Written by Dr. Pasha | Prevention Dentistry Insights
Remember the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, where you pick an actor and then name actors they’ve worked with until you land on a Kevin Bacon film? Try it on a road trip– it’s an easy way to kill an hour– in most cases it won’t take more than a few moves before you get to Kevin Bacon. In this post I’m going to do something similar, but instead of actors, I’m going to relate Vitamin A to Halloween.
Let’s talk Vitamin A, first. This essential mineral helps maintain healthy saliva flow, ensuring that bacteria and other harmful substances are washed from the teeth. Vitamin A is also a necessary agent in tooth enamel production. Tooth enamel is the outer shell of your teeth that prevents the activity in your mouth from becoming painful. According to the American Dental Hygenist’s association, “a tooth’s enamel contains Keratin, a type of protein, and requires Vitamin A for its formation.”
Where’s the Halloween link? Easy: when you go trick-or-treating on Halloween you’ll haul in a bunch of candy. In the weeks following you’ll consume this candy in a voracious binge of calories and sugar. Confectionary substances stick to your teeth like nothing else and ensure that the sugar gets a good look at the weakest parts of your tooth enamel. Loading up on vitamin A will help your saliva production, which will help with removing this remnant material from your teeth. You’ll also have stronger tooth enamel as a result of increased Vitamin A intake.
How can you maximize your Vitamin A intake? This is where the Halloween part really kicks in. Many of the foods rich in Vitamin A are also… orange. Kapow! Didn’t see that coming, did you? Pumpkin? Sweet potato? What about mango, cantaloupe, or carrots? They’re all orange, they’re all packed with Vitamin A, and one of them (I’ll let you guess which) is at the heart of Halloween fun!
In the end, I didn’t relate Vitamin A to Halloween all that well, but you know a little more about the former, and perhaps you’re more excited about the latter.
Smiling, Aging, and Dentistry