What Can You Eat and Drink With Invisalign?

One of the genuine advantages of clear aligners over fixed braces is that there is no list of forbidden foods. You take the aligners out to eat, so popcorn, crusty bread, and caramel are all still on the table. The rules that do exist are about what happens while the aligners are in.

The short version

Aligners in: plain water only. Aligners out: eat normally, then brush before putting them back.

Why not coffee with aligners in?

Two reasons, and the second is the more serious one. Heat can distort the plastic, which affects the fit of an appliance whose entire job depends on fitting precisely. And coffee, tea, and red wine stain the aligner, which rather defeats the purpose of a clear appliance.

The bigger issue is sugar. Anything sweetened that you drink with aligners in gets held against your tooth surfaces by the plastic, which traps it there rather than letting saliva wash it away. That is a genuinely effective way to get cavities during orthodontic treatment. The same applies to fruit juice and sports drinks, which are also acidic.

Practical adjustments people make

• Coffee and tea move to defined breaks with the aligners out, rather than being sipped across the morning
• Grazing tends to stop, because taking aligners out for a handful of crisps is more effort than it is worth — some people find this the most useful side effect of treatment
• Water gets used more, both because it is permitted and because it helps rinse after eating
• A travel toothbrush lives in a bag or desk drawer

Brushing before the aligners go back in

Sealing food debris against your teeth for the next several hours is exactly what you are avoiding. Brushing after eating is ideal. When that is not possible, rinsing thoroughly with water is a reasonable fallback — a habit worth having rather than an excuse to skip brushing entirely.

A note on the first few days

New aligner sets often make teeth feel tender for a day or two, and chewing can feel odd during that window. Softer foods help, and it usually settles quickly. Tenderness that does not settle, or pain concentrated in one tooth, is worth mentioning to us rather than pushing through.

Also worth reading: how many hours a day aligners need to be worn and how to keep aligners clean. For whether clear aligners suit your case, see our Invisalign page.