In general, a patient can eat normally while she have the braces on. However, the patient will need to have some slight modifications of the diet because some foods can damage orthodontic appliances or cause them to become loose. Here is what to expect in terms of the diet during orthodontic treatment.
The first few days after the braces are first placed on may be the most restrictive. The teeth may be sore or sensitive while adjusting to the braces. For these first few days, the patient will need to stick to a soft diet in the meantime.
Predominantly, an orthodontic patient should avoid chewy, hard or crunchy foods. Examples of foods that are to be avoided include chewy foods like taffy and chewing gum, hard foods like peanuts and hard candy and crunchy foods like apples, and carrots.
The patient is still able to enjoy some of the foods that they like by making certain changes to the way they consume these things. For example, steaming or roasting carrots makes them softer and easier to eat with braces. Similarly, corn can be removed from the cob, or one may cut up apples and pears into small pieces first before eating them. Other tips include grinding nuts into yogurt or dipping hard cookies into milk to soften them. If the patient must eat hard candies, simply suck on them instead of biting into them.
