BRACE YOURSELF!

We have reached a milestone – my daughter has now had her permanent braces removed and will be wearing a retainer overnight for the next year or so to keep her even teeth in place.

The treatment has been lengthy because of pauses due to the COVID pandemic, but so worth it.  A healthy bite, and space for wisdom teeth to come through without further misalignment, will ensure a long healthy life of eating well.

Adults can also have braces – David Bowie fixed his famous crooked teeth late in life allegedly because they made chewing food awkward (and he had the money to get it done well!)

Many teenagers go through the same orthodontal treatments.  It seems humans have just too many teeth, inherited from our hominid ancestors, to fit easily into our smaller jaws.

Here are a few hacks we learnt together along the way to make the orthodontal journey smoother which may be of help to you!

My daughter says, From the outset, the orthodontist warned me “not to tear into a baguette. Things should be cut small. Do not have chewing gum or toffee”. I bent my wires on a pork pie crust, and again on a thick chocolate cookie. From then on, I was very cautious. I decided hard crunchy snacks were probably a bad idea. So, one of my main snack options was soft ones like Quavers and such, which were too light to do any damage and could be easily sucked into nothingness.

 Bananas were good. Muesli (minus the nuts) or porridge were good breakfasts and could be made more exciting by raisins, honey, peanut butter, yoghurt and so forth. If I wanted to eat a thick sandwich or burger (or, indeed, baguette) I couldn’t pick it up and bite into it, it would have to be on a plate and cut up by knife and fork. 

I avoided ‘stringy’ fibrous textured food (like cooked spinach), not out of fear of damaging wires, but because strands would become annoyingly entangled. I also tried to avoid things with tiny bits that would become lodged in awkward places (think the hard parts of popcorn or crunchy peanut butter), I probably could have eaten them without any damage, but I would’ve spent the evening trying to remove them from their lodgings. 

Most food was fine provided it was fairly tender and I had a knife and fork. You could probably risk eating harder foods than I did, but you might well end up with a bent wire needing to be unbent by the orthodontist pretty soon to avoid moving teeth where they shouldn’t go. So, all in all, it is probably best to be careful, nobody wants to have to keep returning to the orthodontist for repairs!’

 

There is initial discomfort after every adjustment – paracetamol and bonjela gel help, also cool drinks.

Soups and stews and mushy cereals such as porridge puffed rice and honey soaked in cold milk can help through the first few days as things settle down.

Pay attention to cleaning the new arrangement of wires carefully to dislodge food caught against teeth and return to the orthodontist if there is significant discomfort to check everything is as it should be.

Paying particular attention to teeth cleaning to ensure wires are clean can be lengthy, using tepee interdental brushes as necessary (if they dislodge sometimes, you can use tweezers to remove them from between teeth!).  Dental tape, and dental floss can also help in tighter places. The orthodontist will praise you, especially if treatment is lengthy, as it just makes things so much easier (it did for us during COVID lockdowns!)

During the length of your treatment, tender or mushy foods are the go-to foods throughout wearing permanent braces. 

This means mince meant is your friend – mince meat as healthy burgers (we liked venison ones), or mince meat as traditional dishes such as shepherd’s pie -lamb mince with onions gravy topped with mashed potato dotted with butter and cooked in the oven is a good winter comfort food and, apparently, Shepherd’s pie was David Bowie’s favourite dish!

 Mincemeat curries such as Keema (again usually lamb mince) are great, and Tom Kerridge does a great mince turkey curry recipe too in his book The Dopamine Diet.

Canned fruit is softer and easier to chew – fortunately so many are now available in their own juices, our favourites were pears and pineapple.  Crunchy apples and carrots are off limits until treatment is over, which is a shame as they are so healthy for growing teenagers!

One hack we found was investing in a nutribullet.  This pulverises raw food such as carrots to extract maximum nutrition and of course, makes them easier to eat with a brace.  There are so many combinations to try so you can find your favourites.  We liked using frozen blueberries in the summer, and avocados give a creamy mousse-like texture, and green bananas are fresh tasting and so good for you…also, whole nuts like Brazil nuts, or walnuts can be included!

Crusty bread and pizza bases are off limits, so rice and pasta-based meals are easier to eat. However, omelettes can be used as a ‘pizza base’ for favourite toppings, and frittatas make a great crustless ‘quiche’.

The slow cooker and pressure cooker are also invaluable to ensure meat is soft enough to eat without causing problems.  Sausage casserole became a midweek favourite!

Sweet treats such as toffees are also off-limits of course.  At Christmas, we would get Lindt truffles, with their melt-in-your-mouth caramel, instead!

Salads need to be chopped more finely, and cheese can be grilled as a slab on its own (Emmental is good for this) or on top of soft baked potatoes rather than served on hard crunchy toast.

Anyway, these are a few ‘menu notes’ we made to make it easier to wear braces without breaking elastic bands which held wires in place or causing chewing discomfort. We hope these inspire you with some ideas of your own to suit your tastes.

Please take heart if you think this is a hassle, it does end. Now my daughter has a beautiful smile, healthy teeth and can enjoy crunchy organic apples, and oranges, and carrots, and pork chops…so these restrictions are not forever, and it is all so worth it!

Incidentally, some of these hacks may help older family members to negotiate bridgework or dentures, too.