Avoid a Dental Disaster this Easter

A huge amount of chocolate will be eaten over the Easter holidays - an estimated 80 million Easter eggs to be exact - that’s a whole heap of chocolate and no doubt lots of sweets too. If you’re worried about your children’s teeth and what to do to avoid damaging them, follow our helpful advice to avoid a dental disaster this Easter.

The best Easter treat is anything that “melts in the mouth” such as plain (preferably dark) chocolate. The worst Easter treat is anything hard or sticky - avoid giving these to children.

Oral health experts - and our dentists here at the Smile Centre - recommend ‘keeping Easter special’ by not eating any eggs (or any sweets) before Easter Sunday - a far healthier approach than eating treats all week long like the supermarkets and high street stores encourage you to do. You could always skip the chocolate and sweets altogether and instead offer more traditional treats such as Easter eggs hunts using hollow plastic eggs with non-edible surprises inside. You could get creative by painting eggs, making rabbit masks, and playing Easter games - Easter doesn’t have to always be about chocolate!

If you do decide to indulge this Easter holiday, here are some helpful tips to make sure you minimise the dental damage.

Be aware of the dental dangers
-Look for a balance
-Give them the treat they want while at the same time looking out for their teeth
-Buy smaller eggs with a lower sugar content
-Consider buying dark chocolate instead of milk or white chocolate, which has more sugar and will cause more damage to the teeth
-Buy an egg without any extra sweets or chocolate bars included

Spoil the children at mealtimes
-Encourage children to eat chocolate after a meal instead of as a snack
-Don’t let them snack on chocolate or sweets throughout the day
-Frequent consumption is far worse than the volume

Don’t rush the brush
-Make sure children brush their teeth for two minutes, twice a day
-Wait 30 minutes before brushing teeth - brushing immediately can cause damage
-Encourage them to spit rather than rinse because rinsing after brushing reduces the effectiveness of fluoride toothpaste
-Using fluoridated toothpaste can help strengthen the mineralization of the tooth enamel and protect teeth against acid erosion

Drink water
-Get children to drink plenty of water while consuming Easter treats
-Rinsing the mouth frequently helps clean away the acid formation and bacteria from sugar, minimising dental damage
-Dry mouths are more conductive to bacteria so drinking water is good practice for daily oral hygiene, promoting the production of saliva and helping to wash away bacteria