Orthodontic patients with traditional metal braces often face a challenge when Halloween comes around. While food restrictions are a key part of treatment—avoiding anything that could damage brackets and archwires—Halloween is just one night. Surely, a little indulgence is okay, right? Unfortunately, not quite. Learn about Halloween brackets safety and discover the best tips to keep your braces intact while still enjoying the fun and treats.
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
Orthodontic patients with traditional metal braces often face a challenge when Halloween arrives. With food restrictions in place to protect brackets and archwires, the temptation to indulge in sugary treats or chewy candies is hard to resist. But Halloween isn’t a free pass to break the rules. Halloween brackets safety is essential to prevent damage to your braces. Learn how to enjoy the festivities while keeping your brackets intact and your treatment on track.
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®.
