Contrary to conventional wisdom, it turns out that candy is actually bad for your teeth, especially if it tastes good.
Studies by people in white coats from a few years ago (but recycled every year near the end of October for some reason) highlight the findings that sour candy (e.g. Sour Patch Kids, sour worms, sour Nerds, sour gummy vitamins -- okay, basically the word "sour" should be a tipoff) is as corrosive to the teeth of young children as battery acid.
The effects are particularly bad for baby teeth and adult teeth until they have been around for at least 10 years (you know, basically when you lose any desire to eat them)..
White Coat experts say that if a sour candy (with any kind of acid on the ingredient list: citric, lactic, malic, tartaric, fumaric, adipic, and ascorbic) should touch your child's mouth, DO NOT BRUSH THEIR TEETH right away. Either wash their mouth with water, or have them drink a glass of milk.
The good folks at the California Dental Hygienists Association (official motto: "You're not flossing regularly, are you?") suggests the following tactics:
"This Halloween, we are advising adults to think twice about buying sour candies for trick-or-treaters," said Erika Feltham, a Registered Dental Hygienist and CDHA member who has studied this issue for more than a decade. "We also are encouraging parents to comb through their child's bag at the end of the night to remove sour acid candies and replace them with a small piece of non-sour sugarless candy or gum."
Yeah, that'll work!
This kind of reminds Worried Dad about Cinderella's first couple of Halloweens. Basically Worried Mom and I dressed her up in really cute costumes, scored big time on the candy, and then ate it all as soon as she was asleep.
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3 comments:
My gameplan here is that I only buy chocolate candy. That way, if there's any leftovers, I've got something I actually like.
Part two of this plan is to go through children's bags when they get home and remove all the crappy candy (suckers, sour candy, etc.) and give it out to the latecomers who ring the doorbell.
More chocolate for me!
Well, it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Baby teeth aren't as strong as permanent teeth, and it'll take some time and care for permanent teeth to be strong. Candy is still okay, but parents need to teach their children to clean their teeth after eating candy; and a visit to the dentist after Halloween might be wise.
Brushing regularly and maintaining a perfect oral health is considered a very good habit and maintaining for your kids teeth clean and healthy.
kids teeth
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