ibraces diet for sore teeth and tongue

[ibracescee]

It's been two days since I had ibraces on, teeth started to get sore yesterday if I applied pressure to it. no real need for any painkiller (i consider myself a wimp for pain) because the only time the pain bothers me is during meals. I just tough it out.

The two sides of my tongue near the back of my throat was scratched by the wires. Again, doesn't hurt much except during meal time. During meal time eating is a real torture because to move food around and chew food the tongue rubs against the wire a lot (either that or the sore part of the tongue was bumped into very often).

So the downside of having a sore tongue is that my diet has to change so that i don't feel tortured as much. What do I eat for the past few days? Is it a weight loss diet or a weight gain diet? you decide.

day 1 dinner right after I put braces on: chicken noodle soup, cheesecake, milkshake.

day 2 morning: nothing because i would rather have no pain than to eat.

day 2 lunch: campbell chicken dumpling soup, rice pudding, yogurt. I left most of the meat and vegatable of the soup behind because chewing really irritate my sore tongue.

day 2 dinner: I was starving at the end of the day because i didn't eat much. Went to a grocery store and smelled roast chicken in the store. The smell of that chicken was so irresistable that I couldn't resist buying that for dinner. Crazy for the second day but wanted to eat some real food. Shocking to me the chicken leg was soft enough to chew with my molars. Chicken was very delicious but I couldn't fully savor the full flavor of the chicken because I tried to chew as little as I needed and just shoveled the meat down my throat. Also normal I can chow down half a roast chicken in 15 min no problem. but today i ate only half a chicken leg and it took half an hour. So of course i felt hungry very soon.

day 2 after dinner snack: really don't want to put on weight so i decided to heat some fat free chicken broth and drank that broth to make my stomach feel full.

day 3 morning: a quarter of a small muffin before brushing my teeth.

day 3 lunch: found a nice sandwich place in michigan and had a very satisfying lunch. a cup of potato parsnip soup (no chunks) and a small piece of french bread (dipped in the soup to soften before eating the bread). A piece of delicious meat loaf from a meat loaf sandwich. Skipped the potato chips and pickle on the plate. skipped the toasted bread, lettuce, tomato from the sandwich. Very filling lunch. Didn't feel hungry the whole afternoon.

day 3 dinner: a cup of hot and sour soup in a mall. mall food is not really friendly to metal-mouth like me. a few hours later had a cup of jello. an hour later felt hungry again but resisted eating more because it is almost bedtime and don't feel like brushing my teeth again.

In general I feel hungry a lot more often because I eat significantly less and significantly slower than I normally would during each meal. and notice my new diet has very little vegetable in it and quite greasy.

If you have any good food suggestion for sore teeth and tongue i would love to hear it.

[Zoso]

For the sore tongue you have my sympathies. But the sore teeth should be ignored as much as possible. It's better to let yourself use a pain reliever and to eat properly than it is to exist on a diet of liquids and pap. If you chew, then your teeth will not be sore for as long. So, for right now, until your tongue adjusts, I understand you'll probably need to baby it a bit. But if your teeth should be achy after adjustments in the future, you'd be best served by really toughing it out and actually chewing.

Diets that minimise chewing need not be all soup, fats, and desserts. Think about foods that can be broken up sufficiently with a fork that they can be swallowed with minimal to no chewing. Protein choices can include options like fish, ground beef (or any ground meat), cottage cheese, or scrambled eggs. Starch options abound, with mashed root veggies (potato, sweet potato, rutabaga, parsnips, carrots, etc.), gnocchi, and slightly overcooked pasta being very easy to manage. And all that's just the tip of the iceberg. Be creative.

[peppy]

I can so relate. I am a little over a month with my linguals and I still get some blisters on my tongue and it is still very difficult to eat. I have to be very selective ( little did I know how much my tongue actually moved around when eating). I find the tip of my tongue still gets cut sometimes my the wires when eating ( especially after they changed the top wire to the tone a little thicker).

Over the weekend I had some angel hair pasta and cause several blisters under my tongue and on the tip- being it was too thin for me to eat, so no angel hair for me.. I wouldnt recommend very thin pasta with these braces. In a couple of weeks it will get a little better, but if you have any experience like me, you will still hate to eat.

I find that probably the easiest thing to eat is long cooking rice ( i prefer carolina)... I put about 1 cup of rice for about 2.5 - 3 cups of water.. Left it simmer about 30 -35 mins to get most of the water dissolved( it takes longer to cook because of using more water- but the rice gets softer this way) then take the cover off and cook ( stirring consistantly) on low until it is very sticky and all of the water is dissolved- this helps the rice get even softer. I find for some reason I can get a ball of rice in there and it is not too bad to eat- and it doesnt have a total much consistancy like everything else I have to eat. It still gets all in the braces on the bottom, but my tongue doesnt get torn up as much.

I also find that If I buy the hillshire farms kielbasa ( prepacked by the company and in pretty much any grocery store), I can cook it on a skillet just enough where it is soft enough to eat ( almost melts in my mouth)- unlike the sausage ( sausauge is much tougher) there is really not much to chew.. if it is still too bad you can just cut the skin off but in a couple of weeks when you still are having issues the skins shouldnt be that big of a deal.

Also - I dont know if they have it in your local grocery store ( they have it at Save-A-Lot and low cost stores- I didnt see any at the mainstream stores like Stop & shop and Shaws). I think it is a cheaper version of tuna helper ( at 99 cents you cant lose). it is skillet creations creamy pasta. It is meant to have tuna in it and has dehydrated peas and carrots. i actually use a sifter to take out the dehydrated peas and carrots because they are hard, and I omit the tuna. I over cook it a bit until it is soft enough to chew and it is delicious.

I hear your frustration- I was actually getting very depressed - especially the first 2 weeks when I had these put i- and so mad I wanted them to be taken off and put the regular ones on. i was constantly crying and having to force mysefl to eat anything due to the discomfort, then was so tired of eating mush ... very frustrating I know.

Hope this helps- and keep your head up.

[peppy]

Oh- One more thing... Make sure to keep rinsing with warm salt water to keep the soreness down on your tongue a little.. and I found that Tanac helped with the blisters on the sides, top and tip of my tongue, but not for the ones underneath- those are brutal!

Good luck- It will get a little better after a few weeks, just eat slow and try to maintain your sanity =) Take care.

[peppy]

Darn it all--- and I just read your first post. As far as flossing I hear you - I was so annoyed -- you definitely need these. I just stumbled on them the other day at the local pharmacy.. it is all ONE piece of floss with the end stiff to get through the teeth,, OMG saves me so much time! you wont need tweezers to grab ahold either, it is just as quick as flossing without the linguals... I was VERY impressed .. Here is the link to what they look like....
Your Glide Match: Glide Threader Floss

[Zoso]

The Glide is nice. There's also one from Oral B called Superfloss, which tends to be a little less expensive.

[ibracescee]

I can so relate. I am a little over a month with my linguals and I still get some blisters on my tongue and it is still very difficult to eat. I have to be very selective ( little did I know how much my tongue actually moved around when eating). I find the tip of my tongue still gets cut sometimes my the wires when eating ( especially after they changed the top wire to the tone a little thicker).

Over the weekend I had some angel hair pasta and cause several blisters under my tongue and on the tip- being it was too thin for me to eat, so no angel hair for me.. I wouldnt recommend very thin pasta with these braces. In a couple of weeks it will get a little better, but if you have any experience like me, you will still hate to eat.

I find that probably the easiest thing to eat is long cooking rice ( i prefer carolina)... I put about 1 cup of rice for about 2.5 - 3 cups of water.. Left it simmer about 30 -35 mins to get most of the water dissolved( it takes longer to cook because of using more water- but the rice gets softer this way) then take the cover off and cook ( stirring consistantly) on low until it is very sticky and all of the water is dissolved- this helps the rice get even softer. I find for some reason I can get a ball of rice in there and it is not too bad to eat- and it doesnt have a total much consistancy like everything else I have to eat. It still gets all in the braces on the bottom, but my tongue doesnt get torn up as much.

I also find that If I buy the hillshire farms kielbasa ( prepacked by the company and in pretty much any grocery store), I can cook it on a skillet just enough where it is soft enough to eat ( almost melts in my mouth)- unlike the sausage ( sausauge is much tougher) there is really not much to chew.. if it is still too bad you can just cut the skin off but in a couple of weeks when you still are having issues the skins shouldnt be that big of a deal.

Also - I dont know if they have it in your local grocery store ( they have it at Save-A-Lot and low cost stores- I didnt see any at the mainstream stores like Stop & shop and Shaws). I think it is a cheaper version of tuna helper ( at 99 cents you cant lose). it is skillet creations creamy pasta. It is meant to have tuna in it and has dehydrated peas and carrots. i actually use a sifter to take out the dehydrated peas and carrots because they are hard, and I omit the tuna. I over cook it a bit until it is soft enough to chew and it is delicious.

I hear your frustration- I was actually getting very depressed - especially the first 2 weeks when I had these put i- and so mad I wanted them to be taken off and put the regular ones on. i was constantly crying and having to force mysefl to eat anything due to the discomfort, then was so tired of eating mush ... very frustrating I know.

Hope this helps- and keep your head up.

I absolutely agreed with Peppy that angelhair is treacherous for newbies of ibraces! That was what I attempted for dinner last night. I thought if I cooked the anglehair long enough it would be ok but no --> anglehair is thin and likes to trap between the wires --> meaning extra tongue work --> meaning new blisters. No angelhair, no linguine.

I like the soft rice and kielbasa idea. maybe i will put the two together to make a "risotto".

Garlic mashed potato is my friend too. America's test kitchen has an easy and delicious recipe for homemade apple sauce -- tastes a thousand time better than applesauce that comes out of a jar. (4 lb pink lady apples, 1/4 cup sugar, pinch of salt, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon). Also tofu is as soft as jello and nutritious. Baked beans is soft and has a lot of fiber.