Halloween is a celebration of make-believe, pumpkins, autumn, and most of all...candy. While kids wait all year for this holiday of endless sugar, it can often be a nightmare for parents. What is a parent to do if they are worried about tooth decay from all this candy consumption?

Candy usually contains sugar, which is the perfect environment for breeding bacteria that cause tooth decay. Consequently, to avoid future dental problems, it is important to keep two things in mind when eating candy: 1) Avoid excessive consumption of these sugary treats and 2) Lessen the amount of time the sugar is present in the mouth. Dr. Margaret Mitchell, owner of Mitchell Dental Spa, a dental spa facility in Chicago’s Water Tower Place, would like to offer the following tips to for protecting children’s teeth at Halloween:

• Examine your child’s Halloween candy before he or she digs in to see if it meets your approval.
• It is okay for your child to eat any candy that you approve of, but to help lessen the chance for tooth decay, have them brush as soon as possible after eating the candy. By brushing right after candy consumption, the impact of the candy on the teeth is minimal.
• Avoid sticky candy such as taffy, gummy bears, caramel, etc.  Sticky candy adheres to teeth and leads to decay.
• Despite popular belief Kids can eat candy ANYTIME, there is not a good time of day/night to eat candy.
• Prior to Halloween, visit your dentist to have sealants put into the child’s teeth grooves. This protects tooth enamel against corrosion caused by excess sugar.

If brushing soon after eating is not possible, then try the following:

• Consume the candy with a meal. The increased saliva production while eating will help wash the sweet off the teeth.
• Rinse the mouth with water.
• Chew a sugarless gum (especially those containing xylitol) after snacking on candy. The increased saliva from chewing will help wash the sugar off the teeth and xylitol gums help control the bacteria that cause tooth decay.
• Eat the candy quickly in one sitting to decrease the amount of time it is contact with the teeth. Avoid eating any candy slowly over an extended time or over multiple sittings. Recent studies have shown that length of time eating a sweet can be more harmful than the amount of sweet consumed. This means hard candies, breath mints, etc. (long residence time in the mouth) can actually be worse for your teeth than a chocolate candy bar (shorter residence time in the mouth).
• Avoid sugary sodas.  They are loaded with sugar (often over 10 teaspoons per 12 ounce serving), are acidic enough to dissolve away tooth enamel and are often sipped for long periods of time, resulting in teeth that are being bathed with sugar and acid almost continuously throughout the day.