I used to dread Halloween.
As a dentist, it felt like a night dedicated to everything I was trying to protect my patients from.
Buckets of candy. Soda. Sticky caramel. Acid baths for enamel. It’s a nightmare for any dentist!
But after nearly forty years as a dentist—and a dad—I see it differently now.
Halloween isn’t the enemy. It’s a mirror.
It reflects our society’s culture of candy worship—how we celebrate, connect, and teach our kids what traditions and holidays look like.
I’m not proposing that we swing to the other extreme—believe me, I understand how lame it is to pass out apples Halloween night.
But there are ways to join in on the fun without passing down a culture of candy worship.
So I thought I’d share a few of our family rituals.
Maybe they’ll inspire a new one in yours.
1. It’s Not the Sugar. It’s the Frequency.
Every time you eat a piece of candy, your mouth turns acidic for about thirty minutes.
That’s how cavities form—not from one piece of candy, but from many small hits, when teeth don’t have a change to “re” mineralize again after they “de” mineralize.
The fix is not to take candy away. It’s to teach recovery – spacing it out, rinsing with water, letting the mouth reset.
👉What I recommend: Offer water or xylitol gum alongside the candy binge. When you can, steer kids toward candy like Snickers over lollipops—a Snickers is gone in a few quick bites (and the nuts help satisfy), while a lollipop keeps the mouth bathed in sugar and acid for ten, sometimes twenty minutes. It’s how long teeth are exposed to sugar, not how much sugar.
2. The Trick No One Thinks About: Water
When my grandkids go trick-or-treating, each carries a water bottle.
Rinsing with water between candies resets the mouth’s pH. It protects enamel. It keeps saliva flowing.
👉What I recommend: Before we head out, we make this simple magnesium drink. It keeps electrolytes balanced and replaces the magnesium your body burns through processing sugar. Encourage them to sip it in between houses.
Magnesium is essential because it supports saliva—the mouth’s built-in repair system. Saliva neutralizes acid and brings minerals back into enamel. When magnesium runs low, saliva flow slows, and your teeth stay acidic longer.
So water and magnesium together help the mouth recover between treats. That’s the real “trick.” The kids don’t care about any of this, of course. They just love getting to have yet another treat!
3. How to get candy out of the house the next day (without a struggle)
At our house, we used to end the night with the Great Pumpkin. After trick-or-treating, the kids would leave their candy out overnight.
In the morning, they’d find in its place a short note from the Great Pumpkin, thanking them for sharing their candy with other kids, alongside a toy that they’d been wanting (it’s like a second Christmas!)
4. Feed ‘em real food before the frenzy
I used to cook the kids’ favorite meal before we’d head out for trick-or-treating. What I was doing was loading them up with protein and fat before they go out, getting them full and steadying their blood sugar.
5. Don’t turn candy into forbidden fruit
When you get home, talk, laugh, unwind. Don’t make the candy a big deal. The more energy you give it, the more power it has.
Kids pick up on our anxiety. If they sense that candy is forbidden or dangerous, it turns into something they crave even more. That’s when you start finding wrappers under the bed.
Let them have their fun that night. Enjoy it with them. Then get the candy out of the house and move on.
When candy isn’t the center of attention, it loses its pull!
You don’t have to choose between being the fun adult and the healthy one.
You can be both!
Let’s de-center candy this Halloween and focus on the real treat.
-Dr. B
P.S. What are your Halloween rituals? Do you have your own version of the Great Pumpkin? I’d love to hear how you make the night fun in your family. Reply and tell me.
The post Before your kids go trick-or-treating, read this… appeared first on Ask the Dentist.
