Chewing gum

Why not gum?

While you can eat almost anything, chewing gum is definitely not on that list. You may ask, “Why not gum? I love it. And my friends who wear braces, they all chew it.” There are legitimate reasons for denying you this treat: Chewing gum causes orthodontic wires to become more fatigued than from regular eating. If you think about how to break a piece of metal without wire cutters, you would bend the wire back and forth in the same spot. Chewing gum has that same effect on the wire. It can also break off the ligatures that help hold the wire onto the braces, or cause the wire in the back to come off the braces. When that happens, teeth can move in the wrong direction and treatment can end up taking longer to complete.