Braces-Friendly Halloween Candy

McClellan Orthodontics

Halloween season is upon us and no matter how you plan to celebrate this year, we know there’s a good chance there will be some candy involved. However, if you’re one of our braces patients, you might be thinking…"Should I even go trick or treating? It’s not like I can eat any of the candy anyway". The good news is, yes, you can go trick or treating! Have fun because you might be surprised to learn that there is Halloween candy you can eat with braces!

Some of the best Halloween candies are actually safe to eat with braces! Here’s a list of some of the best candies and treats you can eat while wearing braces.

• Chocolate Bars without Nuts - Hershey’s Bars, 3 Musketeers, Kit Kat, Mounds
  

• Soft Candy - Reese’s Peanut butter cups, Peppermint Patties, Junior Mints
  

• Candy Pieces – Plain M&Ms, Peanut Butter M&Ms, Reese’s Pieces, Hershey’s Kisses, Smarties
  

While these candies should be safe, remember to take it slow with anything that feels chewy or sticky. Be sure to break things like candy bars into small pieces and chew with your back teeth. When it comes to M&Ms and Reese’s Pieces, it’s a good idea to let them melt in your mouth a bit instead of eating them quickly and by the handful. Also, be sure to brush and floss your teeth afterward. Otherwise, the sugars can linger and become plaque and acids that can cause tooth decay.

In addition to candy, you can also have some Halloween favorites like:

• Soft-baked Cookies

• Cupcakes

• Cake Pops

Sticky foods like Tootsie Rolls and taffy can get stuck around your braces, which can loosen or break brackets. Nuts and hard candies can break wires. This usually means an emergency visit to our office for repairs.

Basically, if it’s hard, sticky, chewy, or extra crunchy, there’s a chance it could damage your braces…so avoid those foods. If you find these in your Halloween candy bag, find a friend to trade them for something from the list above.

Halloween Candies You Should Avoid:

• Chewy Candies - Tootsie Rolls, Skittles, Laffy Taffy, Sugar Daddies, Sugar Babies, Starburst, Candy Corn, Bubblegum

• Jelly candies - Sour Patch Kids, Dots, Swedish Fish, Jellybeans, Twizzlers, Red Vines, Licorice, Mike & Ikes

• Chocolate Bars with Nuts - Snickers, Almond Joy, PayDay
  

• Extra Crunchy Candy - Butterfinger, Heath

• Caramels - Milk Duds, Toffee, Rolo, Twix, Milky Way
  

• Hard Candies - Nerds, Jolly Ranchers, Butterscotch, Suckers, Now and Laters, Lemonheads

Since brackets and wires do trap food, and candy is filled with sugar, it’s best to eat candy with braces in moderation. The bacteria in the mouth feed on sugars and starches forming plaque, which then releases acids that can erode the tooth’s enamel causing cavities. Your teeth will move most efficiently in a healthy oral environment and getting cavities will throw your treatment off track, so make sweets an occasional treat.

Additionally, after having Halloween candy, brush your teeth really well with a fluoride toothpaste. Give each individual tooth a little attention and clean around your brackets and wires. If you’re not at home and you forget your toothbrush, rinse your mouth out with water and brush as soon as you get home.

Now that you know all about the types of Halloween candy you can eat with braces, we hope everyone has an amazing Halloween! If you have any questions regarding the types of Halloween candy you can eat, please give McClellan Orthodontics a call.

 

4 Ways Your Smile Can Change As You Grow Older

McClellan Orthodontics

Just as with most things in our bodies, your smile does change with age. From the teeth shifting to the enamel wearing down, the appearance and function of your teeth and bite evolve as you get older. The good news is, there are ways to minimize these age-related changes and keep your smile looking its best throughout your life.

Why does your smile change as you age? Some changes are due to natural biological processes, including bone remodeling and the tendency of the teeth to shift towards each other. Other reasons your smile changes with age may include:

1. Bottom Teeth Crowding - As you age, your jaw bone loses density and shrinks. The mismatched size of the jaw bone with teeth can lead to crowding of the bottom front teeth and this crowding can worsen with age. Crowding can also occur because other issues such as mouth breathing, gum disease, and even facial trauma.

2. Overlapping Teeth - As you get older and the jawbone changes, many people experience what’s known as physiologic mesial drift. It’s a slow, natural shifting of the teeth towards the front of your dental arch. As the teeth move towards the midline, they can overlap. It can be worsened by missing teeth, gum disease, bruxism and decay.

3. Collapsing Teeth - If you have gaps in your teeth, missing teeth that weren’t replaced or severe wear of the enamel, the teeth around the spaces can collapse inwardly. This is because the teeth try to fill in the empty spaces. As the teeth tilt or shift into the gaps, it will impact the appearance of your smile, as well as your bite. Missing teeth may also change your face shape.

4. Bad Bite - Misalignment of the teeth or jaw, known as malocclusion, doesn’t sort itself out. In many cases, if issues like crowding, spacing or an excessive overbite, underbite, open bite or crossbite aren’t treated, they will get worse as you get older. After years of living with a bad bite, you may also be dealing with the consequences of misalignment, such as tooth decay, gum disease, excessive wear of the enamel. These issues will create further changes to your smile.

While these changes may be completely normal, that doesn’t mean you just have to live with them. Whether you’re eight or 80, the biological process of orthodontic treatment is the same. Age does not keep teeth from moving. Check out our website to learn more about the options we have for adult orthodontics and then give our Kenilworth, IL office a call to schedule your initial exam.