My Amazing Body 3-minute video · ages 4-8 · free coloring page
Why does Halloween candy give you cavities?
Grown-ups always say that too much candy gives you cavities. A cavity is a little hole in a tooth. But how can candy make a hole?
3 min
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Free coloring page
The scene from the video as a coloring page, plus the three-sentence answer, the experiment, and a QR code back to this page. One sheet, US Letter, black and white.
The answer in three parts
Why?
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Your teeth wear a shiny suit of armor, called enamel.
It is the hardest thing in your whole body, even harder than bone!
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A few kinds of tiny germs love to eat sugar.
They live on teeth, in a sticky film called plaque. When you eat candy, the sugar sticks to your teeth, and the germs have a feast. As they eat, they make a sour stuff called acid.
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Acid slowly washes away tiny bits of the armor.
One treat is not a problem. But if the acid attacks again and again, day after day, a weak spot can turn into a tiny hole. That's a cavity! A cavity can grow, and it can hurt.
For grown-ups: Most mouth germs are harmless; only a few kinds live on teeth in plaque. Sticky candy and all-day snacking are the trickiest: chewy candy hides between teeth for a long time, and nibbling all day never gives spit a break. A few treats together after a meal, then a drink of water to rinse the sugar away, is easier on teeth.
Keep your smile strong
- Brush two times a dayfor two minutes
- Treats after a mealinstead of snacking all day
- Drink some waterit rinses the sugar away
- Visit the dentistto find weak spots early
Fluoride makes enamel even tougher.
A tiny experiment
Try it!
Paint the plaque pink
You need: a plaque tablet from the drugstore, a toothbrush, and a grown-up
- Ask a grown-up for a plaque tablet. Chew it.
- It paints the hidden plaque pink!
- Now brush. Can you make all the pink go away?
What happened? The pink shows the sticky film where the sugar-loving germs live.
Did you know?
You have a helper, your spit! Spit washes the sugar away, calms the acid down, and even puts tiny bits back into the enamel to fix weak spots. But it needs some time.
Candy is not a monster. It's the germs and their acid that make cavities.
Your guide in this video
I'm Wiggly, a baby tooth. Let me tell you a little secret about candy and teeth!
Wiggly is a little white baby tooth. The pink bean-shaped germs are the ones that love sugar.
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