Don't Eat That! Foods To Avoid While In Treatment.

The goals of braces are simple: give the patient's straight teeth and a beautiful smile! To reach this end, however, patient's must hold up their end of the bargain by doing more than just brushing and flossing regularly. not to spoil your appetite, but some foods can loosen or break your braces and should be scratched off from your menu!

Here are your braces' biggest enemies:

• Apples: Make sure to NOT bite into a whole apple...cut it into bite size pieces to avoid popping a bracket off!
• Bagels and hard rolls: Convicted culprits of bending wires and loosening brackets!
• Beef jerky: Your braces don't stand a chance against this leathery food snack!
• Bubble gum: Trust us, there's nothing worse than spending hours trying to pick out the gum stuck to your braces!
• Candy canes or suckers: You might weaken and take a bite!
• Caramels and chewy candies:  And you thought bubble gum was messy....
• Chicken wings: You can enjoy these if you first cut the meat off the bone.
• Corn chips: Anything that crushes when you bite is bad news for your braces!
• Corn on the cob: If you must, remove the kernels from the cob with a knife, then enjoy!
• Fingernails: Now's the perfect time to kick that bad habit out the curb!
• Fruit Roll-Ups: Same as bubble gum.
• Gummi anything: Same as bubble gum.
• Hard candies: Can loosen wires and dislodge brackets.
• Hard cookies: Good news: You can have these if you soften them up with a glass of milk!
• Ice cubs: No crunching!
• Nuts: All varieties-including peanuts, cashews and almonds-are off limits!
• Pears: Just like you would with apples, cut them into small pieces first!
• Peanut brittle: Same as ice cubs and corn chips, no crunching!
• Pens and pencils: Don't laugh, a lot of students can't stop chewing on these inedible school supplies.
• Pickles: If you have a craving, cut them into bite sized pieces!
• Popcorn: Great with movies, bad with braces!
• Pizza crust: Good news: the rest of the pizza is fine!
• Pretzels: Bends wires, loosens bands and knocks off brackets.
• Raw carrots: Steam or boil them for a much less crunchy consistency!
• Ribs: Just like you would with chicken wings, take the meat off the bone first.
• Sugary candy: Can lodge beneath brackets and wires, leading to tooth decay.
• Taffy: It's best to avoid this stuff entirely-even if you don't have braces!