Eating Apples While Wearing Braces: Is It Safe? Read What The Experts Say

Can You Eat Apples With Braces? There are at least a dozen dif­fer­ent types of apples, includ­ing Mac­in­tosh, Granny Smith, Crispin, Spar­tan, and North­ern Spy, to name just a few. Whether you like apple tart and crunchy or sweet and slight­ly fleshy, no doubt there is an apple on the mar­ket to suit your taste. Apples are an enor­mous­ly healthy and eco­nom­i­cal snack, a pop­u­lar sta­ple in lunch box­es for kids head­ing to school. They retain their fresh­ness for long peri­ods, as long as they’re kept in a some­what cool envi­ron­ment. Yes indeed, there are good rea­sons for the ster­ling nutri­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion apples enjoy – they are low in calo­ries, chock full of vit­a­mins and fibre, and they don’t put an undue strain on your week­ly gro­cery budget. But many peo­ple won­der whether it’s safe to eat apples when wear­ing braces. After all, ortho­don­tics is a big invest­ment, and the last thing par­ents and kids want is for any type of snack – healthy or not – to dam­age braces or the teeth under­neath them being cor­rect­ed. The aver­age cost of braces varies wide­ly, but research shows that prices begin at approx­i­mate­ly $3,000 in North Amer­i­ca, and move steadi­ly high­er to $10,000, depend­ing on where you live. That’s quite a lot of mon­ey! Nat­u­ral­ly, then, par­ents (who are often the ones pay­ing the ortho­don­tist) want braces main­tained well.  And any­one wear­ing them wants them off as soon as pos­si­ble, so tak­ing care of them is a priority.  That care includes pay­ing close atten­tion to the foods eat­en by the per­son wear­ing the braces, even some­thing as deli­cious and nutri­tious as an apple. In this arti­cle, we look at whether experts think apples should be eat­en by those wear­ing braces. We also look at how they rec­om­mend wear­ers eat apples – no big bites into the crisp, fresh­ly washed skin, please!

Biting Is Different Than Chewing

When we think of eat­ing apples, we often imag­ine tak­ing a big, deep bite into the crisp skin and enjoy­ing the moist and tangy taste of the apple’s flesh. But just like peo­ple who wear den­tures, those who wear braces have to be care­ful which foods they bite into firm­ly, because doing so can dam­age the mate­r­i­al braces are made of. (That mate­r­i­al is usu­al­ly met­al, such as stain­less steel or tita­ni­um. They might also be made of plas­tic – a pop­u­lar choice with adults – which makes braces less obvi­ous when you smile). Spe­cial­ists impart two impor­tant mes­sages when coun­selling a patient who’s just had new braces put on: how to care for them, and what foods they can safe­ly con­sume. There is a  big dif­fer­ence between chew­ing food and bit­ing into it, obvi­ous­ly. And because fresh apples are hard, it requires a lot of pres­sure to bite into one. Den­tal experts sug­gest some­thing as hard as an apple puts about 70 pounds of pres­sure on your front teeth. Imag­ine what such a hard food can do to a row of new braces, even though they’re made of a stur­dy met­al like stain­less steel. 

Does This Mean No Apples For Now?

Even though you (or your teen) have to be care­ful about bit­ing into food, that does­n’t mean apples are off the dai­ly menu. You can still serve an apple as a healthy snack if some­one in the fam­i­ly wears braces; you sim­ply have to recon­sid­er how you serve it. After all, if you have a teen who loves fresh fruit, includ­ing apples, the last thing you want to do is dis­cour­age them from con­sum­ing it, right? And since they could be wear­ing braces for up to three years – every patient is dif­fer­ent – fruit of any kind, but apples, in par­tic­u­lar, should not be exclud­ed from their diet. 

How To Serve Apples If Your Teen Has Braces

To avoid the issue of bit­ing into an apple, take the time to wash it and slice it before you serve it. If you’re pack­ing lunch for your teenager’s school day, sim­ply put the slices into a small plas­tic bag or Tup­per­ware con­tain­er before send­ing them off. Although apple slices may turn a lit­tle brown if exposed to air for too long, the few hours they’re in the class­room before the lunch bell rings should­n’t cause this. To avoid the risk, sim­ply brush the slices with a lit­tle fresh lemon juice dilut­ed with water. 

Do Apples Cause Pain To Someone Wearing Braces?

When braces are put on, ini­tial­ly you (or your child) feels some dis­com­fort. After all, this is a sig­nif­i­cant change that’s occur­ring in the mouth, not just hav­ing the “hard­ware” put on but the many months of cor­rec­tive pro­ce­dure that ensues after­wards.  It takes time for your teeth to be fixed, but that’s the job of braces.  The dis­com­fort is reward­ed by beau­ti­ful, straight teeth. The pain is usu­al­ly fair­ly mild, and your ortho­don­tist can rec­om­mend over-the-counter med­ica­tions that help alle­vi­ate it. Some­times, how­ev­er, hard foods like apples cause a lit­tle addi­tion­al dis­com­fort, even when you slice them before­hand and serve them that way. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly true when some­one has just had their braces adjust­ed and tight­ened. When that hap­pens, offer soft­er foods for a few days. They’ll start eat­ing apples and oth­er hard foods when the pain in their mouth has sub­sided. But if some­one’s mouth is tru­ly uncom­fort­able yet they miss apples, switch to apple sauce for a week or two – a sim­i­lar great taste with­out the crunch.

Other Hard Foods Can Cause Discomfort

It isn’t just apples, of course, that can be dif­fi­cult for those wear­ing braces to con­sume. There are oth­er fruits and veg­eta­bles that may cause prob­lems, includ­ing car­rots, cel­ery, radish­es and oth­er fruits that you nor­mal­ly bite into. Even some­thing a lit­tle soft­er than an apple, like a plum, may be too fleshy for some­one wear­ing braces to enjoy. The key to solv­ing this is find­ing an alter­na­tive way of serv­ing fruit – chopped up into a fruit sal­ad, for exam­ple – and dish­ing it out that way for how­ev­er long the braces are on. The ortho­don­tist will give you (or your teen) a list of foods they can enjoy while wear­ing braces, and also infor­ma­tion on the foods best avoid­ed for the time being, or served in an alter­na­tive man­ner. If you have any con­cerns or doubts, always con­tact this spe­cial­ist and voice those con­cerns ahead of serv­ing something.

Caring For Braces: The Dos & Don’ts

Den­tists and ortho­don­tists rec­om­mend that those peo­ple wear­ing braces brush even more than the rec­om­mend­ed num­ber of times each day (three times) and floss dai­ly, too. It can be a chal­lenge to con­vince teens to adhere to this care reg­i­men, but remind­ing them that the bet­ter they treat their braces, the soon­er they will come off goes a long way towards get­ting them on board.  No one wants to wear braces for any longer than nec­es­sary. Although they aren’t the source of embar­rass­ment they once were for kids, most young peo­ple just want to fit in with their peers, and get­ting their braces off helps them do that. For adults, braces are a dif­fer­ent sto­ry. To some, they are a sym­bol of a healthy lifestyle and a ded­i­ca­tion to being in the best shape they can be. Invest­ing in braces as an adult demon­strates a con­cern with one’s appear­ance and oral health. 

Early Signs Your Child May Need Braces

Although we often think of teens as the most com­mon wear­ers of braces, in fact, par­ents can find out much ear­li­er whether their child may be a can­di­date for this cor­rec­tive mea­sure. Accord­ing to the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Ortho­don­tists (AAO), there are sev­er­al ear­ly warn­ing signs that braces may be a nec­es­sary mea­sure for your child’s future.

1- They Lose Their Baby Teeth Early or Late

This can cre­ate prob­lems when per­ma­nent teeth grow in to replace them. Nat­u­ral­ly, every child los­es these first teeth at a unique pace, but if you have any con­cerns, make an appoint­ment with an ortho­don­tist who spe­cial­izes in chil­dren. If there is an issue, it will be evi­dent by the age of seven.

2- Problems Chewing or Jaw Noises

If you notice either of these issues, you should set up that appoint­ment. An expert in child ortho­don­tics will do a full assess­ment of your child’s oral health. Braces may be nec­es­sary, but a spe­cial­ist can tell you the best age to have the pro­ce­dure done, and what to do to pre­serve your lit­tle one’s den­tal health in the meantime.

In Summary

Part of a per­son­’s “den­tal des­tiny,” so to speak, is deter­mined by genet­ics. But brush­ing reg­u­lar­ly and teach­ing your child how to floss as soon as they’re able to, goes a long way toward ensur­ing your child has a healthy, cav­i­ty-free mouth grow­ing up. Set a good exam­ple by hav­ing reg­u­lar check­ups and pay­ing close atten­tion to your den­tal hygiene between vis­its to the den­tist. And what­ev­er you do, don’t let ner­vous­ness show when you take your child for a check­up. Remem­ber: chil­dren mod­el their par­ents’ behav­iour, so if you’re anx­ious, they will be, too.  Even the most con­sci­en­tious den­tal habits don’t guar­an­tee your child won’t one-day need braces. If you can han­dle the finan­cial com­mit­ment braces incur, it’s worth it! Many den­tal prac­tices offer pay­ment plans when you’re hav­ing a pro­ce­dure like braces, so be sure to ask your ortho­don­tist about this if you have bud­getary concerns.  Straight, white teeth are a big asset, and set­ting funds aside for this pro­ce­dure is an invest­ment in your child or teen’s future. Doing so ensures that, one day, when they’re off at col­lege or work­ing their first, big job, they can lit­er­al­ly take a bite out of a crisp, shiny apple, as well as an enthu­si­as­tic bite out of the many chal­lenges and joys of life.

Can I Eat An Apple With Braces?