Dentist shares tips to protect kids' teeth this Halloween

All right. Well, Halloween is here. And while kids across the Bay Area are dreaming of chocolate bars and gummy bears, parents might already be dreaming about or rather dreading that sugar rush and the dentist bill that could follow after that. Joining us now is Dr. Aaron Shaw, a dentist with Mission Bay Pediatric Dentistry in the city. Good morning. Good morning. You brought treats. I love it. I did. I did. I didn't know Dennis had candy, but you're bringing it. We're people too and holidays are meant to be enjoyed and celebrated and so we're just here to provide some guidance on how to do that reasonably and with the lowest amount of damage. Is Halloween your biggest nightmare or does candy really get a bad rap? I wouldn't say Halloween specifically is a nightmare. It's more what happens throughout the year. So if you're constantly noshing on candy and goodies, that's going to cause more damage than one or two nights of fun and indulgence. Play dentist and play parent right now. Your kid comes home with a pillowcase with enough candy for a month. Do you allocate that or do the kids kind of figure it out after a couple of days? As a parent myself, I usually encourage my daughter to pick out maybe 10 or 12 of her favorite pieces, and then the rest, we disappear. Disappear. I collect it as a parent tax. Maybe I send it to my coworkers, or we send it to the troops, but we get it out of the house. Get it out of the house, yeah. But kids kind of figure it out after a while, right? For sure, for sure. For sure. Okay, are there certain candies that are kind of okay, and others that just get them off the list in terms of? So, anything that's sticky or gummy, Kind of like sour candies, sticky candies, hard candies and suckers. You've got Twizzlers in here. Yes. Licorice is off the charts, huh? Anything that gets stuck in the teeth will tend to stick there for hours, and so it's doing damage long after you've enjoyed the treat. Sugar babies, milk duds, all that kind of thing? All of those kind of things. Nerds, gummy bears. Yeah. Twizzlers, yes, Skittles. Wow, that's the forget list, huh? That's the forget list. Okay, but chocolate seems to be okay because it comes and goes pretty quick off the teeth, right? That's exactly right. I like chocolate that's got a little bit of fat that's going to counter the sugar damage. And especially dark chocolate actually has a compound in it called theriobeetroline. It's good for you, right? Yes, it actually helps you harden your enamel and fight cavities. Oh, wow, okay. Who knew? Who knew? How about kids that might have braces? Ah, so especially you want to avoid anything sticky. And your orthodontist is going to tell you this, but anything sticky will especially get stuck in those braces. So chocolate is a fantastic selection for kids in braces. Now, do you hand out candy at your house? We do. You do? What do you hand out? I'm handing out chocolate. Braces. And what's your address again? I'm starting it. No, so you hand out candy. We do. We do. Yeah, yeah. Small bars or big bars? Of course. You know... From a sugar attack standpoint, if you eat an entire candy bar, whatever the size, and you eat it within five minutes, the damage is going to be about the same. I worry more about kids that, or adults, that are having little nibbles, maybe eating those Skittles and having a couple bites, and then a few minutes later, a couple bites. That prolongs the damage because it takes your mouth about 30 minutes to recover from every single bite. So if you eat everything at once, damage is done, you can move on. Grazing will tend to increase your likelihood of getting cavities. So if you're a grazer all week, all month, just get it over with that first week and then let it go, right? That's exactly right. Let it go. Okay, so I love what you brought here. Reese's, you got some Kit Kats in there. Yep, yep. Awesome. And are you more busy after Halloween by any chance? Not any more busy than usual. I think parents are starting to be aware of like, oh, wow, we had a really big weekend. Maybe it's time to go in if it's been a while. But we're generally pretty steady throughout the year. Back to school is our biggest time. Last piece of advice for parents out there. Um, if you indulge in a sweet treat, enjoy, don't feel guilty. If you're worried about that stuff sticking, maybe follow up with a little apple, a little bit of crunchy carrot. Or even a cheese stick, when they chew on something like that after a sweet treat, it'll clear all that stuff out of the grooves and you'll be able to get away with it not causing damage much better. Well, doctor, thank you for coming in. My pleasure. Happy Halloween to you and thanks for bringing in some goodies here. We appreciate it. You got it.