Halloween Dental Health Care Guide 2016 - Mona Lisa Smile Dental

October 28, 2016by 0

Halloween Dental Health care tips to help get through Halloween and the Holiday Season

Although Halloween can be a spooky time, it doesn’t have to be a nightmare for oral health. These Halloween Dental Health Care tips will help ensure that you and your kids have a healthy, cavity-free Halloween that won’t make the dentist scream. Most parents understand this point, but where it can go wrong is after Halloween. Let kids go nuts on the candy noshing on Halloween night – and only Halloween night. If kids are spending the entire Halloween weekend shoveling enough mass Halloween Dental Health Care tips to ensure your kids have a healthy, cavity-free Halloween.quantities of candy down their gullets to make some jealous, that isn’t moderation – it’s candy overload. Deprivation doesn’t work when it comes to teaching kids about Halloween Dental Health Care, but moderation is a great trick for maintaining healthy teeth & gums through the Halloween treat cavity creep onslaught.

Halloween can present parents with the dilemma of the fact that some candies have the potential to do more damage to teeth than others. Help ensure that you and your kids have a healthy, cavity-free Halloween that won’t make the dentist scream. Little ghosts and goblins will trick-or-treat to collect as much candy as they can this Halloween, but it’s not just kids who will enjoy the treats. But some candies have the potential to do more damage to teeth than others.

Of course Halloween Dental Health Care starts with good dental hygiene, which is important no matter what day of the year, but as we know, prolonged exposure to sugary foods can cause tooth decay, and it happens faster than you think! To get through Halloween and the holiday season without any cavities, follow these Halloween Dental Health Care tips:

Drink Plenty Of Water
Drinking water helps clean the teeth and gums and minimizes the build-up of bacteria. Make sure you and your kids drink plenty of water after eating candy. Drinking fluoridated water can help prevent tooth decay. If you choose bottled water, look for kinds that are fluoridated. Drinking plenty of water and keeping well hydrated has a number of health benefits for your entire body. In your mouth, it keeps sensitive tissues moist, and promotes the healthful action of saliva. Saliva not only buffers acids, it also aids digestion, helps the mouth fight germs, and even has a role in protecting the teeth from decay.

Sticky and Gummy Candies
Be picky if it’s sticky. From gummy worms to caramels, sticky candies are plentiful during Halloween. These soft candies tend to stick to the teeth and linger long after the treat has been enjoyed. To reduce dental damage, enjoy one piece at a time, and make sure your child chews it fully. It is a good idea to incorporate these treats into mealtime so that hard foods, such as carrot sticks or almonds, can help to dislodge the sticky treats from crevices in the teeth. This candy is harder to remove and may stay longer on your teeth, which gives that cavity-causing bacteria more time to work.

Chocolate Probably Your Best Bet
Chocolate which is good because it’s also the most popular kind of candy handed out on Halloween. Chocolate is one of the better candies because it washes off your teeth easier than other types of candy. Dark chocolate also has less sugar than milk chocolate. And calcium could help protect tooth enamel. However, chocolate with fillings, such as caramel and nuts, is a lot more harmful for teeth than the plain variety.

Hard Candy
Hard candies are also ones to watch on Halloween. They can actually break your teeth if you’re not careful. You also tend to keep these kinds of candies in your mouth for longer periods of time so the sugar is getting in your saliva and washing over your teeth. Chewy, sticky treats are particularly damaging because they are high in sugar, spend a prolonged amount of time stuck to teeth, and are more difficult for saliva to break down.

Powdery candy
Powdery candy like Pixie Stix, dissolve quickly in the mouth and don’t require chewing, they contain nothing but sugar and can lead to cavities by changing the mouth’s PH and giving bacteria straight sugar to eat. But powdery candy dissolves quickly and doesn’t stick to the teeth.

Sour Candy
You might want to pass on things that make you pucker – especially if they are sticky and coated in sugar. Sour candy can be very acidic. That acidity can weaken and damage the hard outer shell of your teeth, making your teeth more vulnerable to cavities. Sour candy is so acidic it can actually dissolve tooth enamel directly on contact. Similar to an ice cube that’s been left on the counter, the acid in sour candy can melt your teeth. Do citrus fruits (oranges, lemons, limes, etc.) pose the same risk as sour candies? No, since each type of fruit usually contains only one kind of acid, which varies (citric, malic, tartaric).

Popcorn Balls
Have some floss handy if you’re enjoying one of these fall favorites. Popcorn is yummy, but the hulls have been known to cause many a problem in people’s mouths. Because the hull is concave shaped, it easily gets trapped under the gums against the side of the tooth. It acts as an irritant and often results in an acute localized infection. Popcorn Balls are also sticky, sugary and can be hard.

Sugar-free candy and gum with xylitol
Sugar-free foods don’t contain sugar that can feed on the bacteria in the mouth and produce decay-causing acids. Gum and candy with xylitol may actually protect teeth by reducing the acids produced by bacteria and increasing saliva to rinse away excess sugars and acids. Surprisingly, one of the safest Halloween treats to enjoy is gum. Although it lingers in the mouth, gum stimulates extra saliva production, which naturally rinses the mouth and keeps plaque-causing bacteria at bay.

Chew Gum with the ADA Seal
Chewing sugarless gum for 20 minutes after meals helps reduce tooth decay, because increased saliva flow helps wash out food and neutralize the acid produced by bacteria. You might even want to think about giving sugarless gum out as a treat instead of candy,. Find one with the ADA Seal.

 

There are many options for Halloween Dental Health Care healthy snacks including things like cereal bars, pretzels or granola bars. Even a plain chocolate bar is a better option than sour, sticky or hard candies.

So after chowing down on those Halloween treats, be sure to schedule some face time in front of the mirror with your kids to make sure they floss & brush their teeth.After eating sweets that can stick to teeth, it’s important to get rid of those cavity-causing creeps as soon as possible. Swishing a little water between the candy popping can’t hurt either. Halloween is a great opportunity to teach Halloween Dental Health and to reinforce the importance of a diligent daily health regimen – for parents & children.

It isn’t necessary to ban candy and treats this time of year, but following these dental tips can help prevent new cavities from developing. Remember, daily brushing with a fluoride toothpaste, flossing and regular visits to the dentist are the best way to keep teeth healthy and free of tooth decay. Following these simple dental tips should keep your teeth safe from zombies, ghosts and cavities throughout the year.

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