It’s that time of year again when bands of costumed children arrive at your door looking for sugary treats. A couple of days of candy binging is not likely to cause serious problems for any of them, or their teeth. But the huge amounts of candy that are currently collected in neighborhoods like ours can last for months. And that can be a health problem.

To help reduce this concern, we are holding our 2nd annual Halloween Candy Buy Back from 2-4 pm on Wednesday, November 3 at our office in Happy Valley Town Center. It’s very simple: the kids bring their candy, we weigh it, and they receive $1/pound. The candy is then shipped to Operation Gratitude, an organization that collects candy from all over the country and places it in care packages with other items for the troops overseas. The soldiers use the candy to create goodwill with the children in the area. We will have a card center where kids can create a message of appreciation to the troops, which will be added to the packages. Here is a link to a video showing the work of Operation Gratitude.

My son, Jonathan, is a captain in the US Army and has been deployed to Iraq. I know how much our support means to the men and women who are putting themselves into harm’s way every day.

To sweeten the deal we are having a drawing for some great prizes including an iPod nano and a $500 gift certificate toward orthodontic treatment with Dr. Tracy Ouyang.

So gather up your kids, their candy, and come on down to turn their candy into cash.

Yours for excellent dental health,
Dr. S