WestcoastSmile Dental Halloween Tips

Halloween or as they say “Feast of Lost Fillings”

What could be worse than being a dentist on Halloween?  We are the Scrooges of this day, wagging our fingers, shaking our heads, giving parents the evil eye.  How can we dentists get our heads around the fact that on Halloween the entire population goes into this candy buying and eating frenzy?  In the US where they have these statistics, there is 2-4 billion dollars spent on Halloween candy.  Here in Canada that would probably translate to 10% of that or 200-400 million dollars.  That is one heck of a lot of candy.

Are we dentists destined to become “party poopers”, do I have to boycott taking my little girl out for Halloween?  Is there another way? I say scrooge it.  Yes it is absolute crazy that children, teens and even some adults go binge eating candy. We tell our kids never take candy from strangers but for one night we send our kids out with a hokey costume all to get a bunch of candy that we would never allow them to buy at any other time.

Dental Tips for Halloween

So here are my rules for fun but responsible Halloween:

• When kids( big and small) get home make sure the limit the amount of candy that is eaten, especially for the little kids as that sugar will likely rev them up and make going to bed a worse nightmare than the candy.  Some parents prefer to ration a little every day some prefer to binge then be done with it.  Either way make sure you follow these suggestions.
•  Keep water plenty and available as they eat.  Get them to drink and rinse.
• Try to stay away from the caramels and chewy candy as much as possible as they adhere to teeth and are difficult to remove.
• Keep some sugarless gum around and give your kids some gum after candy eating.  It will stimulate the salivary flow which helps buffer the acid from the bacteria eating the sugar in the candy.
•  Make sure you floss and brush well for a good 2 minutes to remove all carbohydrate (sugar) from teeth.
• My wife told me about the “switch witch”, sort of like the “tooth fairy” but the switch witch comes at night and exchanges your candy for a toy or present. Our family will be using this one.

Visit your Local Kitsilano Dentist for Halloween!

Here at WestcoastSmile Dental Studio and Whitening Spa we made up “Halloween Emergency” goodie bags which included toothbrush, toothpaste, floss and cavity reducing mouth rinse and our signature dark chocolate wafer.  There is my wife and I handing them out in front of our office to the people of our kitsilano neighbourhood.  As for me, well my daughter will be dressing up as the beautiful Belle and I as the beast from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.  Pass the Kit Kat.