If you have trick-or-treaters in your family, the next couple of weeks will be spent putting those important finishing touches on their Halloween costumes. It's hard not to be as excited as the kids about Halloween and all its spooky adventures!
One thing you shouldn't be spooked by is a dental emergency! Trick-or-treating is fun, but it does open the door for oral injuries. Our team at Oregon Smile Care Center wants to make sure you know where to turn when your Halloween festivities turn ghoulish!
When you call our Salem, OR dental office for help, we will do everything we can to assist you during an emergency. But Dr. Hanson and our experienced team aren't waiting for that phone call. We're proactive around here!
That means helping you prepare for, and possibly prevent, a dental emergency so you and your little goblins can enjoy a fun, safe Halloween!
Trick-Or-Treating Is A Risky Business!
Dr. Hanson has been serving the Salem, OR community long enough to know that cavities aren't the only dental problem that can spoil your Halloween night.
We've handled plenty of dental emergencies around this particular holiday. It's so fun to watch the kids run toward the neighbor's front door on their quest for sugary treasure! But trick-or-treating can also be a risky business when it comes to your child's teeth.
Sure, tooth decay is always an issue that dentist's want to address around Halloween, but dental emergencies are just as much a threat to their healthy smiles. There are a couple of reasons for that!
It turns out your little trick-or-treaters aren't as invincible as their superhero costume would suggest. Even though you do everything you can to be safe while you're walking around the neighborhood, accidents can happen.
You carry a flashlight to help the kids see where they're stepping. The streets are lined with street lamps that make it easier to see the curbs, sidewalks, and front porch steps. But still, we know how excited the kids can be, and it's totally common for them to race ahead of you.
This can be dangerous, especially if their costume impedes their ability to move easily. If your child were to trip and fall, they could loosen or knock out a tooth. This is fairly common dental emergency on Halloween.
When you combine all the excitement about costumes and friends with a sugar rush, you get an increased chance that the kids will hurriedly tear into the candy and injury a tooth. We advise parents to be careful with hard candy, in particular.
That's because not only does it stay in your mouth for a long time, giving bacteria more time to feed off the sugar, but it also poses a risk for your teeth if you bite down on it before it's had a chance to dissolve.
This can chip or break a tooth, which is something we've seen our fair share of over the years. If you can avoid hard candy altogether, that's probably the best way to prevent injury to your child's teeth.
Call Us When You Need Emergency Dental Care!
For a fun and safe Halloween, remember to keep your child's trick-or-treat path well lit and the hard candy stored away for the bigger kids in the family, like you and your spouse! Also, you can store the phone number to Oregon Smile Care Center in your phone.
That way you don't have to give a moment's thought about who to call or where to go in the event of a dental emergency on Halloween. Dr. Hanson and all of us here in Salem care about the oral health of everyone in your household. So we want to do all we can, no matter the hour, to help you get the dental care you need as soon as possible.
Hopefully, we've given you the tools to help you prevent a dental emergency, and to know how to handle things if you do. We also hope you don't have to use our emergency dental services, but it's nice to know you can count on us when and if that ever happens!
In the meantime, have a frightfully fun Halloween! When you need us, give us a call at (503) 837-2718 or fill out our online form to schedule an appointment.