5 tips for healthy smiles this Halloween

Tip 1: Enjoy your treat with a meal

Instead of eating candy throughout the day, try combining treat time with mealtime as a dessert. Why? It’s chemistry!

All food makes our mouth more acidic for a period of time, and an acidic mouth makes us more prone to cavities.  When we stop eating, our salvia naturally brings the pH back to normal — which helps protect our teeth. “[Saliva] actually helps replace calcium and phosphate ions that were lost during our food-induced acid attack,” says Dr. Holtzmann. Consolidating treats with meals helps reduce the amount of time our mouths are in this state, which helps keep our teeth healthier.

Tip 2: Stay hydrated with water

Drinking water during or after eating candy or any snack helps cleanse your mouth and wash away food particles that might’ve gotten stuck in between or on the tops of our teeth. Fluoridated water has the added benefit of helping restore our mineral-depleted teeth with Fluoride ions, resulting in a more acid-resistant tooth structure. “It presents a protective factor because fluoride-reinforced tooth structure is more resistant to future food-induced acid attacks,” says Dr. Holtzmann.

Tip 3: Limit sticky and hard candies

“The worst candies for our teeth are probably those really sticky candies, sour candies and hard candies,” says Dr. Holtzmann. Gummy and sticky candies are more troublesome because they’re more likely to get stuck in your teeth; Sour candies are more acidic, and hard candies, like jawbreakers, can damage the tooth structure when we bite down.

Chocolate candies are usually a better choice because they melt away and don’t get stuck in teeth. And while dark chocolate may not be a typical kids’ favorite, it does have less sugar than milk chocolate, making it an even better choice.

There are also some candies that use a sugar substitute called xylitol, “…which dentists love to talk about because they can actually help protect your teeth,” says Dr. Holtzmann.  In fact, chewing xylitol (a.k.a. sugar-free) gum after meals may help prevent cavities.

Tip 4: Clean those teeth

After those sweet treats, it’s important to give your mouth a good cleaning. “I think the most important thing is making sure, at some point, all the sugary food is cleared from the tops of our teeth, sides of our teeth and between the teeth,” says Dr. Holtzmann. “Brushing and flossing teeth before bed and only drinking water afterwards are some of the best things we can do for our teeth.”

Tip 5: Say ahhhh!

Regular dental check-ups are important for everyone, but especially kids. Children who visit the dentist at a younger age end up having fewer cavities and fewer dental problems throughout their lives. Dr. Holtzmann encourages families to visit a dentist every six months to evaluate their child’s oral health.

“With the invention of all these sugary candies, we’re lucky enough there’s also been inventions of new dental materials and techniques to help stop or slow cavities that are starting,” says Dr. Holtzmann. “When you’re seeing a dentist frequently, we can catch things early, and typically when we catch things early, we have a lot more options – and that’s really helpful for children.”