Halloween gives dentists nightmares, what with the vast collection—and consumption—of candy by children during October’s costumed holiday. But some dental professionals are fighting back by taking a page out of the gun-control handbook and using buyback programs targeting sugary sweets.
To get kids to eat less candy at Halloween, dentists are offering to buy trick-or-treat loot.
“A lot of people are trying to get guns off the street,” Texas dentist Culberson Boren told KYTX in Tyler. “We’re trying to get candy off the street.”
Boren offers kids $1 for every pound of candy they bring in. He says it’s important to limit a child’s sugar intake because of the damage it can do to their teeth. Too much sugar can cause caries disease that leads to enamel decay, dental research shows.
“Controlling the consumption of sugar is a justifiable part of caries prevention, if not always the most important aspect,” researchers wrote in a 2001 study (pdf) cited by Mary Otto at the Association of Health Care Journalists.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Dentists Borrow a Tactic from Gun-Control Advocates (by Mary Otto, Association of Health Care Journalists)
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