Candy Need Not Be A Halloween Horror Story
9/26/2007

Halloween is just around the corner. Learn how you can prevent tooth decay and still enjoy your goodies this holiday.
By Brenda Contreras

Halloween--famous for its goblins, ghouls and lets not forget the loads and loads of candy. Every year, candy companies conjure up a new storm of chewy, sticky, nut-filled, caramel-coated candies designed to wreak havoc on our teeth. But Halloween doesn’t have to be a dentist’s worst nightmare. There are precautions we can take that can make this holiday enjoyable for all, even our littlest gremlins. 

According to Gardner Beale, a faculty member at USC School of Dentistry’s department of pediatrics, caries is caused by three factors: bacteria, carbohydrates and sugars. “If we can eliminate one of these factors then we can prevent the formation of caries,” says Dr. Beale. 

Beale suggests that the intake of sugar exposure should be kept to a minimum. When children, or adults for that matter, have a high sugar exposure, the sugar is absorbed by the bacteria in the mouth and turned into acid, which then damages the tooth causing caries.

In spite of this, sugar is not the only one to blame for a mouth full of fillings. Carbohydrates and acids cause good teeth to go bad. Other foods, such as potato chips, dried fruits, acidic fruits and anything “that is chewy or sticks to your teeth,” Beale says, can cause caries, since the sugar and carbohydrates in the food is stored in your teeth for long periods of time.

“For example if you were to choose from ten Hershey’s kisses or a lollipop, what would you choose?” asks Beale. “Hershey’s Kisses of course.  The Hershey’s Kisses chocolate will dissolve quickly whereas the lollipop stays in your mouth continuously.”

Sticky sweets like fruit rolls, gummy bears, Laffy Taffy, Starbursts and hard candy like lollipops, jawbreakers, Sweet Tarts or anything that stays in your mouth for long periods of time should be avoided. 

According to Beale, sticky candies stay in between teeth a longer period of time and are not so easily removed by saliva, which means that the longer those sweets stay in your mouth the more prone you are to bacteria converting the sugars into acid and getting tooth decay. 

Hard candy, unless it’s sugar free, is not recommended either because the longer the candy stays in your mouth the more prone you are to acid attacks. 

Candy such as chocolate, sugar free gum or anything that contains xylitol a sugar substitute, is not as harmful as these other sweets, and actually aid in the prevention of tooth decay. Sugar-free gum or gum that contains Xylitol, like Trident, are good to chew in between meals because they produce more saliva which helps your mouth rinse off the acid.

In fact, chocolate is not as harmful to teeth because it does not stay in the mouth for long, it is said to contain tannins, which is an anti-bacterial that actually rids our mouth of some bacteria.  

However it’s not just a matter of knowing what types of candies are good and which are bad that will aid in the prevention of tooth decay.
“Education on oral health is important in the fight against tooth decay,” says Beale.

Who is most at risk? Everyone, if proper oral care is not practiced. Parents, says Julie Jenks, assistant professor of clinical dentistry in the department of Pediatrics, are responsible for their children’s oral health habits, and their daily diets. “The key to caries prevention is limiting the frequency and consistency of sugars and carbohydrates,” she says.

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