It’s Halloween time and your little monsters have many opportunities to gather sweets, chocolate bars and other not so healthy stuff…Unfortunately frequent snacking can lead to tooth decay and dental treatment.  Luckily Halloween sugar craze can be controlled with few tips from us – your Dental Professionals 😊 so don’t get spooked! Follow few of our recommendations below:
Some treats are better than others, sweets that melts and dissolves quickly are much less harmful for children teeth. Sweets that expose teeth to sugar for longer allow more time for bacteria to feed and produce decay-causing acid.
If it is possible, sugar free sweets are the best option but they’re not always easy to get hold of. Try to avoid sticky foods – chocolate dissolves quickly and is not gluey, which decrease the amount of time sugar stays in contact with teeth. Dark chocolate is great and its lower in sugar thank milk or white chocolate.
Drinking water or chewing sugar free gum after your child had sweets is a great way to wash away all the lingering bacteria in their mouth.
Watch out for sweets such as mints – some of them are packed with hidden sugars – always read the labels.
Avoid at all cost treats that are chewy and hard, such as caramels, gummies and lollipops – they are likely to spend longer time exposing teeth to sugar.
Serve a healthy and filling meal before trick-or-treating so kids will be less tempted to binge on treats.
Only give sweets with meals. It’s best to enjoy sweets with a meal, because saliva production increases and washes away cavity-causing sugar and bacteria. Try not to let kids snack on sweets throughout the day.
Have a post-treat oral health routine. Make sure kids’ teeth are brushed at least twice a day with fluoridated toothpaste for two minutes each time and flossed once a day. And trips to the dentist should be made regularly.