Halloween Candy Eating Tips

Halloween Candy Eating Tips

Halloween Candy Eating Tips. Kids love candy and Halloween is a great time to celebrate that love. However, what is a parent to do if they are worried about tooth decay from all this candy consumption? Candy usually contains sugar, which the bacteria that cause tooth decay dine on.

So eating a food loaded with carbohydrate or sugar feeds the bacteria that cause tooth decay. Consequently, to avoid negative impacts from candy, we have to do two things:

1) Avoid excessive consumption of these sugary treats and

2) Lessen the amount of time the sugar is present in the mouth.

As the owner of Mitchell Dental Spa, a dental spa facility in Chicago’s Water Tower Place, I’d like to offer the following Halloween Candy Eating Tips to for protecting your kids teeth at Halloween. Do you have any Halloween Candy Eating Tips of your own?

Examine your child’s candy to see if it meets your approval

It is okay for your child to eat any candy that you approve of, but to help lessen the chance for tooth decay, have them brush as soon as possible (after eating the candy). If a child or adult brushes right after, the impact of the candy on the teeth is minimal.
Avoid sticky candy such as taffy, gummy bears, caramel, etc. Sticky Candy adheres to teeth and causes decay
Kids can eat candy ANYTIME, there is not a good time of day/night to eat candy
Prior to Halloween, visit your dentist to have sealants put into the child’s teeth grooves

Second Halloween Candy Eating Tips is if brushing soon after eating

is not possible, then try the following

Consume the candy with a meal. The increased saliva production while eating will help wash the sweet off the teeth.
Rinse the mouth with water.
Chew a sugarless gum (especially those containing xylitol) after snacking on candy. The increased saliva from chewing will help wash the sugar off the teeth and xylitol gums help control the bacteria that cause tooth decay.
Eat the candy quickly in one sitting to decrease the amount of time it is contact with the teeth. Avoid eating any candy slowly over an extended time or over multiple sittings. Recent studies have shown that length of time eating a sweet can be more harmful than the amount of sweet consumed. This means hard candies, breath mints, etc. (long residence time in the mouth) can actually be worse for your teeth than a chocolate candy bar (shorter residence time in the mouth).