Keep Everyone Smiling Through Halloween

It may not be your worst nightmare, but Halloween can present many parenting problems in addition to the usual fun and thrills and chills of a haunted house. As your child’s dentist, I hope to provide some guidance on how to navigate through this sticky season.

In my family growing up, if mom took me trick or treating, I came home with very little loot, but if dad took us we had to have the radio flyer to haul it all home! So here you are after the night of trick or treating in the neighborhood that had the reputation for handing out the really good candy. Your children each have at least 20 lbs of candy…what do you do?

Scenario #1: Don’t let them get too much at once, so they can only eat 10 pieces a day and the candy stash lasts well past Christmas.
Scenario #2: They have access to their stash at will and the hoarders make it last through Christmas and the “spenders” have it gone before the week is up.
Scenario #3: Make them eat all of it that very night in hopes they get such a belly ache they never want candy again.
Scenario #4: Throughout the week, you successfully sneak candy out of their stash, and then either eat it yourself or throw it away.

Surprisingly, the best dental scenario is #3, but most physicians and parents won’t recommend this tactic.

What can I recommend? At least 10 days prior to Halloween, come by our office and buy some cavity-fighting herbal lollipops to control the cavity-causing bacteria while they have higher than normal sugar consumption in the month after Halloween. This becomes very important if your child is prone to getting cavities.

What else can you do? How teeth survive Halloween actually depends as much on your child’s risk for cavities as how they eat their candy. Not surprisingly, the basic principles we recommend every other day of the year also apply following Halloween. However, if your child is high risk for cavities, you have to follow these principles more exactly or your child is more likely to experience problems.

Principle #1: Time your sugar with meals when the body’s defenses are best able to keep your mouth in balance.
Principle #2: Don’t spread your sugars out over long periods of time. Consume them as rapidly as possible so your body can get back to fixing the damage.
Priciple #3: Eat your sugars in a form that doesn’t stay in the mouth as long. For example, gummy sugars are worse than chalky candy. Sugar bubble gum is particularly bad if you chew it for a long period.
Principle #4: Clean your teeth BEFORE you eat your sugar. This will remove the plaque that holds the sugar and a large number of bacteria that converts the sugar to the acid that breaks down the teeth.

We hope these guidelines help your family fight cavities throughout the whole year!