How to Eat Hard Food When Teeth Hurt

Some orthodontic treatments or reactions to food cause your teeth to hurt. When this happens, it makes your whole mouth hurt. Eating hard foods becomes difficult, and you may try to cut back on foods you like to try to keep your mouth from hurting.

Instructions

• 1

  Determine the area of the pain. If your front teeth hurt, push the food back into your mouth and chew with your molars. Chew on one side if the other side hurts.

• 2

  Choose hard foods that deteriorate in you mouth. Place the food in your mouth and allow your saliva to soften it before you bite into it.

• 3

  Break hard candy or chips into small pieces that don't require chewing. Let your taste buds savor the flavor before you swallow. Even if you use your teeth to chew, the smaller size helps your teeth not hurt.

• 4

  Cut hard foods like apples and carrots into bite-size pieces. You may want to boil carrots to soften them. Sometimes warming food for a few seconds in the microwave softens it without making it mushy.

• 5

  Blend your food in a blender or put it through a food processor. Just like with baby food, you get to enjoy the taste, just not the texture.

• 6

  Balance your meals so they include a majority of soft items. Limit yourself to one hard food and alternate your bites between soft and hard foods.

• 7

  Take an over-the-counter pain medication 30 minutes before you eat. Use a salt water rinse to sooth your teeth before and after eating.