It’s that spooky time of year again where children and grown-ups enjoy dressing up in Halloween costumes, watching scary movies at home and of course, going trick-or-treating. Your child will return home with a bag full of treats and the inevitable stockpiling of sugary sweets for the days and weeks afterward. For parents, this can present a genuine challenge for their child’s oral health. Having cavities at an early age will be far scarier than any Halloween costume or movie they’ll see this year!
A seemingly never-ending supply of sugary treats can pose many risks. Lollipops or hard sweets may chip or crack teeth. Sticky sweets like gummy bears or cola bottles, hard or chewy sweets that take longer to suck or chew can increase the length of time of sugar in their mouth increasing the risk of tooth decay. Tooth decay is caused by sugar reacting with bacteria in plaque (the sticky film on your teeth) to produce acid which damages the tooth.
You might think that baby teeth don’t matter when considering sugar consumption, but they do, and they are important to your child’s health and development, for eating, talking, and smiling and provide a healthy start for adult teeth in the space they leave when they fall out.
You can help protect their teeth by gently limiting the Halloween stash and offering some fun sugar free snacks like boo-nana (banana) ghosts! Drinking plenty of water will help to rinse away sugar and dilute acid attacks caused by these sugary snacks, and is far healthier than drinking sugary drinks.
Don’t forget to brush your teeth! But wait for around 30 minutes. Research has shown that the acids produced in your mouth after eating sugary snacks will soften your tooth enamel, so if you brush too soon, you can risk damaging the enamel. Brush twice a day for 2-3 minutes using a pea sized amount of fluoride toothpaste from two years of age upwards and supervise tooth brushing up to the age of seven.
If your child is over 8 years old, they can also learn how to floss which can help remove decay causing bacteria that gets between teeth where toothbrush bristles can’t reach. Flossing helps remove plaque and food particles from between the teeth and under the gum line.
There is no reason to fear the dentist at Halloween! The mid-term break can be a good opportunity to bring your child for an annual dental check-up if you haven’t already done so this year. Regular check-ups will encourage good brushing habits while your child will also receive advice from their dentist or dental hygienist on how to maintain their oral health.
Most importantly, have lots of fun but stay safe. We still need to protect ourselves and each other so be Covid Careful, remember to bring some sanitising hand-gel with you when your child is going trick-or-treating.
Happy Halloween from everyone at the Dental Health Foundation! We hope you have a spooktacular time. Visit our website www.dentalhealth.ie to learn more about oral health, and to download or order our FREE resources.