Affordable braces from your friendly orthodontist in the Melbourne area are a long-term commitment. You will be wearing your braces for quite a few months and in order to ensure the best chance for success with the procedure, you will need to responsibly follow the food and drink guidelines for them. Here’s a look at drinks that are acceptable when you have braces, and drinks that you should try to avoid until after your braces come off.

Carbonated Beverages

Soft drinks and any other type of fizzy or carbonated beverages are bad for your teeth even when you don’t have braces. Sodas contain a lot of sugar, and carbonated beverages of all types are acidic. The acids in these types of drinks will attack the enamel on your teeth and can lead to tooth decay or cavities.

When you have any type of braces installed on your teeth, it becomes more difficult to clean them even through regular brushing and flossing. The wires and brackets make it difficult to reach most places and thoroughly clean your teeth. The sugars and acidity in carbonated drinks makes it harder than usual to clean these things off your teeth, putting you at increased risk for cavities and/or tooth decay. It’s best to avoid them entirely until the day that your braces are removed.

Sports Drinks

A lot of people are under the impression that sports drinks are actually healthy for you. That’s certainly the way they’re marketed to us! But the truth is, most sports drinks have sugar as their main ingredient. This makes them especially bad for your teeth when they are hiding behind braces.

The heavy sugar content in sports drinks can weaken the enamel of your teeth. A lot of sports drinks also contain fruit juices, which are high in sucrose. The sucrose is one of the most acidic sugar types that is likely to weaken the structure of your teeth and lead to tooth decay.

Any type of sports drink that has real lemon juice in it should especially be avoided. Lemon is the most acidic of all the fruit juices available. Thus, you should avoid it entirely until after the braces come off.

Coffee and Tea

You have probably already heard that coffee and tea can stain the enamel on your teeth. These types of drinks can also stain your braces! The stains from coffees and teas can cause a process on your teeth called demineralization. When the minerals in your teeth are stripped away, it can rapidly lead to tooth decay. The stains can be improved with whitening products that you buy over-the-counter at a drugstore (after your braces come off), but any tooth decay may need to be addressed. It’s best to avoid coffee and tea entirely while you’re wearing braces.

What about Hot and Cold Drinks?

After your braces are first installed at Valderrama Orthodontics, your teeth may be sensitive to hot (or cold) drinks for the first week or two. This is a normal part of the process. As your teeth adjust to the braces, the sensitivity should go away soon.

It’s best to avoid hot or cold drinks until that adjustment takes place. However, once your teeth adjust, these drinks should be fine.

There is one type of hot drink that you can enjoy while you are being treated with braces: Soup! A nice cup of hot soup can help to fill you up, and it’s much easier to keep your teeth clean after drinking when compared to a sandwich or something else that’s going to stick to your braces.

Contact Valderrama Orthodontics for Braces

If you’re interested in braces or Invisalign for you or your teenager, contact our office to set up an appointment. We specialize in helping patients achieve the perfect smile in Suntree, Viera and Rockledge through our orthodontic practice. We offer engineer braces, bride braces, lingual braces and much more to our clients. And if braces aren’t the best option, we may recommend Invisalign or another treatment option for our patients.