Halloween Candy: Frequency, Not Amount, Raises Cavity Risk

By Cristina G.

Halloween can present a very scary time of year for any parent concerned about their child's oral health, since your kids will probably come home with that big haul of candy from trick or treating. But should you let them immediately gorge themselves on the candy and get it out of their system? Temple University pediatric dentist Mark Helpin thinks that might not be such a bad idea. (Credit: iStockphoto/Bochkarev Photography)

ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2010) — Halloween can present a very scary time of year for any parent concerned about their child's oral health, since your kids will probably come home with that big haul of candy from trick or treating. But should you let them immediately gorge themselves on the candy and get it out of their system?

This article is about the candies and caries that Halloween bring. Mark Helpin form the Temple University, who is a pediatric dentist, said that "The frequency of eating candy, and other refined carbohydrates, and their stickiness, are big factors in creating the risk of caries (cavities),". The candies produce caries because the candies have carbohydrates that makes the mouth to produce PH (a acidic), this raise the change of caries. Mr. Helpin says that "If I eat a piece of candy now, the pH in my mouth will become acidic, and it will take 30-60 minutes for it to become normal. If I eat 2 or 3 pieces of candy when I eat that first one, my mouth stays acid the same length of time that it would if I ate just that single piece. It's still 30-60 minutes. If I keep eating candy throughout the day, there is acid in my mouth for a much longer period of time. The longer teeth are in an acid environment, the greater the risk they will become decayed"

The acting chair of pediatric dentistry at Temple's Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry, believe that parents are able to control and decrease the rick of caries, and at the same time their children can enjoy the holiday. What parents can do is let the kids eat a bunch of candies and then later another bunch, but not eat one by one is n0o very good, and also give it as a dessert or snack. A good time to give candies are when is food time since the mouth produce lot of saliva which helps to get away the acidity inside the mouth. Helpi recommends that after eating candies is good to brush their teeth or rinse with water 3 or 4 timer their mouth with water. Also is better to avoid candies that can stick in the teeth because this is "the food" of the bacterias and for a long time. Finally, "it's not realistic to think you can tell your child you can't have candy, cookies, cakes, or other treats," says Helpin. "Those are the things most people enjoy -- and we want our kids to enjoy life."

I think that this article because is very is something that happen a lot and also because we are in the Halloween holiday and this is like the main problem in this time. Since I was a kid a love candies a lot and this causes lot of mouth problems and this article gave lot of useful recommendation in order to have a healthy mouth and said lot of true. I think that in every kid life candies are very important (no idea why is a feeling that I have and I believe lot of child does). I still love them especially chocolate, but I and everybody should learn that we need to learn how to have control in order to not get sick and mouth problems, we do not really want rotten teeth. I got lot of experiences with candies when I was a kid I have even been in the hospital for eatting a bag of candies it was awesome at first but then is became horrible... especially because doctor said that I have to be very careful because I would have high sugar in the blood, so yeah.

If you want to know more about...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101027161151.htm