Orthodontic patients who wear conventional metal braces find themselves with a dilemma when Halloween season arrives. Food restrictions are part of the treatment – you can’t eat anything potentially damaging to brackets and archwires. Halloween, though, is just one night. Surely the rules can bend just a little? Not so much. Find out how Halloween and braces and brackets can all stay intact while still having fun.
Don’t Eat Sticky or Gummy Sweets
Gummy and sticky and chewy foods are off-limits all year, and they are definitely in the “no” column on Halloween. Avoid gummy worms, Airheads, bubble gum, Twizzlers, and all their cousins. One wrong bite on an unyielding sweet and a bracket or archwire could get pulled off or moved out of place. Aggressive chewy foods also include candy apples, caramel apples, and any other coating on that tantalizing fruit.
Do Eat Chocolate
There is one Halloween candy that is friendly to teeth and orthodontic gear – chocolate. If it is free of nuts, caramel, and other sticky or hard additives, it will melt quickly and be gentle on brackets. Soft chocolate candies are the best choice but, as with all sweets, follow with water and brush and floss as soon as you can afterward to protect hardware and your teeth.
Don’t Eat Hard Candies
Sure, you could hold a hard candy in your mouth for a while and probably manage to keep your brackets and wires safe. However, a jawbreaker, lollipop, or any long-lasting candy is bad for your oral health. Over time, the sugars do their work, plaque builds, and problems develop. The last thing you want to get is a cavity while you’re undergoing orthodontic care, but you especially don’t want to have your dentist discover tooth decay behind a bracket in the future.
Do Follow the Orthodontist’s Rules
Your orthodontist and orthodontic team review the rules of wearing braces regularly. If you have an appointment leading up to Halloween, you can be sure you’ll get some instructions about keeping braces safe from disaster on October 31. It’s in your best interest to follow the rules. If you’re lucky, you’ll only go through one (maybe two) Halloweens while wearing braces – and that isn’t a lot to ask of anyone.
You can make your braces part of your costume – a vampire with braces, a cartoon character sporting brackets and wires, an orthodontist undergoing treatment themselves. And, as always, there is the opportunity to get festive with rubber bands and choose color combinations that represent Halloween to you, from orange to black, purple to red.
Do Contact the Orthodontist in an Emergency
Should you find yourself in the position of having an emergency because of an unfortunate Halloween and braces decision, contact Dr. Mariana Orthodontics in Monroe, WA, for immediate help. Whether a bracket is loose or lost, an archwire is bent, or you have a problem you can’t identify, our team will help. If you have yet to get braces and worry about all food restrictions on Halloween and beyond, talk to your orthodontist about whether you’re a good candidate for Invisalign or Invisalign Teen.
