Halloween Candy: Your Dental Survival Guide

It’s that time of year again when little ghouls and goblins get dressed up to go around terrorizing neighborhoods and their dentists by collecting immense amounts of candy. While Trick or Treating may all be in fun, that doesn’t mean that it’s completely harmless. The real monsters are the bacteria that feed off of the immense amount of sugar your little ones will be subjected to this year. If you’re trying to take a conscientious approach to the candies your children can have, and which ones you’re willing to hand out, this guide will help. Within you’ll find the best and worst of Halloween treats and learn how you can mitigate the risks to your child’s dental health.

Chocolate

Much to the delight of little tikes everywhere, chocolate is one of the safest forms of candy they can receive during this holiday. Unlike many other forms of gooey gummy candy, chocolate will easily wash right off your children’s teeth with something to drink. It also doesn’t stand a chance against your toothbrush.

Stick and Gummy Candies

These candies can be a serious problem to dental health thanks to their propensity to stick to the teeth long after they’ve been ‘finished’. While brushing their teeth will get rid of the residue, until you do the sugar will be hanging out doing its worst.

Hard Candy

On one hand, these candies aren’t much more of a long-term risk than chocolates, on the other hand, kids have a tendency to try to crunch them rather than let them melt. This means that there’s a risk of cracking teeth on them. They’re a great choice if your child doesn’t chew them, not so much if they do.

Sour Candy

This one is a straight-up red alert, especially if it’s combined with gummy candies. The sour flavor of these candies comes from Citric Acid. As you might imagine this is no good at all for your children’s teeth. This is particularly vexing since sour candies seem to naturally pair with gummies like sour patch kids or sour worms. If your children eat these make sure that you care for their teeth soon afterward to minimize the damage.

Popcorn Balls

This is the best of the worst. The popcorn balls themselves aren’t much of an issue since the sugar will melt away from the teeth and be cleaned with a little brushing. On the other hand, you do have to make sure you floss to get the bits out from between your teeth.

These are just some of the Halloween culprits your children are likely to bring home from their excursion, so keep an eye out. In truth, there’s little harm in letting them pig out once a year so long as you’re extra careful with your dental care at this time. Dr. Sam Bullard at Sam Kids Noblesville has been helping parents teach their children how to protect their teeth throughout the Noblesville, IN area. Call and make an appointment and have them hear it from the dentist himself before the big day of trick or treating!