Keep Your Mouth Healthy this Halloween!
Halloween is almost here and as dentists we understand that it means candies and costumes. While we would prefer if you ate an apple rather than a candy bar, we’re realistic and understand that you can’t say no to candy forever, especially at Halloween.
Here are our tips for having a great Halloween WITH candy, but still keeping your teeth, gums and mouth healthy.
- Avoid sticky candies (as much as you can) like taffies and gummies. These sticky candies take longer to get washed away by your saliva and spit. If you have to have a gummy worm, make sure you brush and rinse thoroughly after.
- Avoid candies you have to suck on for a long time like Jawbreakers and other hard candies. The amount of time a sugary candy spends in your mouth is huge factor in the candies’ role in tooth decay. Unless its sugar-free, don’t let suck on it too long to avoid risk of tooth decay.
- Drink lots of water! This will help in washing away the residue and you get bonus points if you drink fluoridated water to prevent tooth decay too!
- Brush after eating, that includes candy breaks. Even if you only ate one Twizzlers or Snickers bar, it is important to brush, floss and rinse thoroughly afterwards.
- Opt for ADA approved gum rather than the ones in your candy bucket and chew it for about 15 minutes to reduce tooth decay and increase your saliva flow to wash out foods. The gum will actually cause you to have more spit in your mouth thus neutralizing the acid produced by bacteria. Sugarless gum is preferred and ADA approved (it has a seal) is even better!
Candy is okay. We’ll be the first to admit it but there are responsible ways to consume it. If you child ends up with too much candy we suggest having them pick out their favorites and then donating the rest to organizations doing candy drives or ask if your local dentist has a candy buy/take back program.
We hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween and remember…candy is only a part of the problem, it’s how you care for you teeth once you eat the candy that really matters.
