Tonight, kids all around Cochrane are going to be filling up buckets and pillowcases with candy, chocolate, and everything in between. It’s no secret that candy and sugary treats are not the best for our teeth and oral health, but is there a way to minimize the effects?  

Dr. J. Bradley Krusky with Chew Chew Pediatric Dentistry Cochrane says some treats are better than others.

“I will say that the best thing to have is just pure chocolate, whether it's milk chocolate or dark chocolate. Chocolate just melts away off your teeth and your saliva kind of takes care of the rest.” 

"I love Aero bars, I love Jersey Milks, I love dairy milk, those are the best. Anytime you start adding things to it, anything that's dry or sticky is going to stick in the grooves in your teeth, it's going to cause there to be a higher level of acidity in your saliva for a longer period of time, I'd avoid that stuff.”

Other candy treats that are hard on teeth include:

  • Gummies and caramels – they get lodged in your teeth.

  • Tacky candies like Starbursts – they can pull on crowns and fillings.

  • Lollipops – they take longer to eat, which means the longer your teeth are in an acidic state.

  • Powder candies like Fun Dips and Pixie Sticks are extremely acidic.

“If you're going to have a treat and you want to make it at least a little bit more manageable and not come to us as often. You got a bunch of choices, you either consolidate treats to a short period of time or you have it at meals, like don't have candy in between meals. When you've got this much candy and kids are sort of snacking on it all day long, that's not a good idea.”

If you do decide to go wild on the candy, Dr. Krusky says there are some ways to keep those teeth clean.

"The best thing to do is brush your teeth obviously, but we're not going to get everybody to do that. The second best thing is to chew sugarless gum preferably with xylitol in it because you're going to pull all the little bits of debris out from the grooves and in between the teeth and you're going to increase your saliva flow.”

"Personally, I think that the best thing you can do anytime you have any candy on Halloween is make sure that you are very well prepared with bowls of carrots everywhere. A couple of carrots afterward and that's really going to clean things off.”

"If you have no other choice, just drink some water and try to dilute down the acidity in your mouth.”