My suggestion is until the pain in your jaw and teeth passes, soft things like apple sauce is good. Maybe avoid hot things for now. Nothing sharp like chips, be careful when dealing with hard candies, and mainly just listen to what your othrodonist says to eat and not eat.

All I was not allowed to do was chewing gum. Doctors orders.

Thank you so much. That’s really interesting. Did your doctor really say you can eat everything except chewing gum? What about vegetables and fruits?I know what should and shouldn’t be eaten, but I was curious about real experiences. What did you personally eat and avoid? I just want to get a sense of how strong braces really are (no, I’m not planning to eat coconuts in their shells). Thank you!

It realy only was chewing gum mentioned. Otherwise I ate normally.

My biggest problem was my tongue. I just couldn't keep it in check, was moving it all over my braces all the time, scratching and digging it into every corner I could get a hold on and managed to break at least 2 braces this way.

When I had braces they had just told me nothing overly sticky or hard -- so mostly candies like gum or jawbreakers lmao.

You will have to deal with aching whenever they are adjusted, so definitely choose softer foods while your jaws adjust to the tension!

My brother and sisters gotten braces before (removed now), they couldn't eat anything hard for a few months.

I had to cut up apples, just munching into one was a surefire way to bend them.

When I had them, many years ago, the only thing that was really a problem was rice.
It would get stuck between the wire and my teeth, then I had the devil's own time gettingt it back out.

Avoid anything that's particularly gummy like, well, chewing gum and gummy candies or similar.

A lot of people will tell you what not to eat, so I'll offer a parallel piece of advice:

Lots of candies are bad for your braces and you'll have to go without them for a while. If you have a sweet tooth and start missing them, I suggest ice cream as a replacement, it will not damage your braces.

Jello.

No to raw carrots or anything harder than a raw carrot. No you can't "just be really careful". You'll eventually screw up, break off brackets, and then be stuck with them even longer.

Anything that can get stuck in braces is also usually a bad idea. Celery was awful.

Thankfully, I LOVE mashed potatoes.

Took 2 years for me.

IOh, thank you for your message! Carrots are exactly what I’m curious about :) I don’t like toffees or caramel, but fresh vegetables mean everything to me. Can I eat grated carrots? Is that considered hard food or not?

The problem is putting force on the brackets with what you are eating. You want the food to break before the bracket does. Grated carrots in my mind are about as hard as lettuce, which i never had a problem with. So you should be fine with them.

I had cooked carrots, when I had my braces. Those were soft enough.

You have a lot of helpful comments here.
- No hard fruit or vegetables that you have to *bite* into.
- No sticky candy/gum. Jolly Ranchers have been removing dental work since the 50s.

Cleaning is everything! Brush a lot! Get yourself a Waterpik! GUM also makes little pin brushes that I WISH they made when I was a kid with braces.

Nothing with pulp! Orange juice with pulp was evil lol

It's simple, don't eat any cookies or hard things, don't eat gum or things that are sticky, they can get stuck in the braces, also try to eat things that aren't so hard, and you'll be fine, and meats can get stuck, I say all this from my own experience

I haven't had braces since my teens, but I was always told to stay away from chewing gum and sticky candies like taffy and hard candies. Couldn't really eat whole apples or pears, either, without having to worry about messing up my braces, so I always sliced them thin before eating them.

Hope the process goes smoothly for ya. I had my braces from age 11 up until I was 15, and although I'm thankful I had them, but I did not like the soreness when I had to have them tightened every so often. 😅

I may add, use braces wax, especially during the first months, it will help with the pain inside your mouth.

I have permanent braces on the back of my teeth, had them for about 30 years now. I don't worry about breaking them, more about stuff getting annoyingly stuck behind them. A good tooth pick typically helps with that though.
Some hard things are difficult to bite through. A good example would be a harder apple (like Granny Smith). But that's easily solved by cutting it into pieces, just biting off a whole apple is hard.

Ground beef. It gets stuck in your braces very easily.

they always advised against chewing gum and popcorn or related foods that can get stuck

Id recommend not to eat rice as it gets stuck in braces.

Water Pic (water flosser) is a good investment if possible. Definitely avoid candy. If you must have something candy nothing hard or sticky but really should minimize because you risk tooth decay at the interfaces between the braces and teeth. Sugar feeds the bacteria that cause the formation of cavities.

As most suggested, less hard things, steam carrots slightly to make more tender.

Avoid popcorn because of the hard kernels that can easily get lodged in teeth.

Best of luck on your journey! You do amazing work.