Celebrate Dental Hygiene Month with some tricks to ensure a fun and smile-safe Halloween!

October is an exciting month for those of all ages. This is Dental Hygiene Month, and with Halloween right around the corner it can be easy to fall into bad habits. Whether it is candy from trick-or-treating or snacking on those leftover treats, dental hygiene is especially important to maintain a healthy smile. 

In honor of this spooky holiday, here are a few tips on how to maintain proper dental hygiene while still enjoying all of the fun that Halloween has to offer!

Avoid a Jack-o-Lantern Grin

Out of all the scary things surrounding Halloween, there is nothing spookier than tooth decay. Promoted by acidic and sugary foods, eating too many candies and treats can destroy yours and your child’s teeth! Monitoring the amount of sugary foods that your little superhero or princess ingests can be helpful to stopping bacterial growth that causes plaque. 

Instead of taking candy away, try to implement a ‘budget.’ Have your family pick out their favorite candies and set them aside to be saved for the ‘candy bank.’

As for any leftover candy? Look into various donation programs such as Operation Gratitude which sends excess candy to troops overseas! Not only is this a good way to lessen the temptation of keeping these foods around the house, it also gives back to those who may be unable to celebrate. 

When it comes to eating from your allotted budget, the optimal time is during meals. The production of saliva washes away excess bacteria and damaging sugars, which makes cleaning easier. Remember, brushing and flossing after eating—candy or not—is a great habit to help scare off unwanted plaque and bacteria, as well as having regular appointments and check-ups!

Trick or Treat, Let’s Brush Some Teeth!

With all of the excitement surrounding trick-or-treating, it can be difficult to eat before bracing the costumed world. No matter how hard it may be to fit in a dinner prior to beginning your rounds, do NOT skip your meal! 

Eating before you leave for trick-or-treating is more likely to keep kids from craving the sweets they collect before returning home. By doing this you can avoid unplanned sugar-rushes and better monitor what (and how much) your children are eating. Once home, you and your family can sit down and go through your Pirate’s treasure. Be sure to carve more than your pumpkin by carving out additional time to brush and floss teeth before heading to bed! 

Haunted by the Sour and Sticky

When sorting through your child’s trick-or-treating bounty, it can be helpful to know which candies are particularly harmful to their growing teeth. While most foods that are high in sugar have similar effects on our mouths, some are more dangerous than others. By avoiding these savory sweets, you can minimize the dental damage they often cause, and save yourself from any restoration procedures.

• Sour Treats,  such as warheads and even Skittles can be just as bad as eating battery acid! The levels of acidity in these candies are incredibly high which weakens and damages the enamel of your teeth. This makes them more vulnerable to cavities!

• Sticky Sweets,  like taffy, caramels or gummy bears are also candies to look out for. These sticky sweets, like their namesake, stick to teeth which allows sugar to eat its way through the enamel. In addition to this, it is also much harder for our mouth’s natural clean-up crew—saliva—to wash away harmful bacteria that leads to tooth decay. 

• Hard Candies, like jawbreakers, suckers, and Jolly Ranchers can also be exceptionally dangerous. Sweets like these stay in our mouths for a prolonged period of time and subject us to an increased risk of decay. Not only that, but they are also likely to break or chip your teeth—talk about scary!

While some may think that homemade treats like popcorn balls are a better alternative to candy, they can carry many of the same problems. Knowing this, you might be asking yourself, “What is the best candy for me and my children to eat?” 

Of course, candy in itself is not good for our bodies or our mouths, perhaps the ‘best’ candy for your teeth is chocolate. As a majority of the population already claim chocolate as their favorite sweet, it is also one of your mouth’s! Easier to wash off naturally with saliva, chocolates of most varieties—particularly dark chocolate as it has less sugar in it than milk—are easy to clean from the surface and between our teeth.

Whether it is chocolate, popcorn, or any other type of Halloween giveaway, be sure to brush and floss once you’re done! Prevention methods like this will help both the present and the futures of yours and your child’s mouths. 

Don’t Ghost Your Good Habits

When all is said and done, the key to maintaining a healthy smile is in good practices. By encouraging regular cleanings and active at-home care, scary teeth and bloody fangs can be reserved for everyone’s favorite spooky holiday instead of everyday life.

To further encourage proper dental hygiene to those besides your in-house goblins, consider handing out other kinds of treats like apples or sugar-free gum this Halloween. Not only will you be providing something sweet, you will also be passing out healthy alternatives for those who may ghost their good habits.    

No matter what you choose to give trick-or-treaters this Halloween, our team at Alexandria Smiles wants to provide you with quality dental care in an affordable manner as well as tips on how to celebrate without sacrificing your smile. Armed with knowledge to match any Knight or Warrior costume, we hope that your family will implement these tricks with your treats this year. From our office to your home, all of us at Alexandria Smiles wish you a Happy Halloween!

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