Halloween Oral Hygiene: Keeping Your Child’s Smile Healthy
Halloween is on the horizon and your health partners at Lonsdale Dental Centre want to help you protect your kids from something even scarier than zombies, ghosts and goblins this Halloween. There’s something even more bone-chilling called tooth decay!
We all remember the joys of trick-or-treating, and coming home to unload our sugary spoils and eat candy until our tummies ached. Parents are in the scariest position at Halloween, predicting the cavities, temper tantrums and hyperactivity that will result from the copious candy intake by their youngsters.
The best way to avoid any of these truly tricky consequences in the aftermath of Halloween is not to consume any candy at all. However, we know that’s highly unlikely and that’s why your experts at Lonsdale Dental Centre have created a Halloween candy guide to help protect your kids from tooth decay and thereby ensure their optimal oral health for life.
Below is a listing from most harmful to the safest treats your kids should be choosing from their trick-or-treat bag:
Sour Power – Sour candies are the absolute worst in that studies have revealed that the acids in sour candies are so destructive because they dissolve enamel on contact!
Hardly Harmless – Hard candy needs to be sucked on for an extended period of time and very chewy candies are harmful in that they get stuck between the teeth. Both hard and chewy candy allow bacteria to wreak havoc on your child’s teeth for a much longer period of time.
Resist Raisins – Don’t be fooled by their natural derivative. Raisins easily damage dental work because they are very sticky and do not mix well with fillings, braces or retainers.
Candy Bars Get Four Stars – While we can’t say candy bars are good for your oral health, they are less harmful because they are eaten quickly allowing less time for the sugar to damage with acid.
Dissolve Your Worry – Powder candy is fairly safe as the sugar dissolves quickly and makes little contact with the teeth.
Eat Two or Three if They’re Sugar Free – As obvious as it seems, sugar-free candy is the most highly recommended Halloween treat for your children’s teeth. You can even prevent cavities by chewing sugar free gum! Sugar free gum promotes increased saliva which neutralizes harmful bacteria.
If your little monsters will be in need a routine dental cleaning after Halloween give us a call and book an appointment today!
