar can combine to actually dissolve the glue that holds your brackets to your teeth.
3. Chewing on ice – Chewing ice isn’t a great idea even when you aren’t wearing braces. But when you do have your braces on, it’s even worse. Ice can cause brackets to break and wires to bend, both of which can be painful and expensive to fix.
4. Forgetting to floss – Forgetting to floss can cause problems at any time, but especially when you have wires and brackets that are more likely to trap food. If you aren’t flossing, the food debris and bacteria can build up, causing tooth decay and dental cavities. If you’re having trouble flossing around your braces, please let us know, as there are a few ways we can help you.
5. Using your teeth as tools – This is something you should always avoid, but that goes double while undergoing orthodontic treatment. Your teeth should only be used for biting and chewing. Using them to do anything else can weaken or chip your teeth, and can cause damage to your braces.

To learn more about how to care for your braces, or to make an appointment with Dr. Rhoda Lockett, please contact Lockett Orthodontics. Our orthodontist’s office is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.