When you first get your orthodontic treatment, finding out you can’t eat certain comfort foods can be a big downer. At the same time, you’ll find that some treats are actually not as bad as you’d think.
Can You Eat Ice Cream With Braces?
Yes! You can eat ice cream with braces, but you shouldn’t indulge too often and you must rinse and brush after. Ice cream is really easy to eat with braces and can be one of the few things you can stand after getting braces or a bracket change.
Surprisingly, ice cream is one of the most recommended things to eat by orthodontists when you first get your braces – with a catch! It’s easy to eat when you have that “first week of braces” pain, and ice cream is great comfort food. But don’t get used to it.
Ice cream is basically all sugar. The sticky, sweet stuff gets stuck all over your teeth and braces so you need to get your mouth clean after finishing. You should try not to have ice cream or other sugary foods with braces very often. Try and limit sweet treats to two or three times a week.
All of this effort will be worth the wait – we promise!
How To Eat Ice Cream With Braces Tip # 1
Make sure you don’t pick an ice cream flavor with something hard, crunchy, or really chewy in it. Toppings like full-sized nuts, big chunks of honeycomb, or large toffee or caramel chunks should be avoided. Just as you should avoid these types of foods with braces normally, make sure they don’t end up in your ice cream too.
Stick to smooth ice creams when possible. Tiny chunks of chocolate, cookies, cookie dough – or anything that will melt in your mouth or just needs a little bit of chewing – will be fine.
How To Eat Ice Cream With Braces Tip # 2
You should try to avoid sugary foods with braces as much as possible. However, being that we’re all human, that’s not always going to last. Having a bowl of ice cream occasionally isn’t too big of a deal as long as you rinse and brush soon after.
Rinse your mouth out with water to remove as much sugar and debris as possible straight after eating. This stops sugar from accumulating around your teeth and braces – which could lead to cavities and staining. A good water flosser here is a great idea.
Then 30 to 60 minutes after eating ice cream, you should brush your teeth and floss. A good electric toothbrush and some interdental brushes are good ideas here to make brushing and reaching weird spaces easier.
Is Ice Cream Good For Braces?
Even science says that ice cream is amazing, but do dentists? Well, there are two answers: –
Ice cream is easy to eat in your first few days after getting braces when we feel the most pain and the most general discomfort. Looking after yourself is important at this stage because braces are a big change and really affect the way we eat. So eating ice cream is OK…
…but eating a lot of sugar is generally bad for your health, and specifically bad for teeth. Add in the braces and that means sugar gets caught up in the metal and causes extra problems with brushing and oral hygiene. So eating ice cream isn’t great…
But you can get away with it. Eating ice cream is OK for braces, but we can’t say it’s OK all the time.
What Kind Of Ice Cream Can I Eat With Braces?
Try to avoid nuts, chopped nuts, hard candy, honeycomb, and toffee or caramel chunks. Basically, anything that needs a big, hard bite that could bend a wire or loosen a bracket. Really chewy and sticky things also tend to accumulate in braces and are hard to remove.
Best Ice Cream Flavors For Braces
- Chocolate / Strawberry / Vanilla – The classics are all fine choices!
- Neapolitan – Why not all three?
- Mint Chocolate Chip – Totally fine, small bits of chocolate will melt as long as they aren’t massive chunks
- Caramel – You’ll get away with little chunks, but not too much
- Matcha Tea – Seriously, try it!
- Banana / Mango / Coconut – Most simple fruit flavors are fine, try to avoid frozen chunks
- Oreo Cookie – You could probably get away with it, but the bits are going to get stuck in your braces really easily. Definitely give your teeth and braces a thorough rinse and clean after
- Cookie Dough – Another tricky one with the chewy chunks. My personal favorite – so it stays in the yes’s!
- Pistachio – A classic gelato flavor, totally fine with braces with just very small chopped-up pistachio pieces. Avoid whole pistachios.
Ice Cream Flavors To Avoid With Braces
- Toffee Chunks – Big chewy chunks get stuck in hard to reach places in the braces easily – avoid
- Caramel Chunks – Big caramel chunks can get stuck, avoid gummy, chewy things when possible
- Honeycomb – Those big blocks are really crunchy and could pop off a bracket
- Buttered Pecan – Avoid any ice cream with full-sized nuts as nuts are bad for braces
- Bubble Gum – If it has actual bubble gum chunks in it, stay away
- Rocky Road – Gummy marshmallows and chopped nuts can be a problem. Try another flavor if you can
Does Ice Cream Help With Braces Pain?
Some people say that ice cream can help with braces pain because it cools down your gums when they are inflamed. Generally, your gums may swell a small amount after first getting braces or after wire changes.
However, if you are experiencing swollen or red gums regularly you should consult your dentist to see if there are other causes like bad hygiene or gingivitis.
Ice cream can help soothe gum swelling with braces but cold water (don’t chew on the ice!) is safer as it doesn’t leave all the sugar in your mouth that ice cream will.
Nickel-titanium is a metal alloy (a mix of metals) used commonly in braces wire for its flexibility. Many orthodontists used heat-activated nickel-titanium wires that conform to their shape better when heated by your mouth.
This means if your braces are causing you a lot of pain that in some cases, drinking or eating cold food can lessen the activation of the wire. So, yes eating ice cream or drinking cool drinks can help ease braces pain after a wire change! Check out this tiktok/youtube vid from The Bentist on the topic.
In some cases, cool food and drinks do the opposite of helping with braces pain…
Does Eating Ice Cream Hurt With Braces?
If your teeth are more sensitive because of a braces change, eating cold foods like ice cream could be a little painful. Getting braces or having a wire change can cause an increase in the sensitivity of your teeth. So eating ice cream with braces can be a double-edged sword.
This means eating ice cream to soothe gums or avoiding it because of increased sensitivity is up to how you feel. Again, increased tooth sensitivity should only be temporary. It generally lasts for just a few days after wire changes or after first getting braces. Contact your dentist or orthodontist if it lasts longer as it could be a separate issue.
Can You Eat Ben & Jerry’s With Braces?
Ben & Jerry’s is the best ice cream money can buy as far as we’re concerned (though we’re counting Gelato as something else entirely). The most popular flavors of Ben & Jerry’s change pretty often, but there are some classic favorites.
Eating Ben & Jerry’s with braces can be a bit of a problem. All of those amazing combinations of texture tend to be things on the list of foods to avoid with braces. Really though, it’s up to you whether you risk it. Most of these ingredients get soft in the ice cream and when warmed in your mouth, so they’re probably better than when eaten on their own.
- Half Baked – Amazing taste and texture but the cookie dough and brownie aren’t the best choices for braces
- Peanut Butter Cup – Again, peanut butter isn’t a good choice…
- Caramel Salted Brownie – Caramel might fly but the brownie bits are pushing it
- Karamel Sutra – Very chewy, this could be a bad choice
- Caramel Chew Chew – This one you’ll probably be just about OK with
- Phish Food – Another that’s on the line but probably OK if you chew carefully and clean properly later on
- Chocolate Fudge Brownie – The chunks of brownie aren’t too big. Let it melt in your mouth and enjoy!
- Cookie Dough – The best Ben & Jerry’s flavor. All others are just pretenders to the crown
- Cherry Garcia – Cherries get stuck in braces easily. You’ve been warned.
- Chunky Monkey – Fudge and walnuts are both bad picks for braces.
Can You Eat Ice Cream Toppings With Braces?
Some ice cream toppings should be avoided, while others you’ll get away with enjoying. Things that are frozen solid, crunchy, or very chewy and sticky shouldn’t be parts of your treat if you can. Chocolate and rainbow sprinkles are fine, as are most hot or cold sauces.
Avoid chopped nuts, candy, and chunks of peanut butter in ice cream toppings for braces too. Chewy candy like gummy bears, plus hard candy like m&m’s are also pretty bad. Frozen fruit like pineapple or strawberry chunks might be a bit of an issue.
Can You Eat Ice Cream Cones With Braces?
Yes! Eating an ice cream cone with braces isn’t a bad thing. The soggy cone will break down pretty easily and even if it’s dry the cone isn’t that hard. Waffle cones and even chocolate-dipped ones are all good. You don’t need to choose a cup if you’re a cone type of person!
Can You Eat Ice Cream Cake / Bars / Sandwiches With Braces?
Again, within limits you can treat yourself to a slice of ice cream cake on the odd occasion. As long as you rinse thoroughly after, then brush your teeth 30 minutes or so later, you’ll be OK. Ice cream
Can You Eat Gelato With Braces?
Yes, gelato is essentially the same thing as ice cream with a slightly higher milk ratio to the cream and egg part. Gelato is great to eat with braces as it’s smoother and easier to eat. It also tends to freeze less solid.
Can You Eat Ice With Braces?
No! Don’t chew or eat ice while you are wearing braces. Having a drink with ice in is fine, as long as you let the ice melt in the drink and don’t put the ice in your mouth. Chewing on ice is a really common way for brackets to get broken off.
Every orthodontist will have a story of a patient breaking a bracket after chewing ice because it’s such a common cause. Do not do this!
Can You Eat Popsicles With Braces?
Whether you call them icees, ice lollies, ice sticks, ice pops, or paletas – you can definitely still enjoy a frozen ice treat with braces. BUT you need to avoid biting the chunks of ice and chewing on them.
Chewing ice is really bad for braces and a major cause of brackets braking. Check the above section for more.
Can You Eat Ice Cream With Spacers Or Bite Turbos?
Absolutely, yes. Bite blocks or bite turbos can be very annoying as it’s really hard to eat any solid food because it stops you from closing your teeth (so they grow together to close gaps). Bite spacers also make it painful to close your chewing teeth together, so finding liquid or super-soft food is basically the only way forward.
Ice cream is great for spacers and bite turbos because it’s so soft and can just melt in your mouth. As an occasional treat, it’s not too bad. You shouldn’t form your new braces diet around ice cream. Look to other liquid or soft foods like soup, or smoothies with vegetables (not just fruit) first. Then try soft but chewable foods like mac and cheese or ramen noodles.
