Don’t Let Halloween Ruin Your Child’s Dental Health
How You Can Keep Your Child’s Mouth Healthy this Halloween
With Halloween upon us, children are getting excited to go from door to door and collect their sugary treats. While Halloween presents children with the opportunity to stockpile candy until Christmas time, it can also present problems for parents when it comes to maintaining their child’s oral health. The sugar from almost all Halloween candy will sit on the enamel of a child’s teeth, eroding it away, and causing a number of dental problems. Luckily there are some ways to help keep your child’s oral health in check.
Children Should Drink More Water
While your child enjoys their Halloween candy haul, make sure you encourage them to drink more water, especially after eating their sugary treats. Water can help to wash some of the sugar off the tooth’s surface, making it less likely for cavities to form as long as the child is brushing regularly. Water that is fortified with fluoride, such as tap water, can also greatly help to stop and prevent tooth decay.
Limit Children to When They Can Eat Candy
As much as it is important to limit the amount of candy your child should eat, you should also consider limiting when they can eat it. Ideally, children should only be eating candy with a meal or shortly after a meal. The reason for this is that eating a meal helps to improve salvia production and saliva in the mouth can help to combat the acids that are produced by bacteria and helps to wash away particles.
Children Should Avoid Hard Candies
Whenever possible, have children avoid eating hard or sticky candies that will stay in their mouth for a longer time and spend more time on the tooth’s surface. The longer that sugar is in contact with the tooth’s enamel, the more damage it will do in the form of tooth decay. Unless the hard candy is sugar-free, these types of candies are exponentially more likely to cause cavities and tooth problems.
Make Sure Children Brush and Floss Regularly
Above all, the most important way to keep a child’s oral health in check during Halloween is to make sure they are brushing and flossing twice a day. Children should be using ADA-accepted toothpaste that contains fluoride. Additionally, it is important to make sure that everyone’s toothbrush is replaced every three to four months in order to stop the spread of bacteria and ensure proper oral health.
Post-Halloween is always a good time for a checkup. NH residents that currently do not have dental coverage should consider the Wellness Dental Plan. We offer New Hampshire family dental plans as well as options for individuals and business owners. For more information, please click here.
*Photo Courtesy of tawest64 via Creative Commons License
