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Christmas is a wonderful time of year to gather with family and shower your loved ones in gifts and excellent meals. But, before you stuff your family’s stockings with care, be sure that you’re not packing it with anything that will hurt your children’s teeth.

Candy Canes 

The penultimate Christmas candy and stocking stuffer, the candy cane is sadly, terrible for teeth. Candy Canes are basically 100% sugar, and excessive sugar can lead to cavities. Sugar feeds the harmful bacteria on your teeth, and creates acid that erodes enamel. This causes plaque and ultimately cavities, which is why you should limit the number of sugary snacks that you pack into your child’s stocking.

Peanut Brittle 

A holiday classic, peanut brittle is a type of very hard candy that is embedded with broken bits of nuts like pecans, peanuts and almonds – and all of that is bad news for teeth. The hard consistency of peanut brittle can chip and fracture teeth, and the sticky candy can get stuck in the hard-to-reach areas of teeth, and leave them more susceptible to cavities and tooth decay.

Old Fashioned Christmas Candy 

Once a year, Christmas stockings everywhere are filled with Old Fashioned Christmas Candy – and it’s terrible for teeth and tooth enamel. Old Fashioned Christmas Candy is a bag of unwrapped assorted hard candies of all sizes and flavors, and that makes them a really attractive option for kids sitting down for a candy binge. Each of those hard candies is capable of cracking teeth, and can stick onto the surface of teeth and fuel tooth decay and cavities long after snack time has ended. Sorry ribbon candy lovers, but we advise you keep the Old Fashioned Christmas Candy out of your family’s stockings this year.

If You Must Pack Candy, then Pack Water, Too

If you just can’t avoid packing any of the above Christmas classics, we don’t blame you. But, you can help your family’s oral health by imploring them to drink water after enjoying any holiday candy. Water helps rid the tooth surface of sugar and food debris, which helps prevent cavities and tooth decay. It also encourages healthy saliva production, which naturally cleans teeth and keeps the mouth at a healthy ph balance.

Try Mouth-Healthy Stocking Stuffers Instead  

Instead of candy, you can stuff stockings with mouth-healthy items that your children will use long after Christmas is over. Dental floss, a new toothbrush, and xylitol sweetened gum are all excellent stocking-stuffers that can help improve your loved one’s smiles, and keep their teeth clean and healthy.  

Thanksgiving is a great holiday to test your culinary skills and spend some quality time with your family in the kitchen. But, a lot of Thanksgiving dishes are loaded with unnecessary sugar, and terrible for oral health. This Thanksgiving, add some mouth-healthy dishes to your family’s table.  

Sautéed Green Beans

Green beans are a very popular vegetable around Thanksgiving, and they are usually made into dishes that aren’t very mouth-healthy. But, on their own, green beans are incredible dental super foods that help oral health in many ways. Green beans are full of fiber, which cleans teeth as it is eaten. They are also full of vitamin C, which is a strong antioxidant that helps heal gums, and fight gum inflammation. To get the most of these benefits, we’re going to keep our dish simple and really focus on making fantastic sautéed green beans.  

Ingredients: 
1lb bag of French Green Beans, ends cut and washed 
½ tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil 
1 clove garlic, minced 
1 teaspoon salt 
1 teaspoon pepper 

Directions: 
Heat up a non-stick pan on medium heat. Add the olive oil and let it heat up for 30 seconds. Then, add the garlic and toss in the hot oil until it is lightly browned. Add the green beans and toss to evenly coat in garlic and oil. Finally, add the salt and pepper. Cook the green beans until they are bright green and pliable enough to eat, about 6 minutes. You can add salt and pepper to taste 

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potato casserole is a Thanksgiving staple, but it is packed with sugar and can be full of sticky marshmallows that are awful for teeth. This year, try roasting your sweet potatoes instead for a more mouth-healthy meal!  

Sweet potatoes are great for teeth, and packed with healthy vitamins and minerals that promote good oral health. They contain vitamin C, which promotes gum help and works to prevent gingivitis. They also have vitamin D, which helps to decrease bone and tooth loss. Sweet potatoes also contain vitamin B, which promotes saliva production. All of these benefits make sweet potatoes a great mouth-healthy addition to your Thanksgiving meal.  

Ingredients: 
4 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes 
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling  
1/4 cup honey 
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 

Lay the sweet potatoes out in a single layer on a roasting tray. Drizzle the oil, honey, cinnamon, salt and pepper over the potatoes. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes in oven or until tender. Take sweet potatoes out of the oven and transfer them to a serving platter. Drizzle with more extra-virgin olive oil. 

Eat Well This Thanksgiving!

When planning a mouth-healthy Thanksgiving, try to incorporate as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible, and try to stay away from heavy, creamy sauces and sugary desserts.  If you want help planning a mouth-healthy diet for your family, visit our office to discuss some healthier dietary options that can improve your family’s oral health.  

People love candy, and what’s not to love? It’s sweet, and you can enjoy it pretty much anywhere. But, if you eat too much candy, your teeth will suffer. So, are there any types of candy that are healthier for teeth? 

Dark Chocolate 

Dark chocolate contains polyphenols, which are natural chemicals that limit the buildup of bad oral bacteria. Polyphenols also help prevent bacteria from turning sugar into acid, thereby limiting acid attacks and keeping enamel healthy. 

If you need to satisfy your sweet tooth, find some all-natural dark chocolate. Be sure that it is at least 70% cocoa to get the most nutrition.  Dark chocolate can also help reduce cholesterol, blood clots and clogged arteries. Milk chocolate contains a combination of milk and sugar additives that can contribute to tooth decay, while dark chocolate does not contain those ingredients. 

Xylitol Mints 

Xylitol naturally stimulates saliva that aids in overall oral health. Increased saliva can help prevent bad breath by eliminating dry mouth, and prevent prolonged exposure to acid and sugar caused by food debris. You can find xylitol-sweetened mints at your local supermarket or convenience store! 

Dark Chocolate Mixed Nuts 

Nuts contain fiber and protein, both of which promote healthy teeth. Chewing nuts promotes saliva production that naturally protects and cleans your teeth by clearing the mouth of debris and acid buildup that can lead to cavities. You can find dark chocolate covered nuts to really supercharge your mouth-healthy sweet treat.

Avoid These Types of Candy 

Hard Candy 

Be vigilant when letting your child eat hard candy, because it can crack teeth. Hard candy also tends to stick around longer than other candy, which exposes teeth to sugar for longer. Extended contact with sugar can lead to more cavities because sugar provides bad bacteria with the energy it needs to destroy enamel.

Sticky Candy 

Like hard candy, sticky candy can get stuck in tooth crevices and stay around long after it’s been swallowed. Sticky candy is difficult to remove from teeth, and gives cavity-causing bacteria more time to eat away enamel. 

Sour Candy 

Sour candy can leave teeth susceptible to cavities more so than any other candy. This is because sour candy contains a high amount of acid. In fact, the elevated acid content is what makes it so sour. The acidity can eat away the enamel of teeth, and leave them vulnerable to cavities. 

Visit Our Office 

A mouth-healthy diet is an important part of maintaining optimal oral health. If you’re concerned about how your child’s diet may be affecting their teeth, then bring them into our office. We’ll perform a routine oral health checkup and provide a dental plan that works for their mouth.

Halloween is one of America’s favorite traditions, and gives us an incredible opportunity to get outside and celebrate our community with friends and neighbors alike. But, did you know that we haven’t always passed out candy during Halloween? In fact, Halloween isn’t even an American holiday.  

European Tradition

Halloween used to be known as The Festival of Samhain, which celebrated the harvest and the Celtic New Year. The Festival of Samhain originated in England and Scotland, and later grew more popular across Europe.  

Trick-or-treating evolved from an old tradition called “going a-souling,” which occurred when children celebrating the Festival of Samhain solicited food and treats from door to door. Kids would knock on a neighbor’s door and offer to pray for the souls of their relatives in exchange for gifts. The children would be handed food, coins, ale and other trinkets in exchange for their kind thoughts. This tradition eventually made its way to America in the early 1900s, when the United States welcomed a large influx of European immigrants.  

Parental Concern

Trick-or-treating gained popularity in the 1930s and 40s, but as Halloween became more popular, parents felt unsafe allowing their children to accept unwrapped food from strangers. At the time, some of the most popular treats were cookies, cakes, fruit, popcorn balls and muffins. Parents argued that the treats could be tampered with and potentially harm their children. Combine this risk with how expensive and time consuming it is to make treats from scratch, and Halloween had a real problem: a lot of people wanted to celebrate, but could not do so without steady, reliable supply that parents could trust.  

Sweet, Packaged Confection

During the 1950s, Halloween boomed in popularity across the USA. However, parents were still concerned about the treats their children were receiving. Candy producers saw this as a golden opportunity to alleviate parent’s concerns by providing reliable, enjoyable treats. Candy producers created large advertising campaigns promoting the safety of prepackaged candy. They argued that it was safer for children to eat packaged candy, because it couldn’t be altered without visible marks on the wrapper. Suddenly, it became much cheaper to buy candy and hand it out instead of spending hours creating your own treats. 

Sugar Harms Teeth 

Candy is packed with sugar, which fuels unhealthy bacteria that eats away tooth enamel and leads to cavities. Be sure that your child doesn’t eat too much candy, and that they brush and floss their teeth after eating candy. We hope that your family has a happy and safe Halloween this year!