I get what you mean about sticking to soft foods longer—honestly, I think that’s pretty common. But I’d say you probably don’t have to worry so much about breaking a bracket just from eating regular food, as long as you avoid the super crunchy stuff. I was nervous too, but after the first couple days, I found things like pasta and steamed veggies were totally fine. And yeah, the wax thing—took me ages to figure out you really have to dry everything off first or it’s pointless. That learning curve is real.
I was super paranoid about breaking something too, especially since my ortho warned me like three times about popcorn. I stuck to mashed potatoes and soup for a full week just to be safe. The wax thing—totally agree, it took me forever to figure out how to actually make it stick. Felt like such a rookie.
Popcorn is basically my arch-nemesis now... I swear my ortho gave me the “no popcorn” talk like it was a sacred law. I lived on yogurt and scrambled eggs for days because I was convinced even bread would break a bracket. As for wax, yeah, it’s trickier than it looks—mine would always fall off until I dried the bracket first. Rookie mistakes, right?
I always wonder if the “no popcorn” rule is as strict as they make it sound. Like, is it really the worst thing, or are there bigger bracket-breakers out there? I was terrified of eating anything crunchy at first, but bread seemed fine for me—maybe it depends on the type? Also, did anyone else find wax kind of useless unless you really dried the area? Sometimes I felt like it just made things messier.
My kiddo’s ortho made the popcorn thing sound like a federal crime, but honestly, we’ve had more trouble with chewy stuff—like bagels or caramel. Those seem to really yank at the brackets. Bread was fine for us too, as long as it wasn’t super crusty. And the wax? Oh man, if you don’t dry it first, it just slides right off and you end up with weird bits in your mouth. My daughter gave up on it half the time…