Easter Can Be Bad For Your Teeth: Tips for Avoiding Temptation

This time of year heralds the arrival of the Easter Bunny. All those jelly beans and chocolate can be very tempting both for adults and children. If you have kids then you may have fallen into the trap of buying Easter chocolate too early, only to have to replace it when you end up having a weak moment. So what can you do to avoid toothy troubles while surrounded with all that temptation?

Choose Chocolate Rather than Candy

If you want to buy sweet treats this Easter, then a bit of chocolate in moderation will not hurt. Chocolate is a better choice than hard or chewy candies as it melts quite quickly and can more easily be washed away by saliva. A hard or chewy candy will have significantly more staying power and some have the ability to stick to teeth for hours and may be difficult to shift during regular brushing and flossing. The problem with sticky foods is that they will continually be feeding mouth bacteria that will thrive and which produce acids that will attack tooth enamel, softening it and increasing the risk of cavities.

Negotiate with Older Children

If you have children, then have a chat with them to see if they would prefer something else other than traditional Easter chocolate this year. Perhaps they are saving up for something and would like cash instead, or maybe you could put together a few non-edible gifts for them as a surprise. It can be fun to build your own Easter basket with lots of smaller items and you may find other relatives would like to contribute rather than buying chocolate.

Set Guidelines for Younger Children

Younger children may well still want something sweet for Easter, but you can reduce the risk to their teeth by making sure they know they can have something sweet at certain times of the day. Ideally, this should be as part of a main meal as by this stage their mouth will already be acidic so the damage caused by eating something sweet and sugary will be less than if they were allowed to snack in between meals. Once they have finished eating chocolate, encourage them to drink some water to help wash away excess sugars.

Keep Up With Regular Brushing and Flossing

If you are going away or spending time with relatives or friends, don’t forget to pack your toothbrush. Regular brushing and flossing will reduce the impact of Easter goodies. Some people will brush immediately after eating something sweet, but it is better to wait for at least half an hour. This is because eating surgery treats increases your mouth’s acidity, softening tooth enamel as some essential minerals are removed. After a while, acidity levels begin to normalise and some of these minerals are redeposited back into your tooth enamel, re-hardening it. It is best to wait for this process, called demineralization and re-mineralisation, to be completed as this will minimise the damage to teeth.

Remember, the Easter Bunny only comes once a year and provided you generally look after your teeth, a little bit of chocolate won’t hurt.