Dear South Florida Dental Arts, Easter is coming up fast, and I know my kids (and my husband!) are going to get into the candy like monsters. My question is, are there candy options that are better for them than others, or should I just let it go for the holiday and not stress? Sincerely, A Long-Time Tooth Fairy Dear Fairy, I’m pretty sure that I’ve got the rest of my
Miami dentist brethren at my back when I say that while
obviously the best candy is “no candy,” we all understand why that’s not a reasonable answer. But “don’t stress” and “let it go” aren’t the right answers either, because a sustained (i.e. 3-5 day or longer) increase in candy consumption really can become a danger to your loved ones’ oral health. So let’s focus not on
if or even
how much, but rather
what kind of candy is the best for your kids (and husband’s!) teeth in the long run. There are basically four factors of candy danger to take into account:
- Acidity: All forms of acid attack your tooth enamel, causing it to soften and become vulnerable. This means any candy with a tangy, zingy taste is more dangerous than otherwise.
- Sugar: Obviously, sugar isn’t great for your teeth — the problem being that sugar feeds the bacteria in your mouth, and the harmful bacteria grow faster than the helpful kind. So the sweeter the treat, the worse the long-term threat.
- Stickiness: Being sticky is more dangerous to your fillings, braces, and other orthodontics than it is to the teeth itself — BUT! Because stickiness also serves to keep those enamel-attacking acids and bad-bacteria-boosting sugars right there, doing the damage they do for longer than they might otherwise, a sticky treat is almost always more harmful in the long run than a not-sticky candy.
- Long-Lasting: Much like being sticky, a candy that lasts a long time in your mouth (i.e. a lollipop as opposed to a jelly bean) gives the acidity and sugar of the candy time to do more harm. As much as downing your Easter candy in a hurry might not be great for your blood sugar, it’s better for your oral health to have something you can nom quickly — as long as that doesn’t mean you go get more!
The top-tier Easter candies? Dark chocolate is the best, by far. Then, non-acidic sugar-free candies of all kinds, followed by acidic sugar-free candies. If you’re going to have ‘real’ sugar candies, try to avoid those that come with strong acids (i.e. no Sour Patch Kids), and
definitely avoid those that are sticky and don’t dissolve/get eaten quickly. Citrus-flavored Jolly Ranchers — high-acid, high-sugar, amazingly sticky, and takes forever to suck away — are probably among the worst possible Easter candies you can get in terms of healthy teeth.
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