Halloween Candy: Your Dental Survival Guide

Halloween is creeping up just around the corner, and you better believe that the streets will soon be filled with the sound of ghouls and goblins seeking their yearly offering of candy. Trick Or Treating is a wonderful childhood experience provided that you make sure that the scariest monster of all doesn’t get your children. We’re talking, of course, about tooth decay from consuming so much sugar. While there’s nothing wrong with this yearly indulgence you should plan to be extra vigilant about their oral hygiene habits to ensure they survive with their enamel intact. To prepare you should know some of the worst culprits of the Halloween haul to watch out for:

Chocolate

Chocolate is actually one of the least worrying candies your children will receive during this time. This substance just happily melts right off their teeth after they finish eating it, and a simple brushing will ensure that the remnants are washed away. Just make sure that your children brush and floss normally and they should be fine.

Stick and Gummy Candies

Gummy candies are popular in all their forms, as are things like caramels, Bit’O’Honeys, and Now n’ Laters. All of these candies tend to cling to your child’s teeth and may require a little more vigilance to make sure that the worst of it has been cleaned away from their teeth. Flossing may be wise too to get the bits out from between their teeth.

Hard Candy

All things considered hard candies aren’t worse for your children’s teeth than chocolate, less so even. The risk with these comes from children trying to chew them rather than melting them int heir mouths. Biting the candy can result in cracked or chipped teeth, so as long as they avoid that simple brushing will take care of it.

Sour Candy

Sour candies have all the bad things that you should worry about during this season, especially the gummy ones. Sour candies are coated with citric acid to give them that powerful sour taste, and that stuff will eat straight through your enamel. Oddly they seem to really like putting this sour powder on gummy candies to make sure it will stick. We promise this isn’t a dental conspiracy, just brush your kids teeth if they eat these so they still have enamel.

Popcorn Balls

These fun Halloween candies seem to be nearly extinct, but they were a great option for a combination of relatively healthy and sweet. The worst part about them is really the kernels getting stuck in your teeth, nothing a little flossing won’t fix.

Now that you’ve met some of the worst culprits in the Halloween candy bin it’s time to schedule an appointment with your dentist at Smiling Kids Indianapolis. With the holiday just around the corner there’s no better time to stop in in Indianapolis, IN and see Dr. Swati Singh to ensure your children know how to best take care of their teeth during this sugar packed holiday. Call today!