Don’t Let Candy Wreck Your Teeth

With Halloween fast approaching, millions of children across the United States (and probably just as many adults) are about to be inundated with candy. While Halloween is one of our favorite times of year here at Kruckman Family Dental, it is also one of the most stressful. As dentists, we know a little too much about how negatively sugar can affect a person’s oral health, especially a child’s oral health. Despite this knowledge, we want people to be able to enjoy Halloween as much as possible. In today’s post, we are going to go over the most harmful types of candy that children and adults are likely to come into contact with this Halloween. We hope that by the end of this post, our readers will take some extra precautions when consuming these candy types in order to make sure that they are not causing unneeded damage to their teeth. Keep reading below to learn more.

Some Candy is Worse Than Others

Even though we would urge you to avoid eating candy as much as possible, we understand that people, almost overwhelmingly, love candy. The human body is wired to enjoy sugary treats and, in moderation, this isn’t exactly a bad thing. However, some candy is still worse for your teeth than other types and, in our opinion, should be avoided as much as possible. Below, we have listed a couple candy types that aren’t doing your teeth any favors.

• Hard Candy: It’s unfortunate that hard candy is bad for your teeth because it is also one of the most popular and prevalent types of candy available. Hard candy is detrimental to your teeth for a couple of different reasons. First, hard candy is high in sugar content, meaning that every time you eat a piece of hard candy, you are providing the bacteria in your mouth with a food source that, after they consume it, is quickly turned to acid that works to eat away at the enamel of your teeth. Second, because hard candy is typically left in the mouth for a long time in order to soften it enough to chew, your teeth are exposed to the sugar within the candy for a longer period of time.

• Sour Candy: Sour candy is like a one-two punch to the health of your teeth. Like hard candy, sour candy is full of sugar that the bacteria in your mouth will quickly turn into acid; however, this is not why sour candy is so bad. The added flavoring that gives this type of candy its sour flavor is highly acidic, meaning that you are consuming something that not only increases your mouth bacteria’s ability to produce acid, you are also introducing additional acid into the equation.

Join us again next time as we continue to cover some of the worst types of candy for your mouth. Additionally, if you are in need of a family dentist in the Waconia area, please get in touch with us today. At Kruckman Family Dental, we want to help you make sure that your entire family receives the best dental care possible and through our years of experience, we are certain that we can handle your family’s dental needs.