Best and Worst Halloween Treats for Your Child’s Teeth

As Halloween approaches and kids (some adults, too!) get excited about dressing up and scoring a major candy haul, you may wonder if it’s possible to find the balance between letting your kids enjoy a few sweet treats or causing a fright fest at their next dental visit. 

In general, sugary treats aren’t the best for your teeth. But, the board-certified dentists Krystle Fenton, DDS, and Benjamin Radlein, DDS of Laguna Vista Dental in Elk Grove, California, 

want their young patients to enjoy the spooktacular confections of All Hallow’s Eve. To do so without significant dental consequences, they’ve compiled a list of the best and worst Halloween treats for your teeth so you can avoid a scary situation when your offspring come to see us. 

What’s worse: Chocolate or chewy-gooey?

You may be surprised to learn that chocolate is one of the best treats after trick-or-treating, but chewy-gooey candies that stick to your teeth aren’t so good. Chocolate rinses off your tooth enamel more easily than gummies, caramels, and taffy that stick to your teeth and gunk up the cracks and crevices. 

The longer sugary treats hang around on your teeth, the easier it is for bacteria to have a Halloween feast of their own. When bacteria eat the leftover sugar in your mouth, it produces an acid that leads to tooth decay and cavities. 

Sticky candy is the worst offender when it comes to braces, bridges, and other dental work. If you're not extra careful, these treats can cause serious damage and lead to costly repairs or replacements. If you have a choice, choose plain chocolate; dark chocolate is best since it’s lower in sugar. 

Sour sounds better than sweet, doesn’t it?

Sour may sound like a healthier candy option than something sweet, but it isn’t. It may be confusing to learn that sour candies can do more harm to your teeth than sugary ones because sour candy is often very acidic, which contributes to the acidic environment in your mouth. 

If you don’t brush and floss right after you eat sour candies, the acidity lingers and can potentially weaken tooth enamel, making the potential for cavities a frightening reality. Of course, all sweet treats leave a sugary residue that bacteria like to consume, but sour candies have both sugar and acid, so they may actually accelerate the process. 

Advise the little ones to skip the sour and citrus-flavored candies. 

Little goblins should be terrified of lollipops and jawbreakers 

First, any candy called a “jawbreaker” can’t be good for your teeth or jaw – especially if you have TMJ syndrome and your jaw clicks and pops when you chew regular food. Biting down on candy as hard as a glass marble can easily chip your teeth or dislodge a loose filling. 

Additionally, any kind of candy that takes a long time to dissolve, such as lollipops, jawbreakers, or sour balls, allows the bacteria in your mouth to feast on sugar. Which, as you now know, turns into acid that may lead to cavities. It’s a good idea to avoid hard candies and lollipops so little goblins can keep their natural teeth their entire lifetimes.

Popcorn balls vs. chocolate bars with nuts

You’ve always heard that popcorn is a healthy snack, so why wouldn’t popcorn balls be a healthy Halloween treat? Two reasons: 

• Popcorn gets stuck between your teeth.
• Popcorn dipped in a sticky coating like marshmallows or a sugary glaze is twice as bad.

Sure, everyone loves to enjoy a bowl of popcorn, and as far as candy goes, popcorn is a healthier alternative – as long as you have dental floss handy. But when it’s a ball of popcorn glazed in sugar, you’re asking for trouble any way you crunch it. 

Not only are you eating a treat that gets stuck between your teeth, but you’re also helping it stay on your teeth by providing the sticky, gooey coating.

Chocolate bars with nuts (if you and your favorite friendly ghost aren’t allergic) are a better choice since, as you learned, chocolate easily rinses off your teeth. And, when you add nuts into the mix, they actually help break up the sugary qualities of the chocolate, so you’re not just biting into a solid chunk of sugar. 

Gum is good for Halloween

Perhaps the least damaging Halloween treat is sugar-free gum. You don’t often hear of dentists recommending that their patients chew gum, but when it comes to Halloween treats and all the other candy your kids want to enjoy, sugar-free gum can actually help protect their teeth. 

Chewing a piece of gum gets saliva flowing in your mouth, which can help to “rinse” the sugary substances away from teeth. Saliva also neutralizes the acid that sugary goodies leave behind, so bacteria have less chance of creating plaque that leads to cavities. 

As you sort through the kids’ loot at the end of the evening this year, set aside the scarier pieces of candy and choose the ones that don’t cast a lasting spell. Be sure they brush and floss on Halloween Eve and every other. Then, schedule a professional dental cleaning by calling our Elk Grove, California office. Or if you’re up late at night keeping the vampires at bay, just request an appointment online.