Halloween Candy Tooth Tips: You’re Not a Kid Anymore

The four weeks leading up to Halloween can do a number on our diets and can make it nearly impossible to go anywhere without being accosted by a big, fat bowl of colorfully wrapped cavity producers.

Simply leaving your desk at work to make your way to the watercooler can seem scary. Around every corner looms yet another bowl beckoning you to “Eat just one.”

While getting older has taught us a thing or two about sugar and cavities, we still can become prey to those enticing treats.

Although we certainly do not advocate grabbing an entire bag of goodness and devouring it in one sitting, there is a way to enjoy the holiday without causing harm to your teeth.

You may not be aware of one very important fact that can help you choose the lesser of evils in the candy realm: Not all candy is created equal.

What do we mean by that?

Picture finding a beautifully wrapped piece of brown chocolate. You slowly open it and take in the sweet cocoa smell. You then slip the piece from the wrapper and onto your tongue.

What begins to happen to that piece of chocolate almost as soon as it touches your warm tongue?

It begins to dissolve.

Unlike hard candies and sticky taffy-like concoctions that require you to bite and vigorously chew them, chocolate requires a lot less contact with your teeth and its numerous small crevices. It literally melts in your mouth.

When eating a piece of gummy or chewy candy, you must manually gnash the candy and break it apart using your teeth. This forces your teeth to make a lot of contact with the sugars within the candy. The force needed to break a lot of these pieces down also leads to some of the candy being left behind, spending hours against your teeth.

Until your next brushing session, which is usually right before bed for most people, that candy sits snuggly against your enamel and doing a number on the health of your teeth.

So, in an effort to minimize your risk, there are four things we recommend you do during the weeks leading up to Halloween and the weeks after when parents bring in their kids hauls:

1. Whenever possible choose to eat candies that dissolve in your mouth or do not require a lot of chewing to break down.

2. Minimize the amount of candy you eat.

3. Swish your mouth out with water and brush and floss your teeth immediately after eating candy during the day.

4. Visit your dentist every six months for a professional teeth cleaning and evaluation.

Now that you are adequately armed with these helpful tips, have a Happy, Healthy Halloween!