The holiday season is a great time of year, especially for kids. School’s out, Christmas is around the corner, and the sweets and treats are easily found. During this time it’s easy to forget how sugary treats can damage teeth and allow for your kids to overindulge. Here are three holiday sweets that are best to minimize this season in order for your kids teeth to be happy and healthy at the end of the season!
CANDY CANES
Candy canes are a holiday favorite, but they’re better left hanging from your tree or tucked away in a stocking. It’s hard not to overindulge in these since they’re really only found around this time of year. Unfortunately, candy canes are entirely sugar based; that’s a lot of sugar when you think about it! Eating that much sugar leaves your teeth coated in sugar for hours, attracting acid that breaks down the enamel. As your tooth’s enamel becomes weaker, the chances for cavities increase.
POPCORN
A tasty and timeless treat, popcorn often goes under the radar of snacks to stay away from. Popcorn is actually bad for your teeth regardless of the time of year. The kernels of the popcorn get wedged between teeth easily, letting plaque and bacteria build up. This also wears down the enamel of your teeth making it easy for cavities to form. Popcorn almost doubles in damage done to teeth when you start factoring in the different flavors that pop up around this time of year like caramel corn and kettle corn.
CARAMEL
This goes for most sticky candies, but homemade sweets that pop up around the holiday season, like those sweet sweet caramels, can do high amounts of damage to your teeth. While they never seem to last long enough, these chewy candies get stuck to the inside of your teeth, leaving their high-in-sugar contents hanging around for longer than your saliva is used to.
Keep your kiddos mouth healthy this season by monitoring their sugar intake and making sure that they continue to use healthy dental habits on a day to day basis. Other foods you want to monitor this season will be those sugar cookies and brownies! For any questions that you have regarding dental habit counseling, contact Encino Pediatric Dental Group.