The American Academy Of Pediatric Dentistry Encourages Parents To Be Aware Of Mouth Monsters This Halloween

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), the leading authority on children's oral health, is encouraging parents and caregivers to enjoy a Mouth Monster-free Halloween. Whether your kids are attending Halloween parties or trick or treating in the neighborhood, keep on the lookout for ghosts, goblins and worst of all, Mouth Monsters. Sweets can still be part of the Halloween fun as long as parents and caregivers help their children practice moderation and proper oral hygiene to keep their mouths healthy.

According to AAPD President Dr. Edward Moody, "Let children have fun and enjoy trick-or-treating or a Halloween party, but don't let them choose the treats on their own. When they get home, go through the bags of candy together and let them pick a limited number of treats to keep. Remember, as a general rule, the stickier and gooey something is, the worse it is for teeth. Good oral health habits allow children to enjoy sweets as a treat and still keep a healthy smile."

Below are some ideas parents and caregivers can incorporate into festivities to scare the Mouth Monsters away but still keep Halloween full of fun.

Beware of the Mouth Monsters' Favorite Treats!
After a night of candy collecting, kids love to dive into their stash and begin sorting. Before they get started, remember that not all sweet treats impact teeth in the same way. A fun way to guide kids towards more tooth-friendly candy is by sorting goodies according to which are best and worst for your kids' pearly whites, including:

·         Candy to avoid includes gummies, caramels and sour candies. The chewy, sticky candies get stuck in the grooves and crevices of the teeth making it hard for saliva to wash them away which leads to tooth decay. Sour candies have a high acidity content which breaks down tooth enamel, making teeth susceptible to a Mouth Monster invasion.

·         Better choices  include milk chocolate and snack-size packets of pretzels or crackers. These options are less sticky and do not have high acidity, therefore are less harmful to teeth than gummies, caramels or sour candies. However, it's important to limit snacking overall because a child's dental health depends less on what they eat and more on how often they eat it.

·         Best options for a sweet treat include sugar-free gum and dark chocolate. Dark chocolate contains antioxidants like tannins, polyphenols and flavonoids that can inhibit bacteria from sticking to the teeth, preventing infections in gums and battling tooth decay. Sugar-free gum made with xylitol promotes the growth of tooth-protective, non-acidic bacteria which can make it nearly impossible for bacteria and plaque to form.

Finally, for those who are passing out tricks and treats, remember non-food favorites like temporary tattoos, stickers and glow-sticks are great alternatives.

Swish and Brush!
Let's face it - most kids don't look forward to Halloween for the sugar-free gum and dark chocolate. And that's ok. If kids are indulging in any kind of candy, ensure they drink plenty of water after eating the treat.  Encourage them to swish the water around in the mouth to help dislodge particles that can get stuck and encourage the Mouth Monsters to latch onto tiny teeth.

And whatever you do, don't let your young ones go to bed before brushing and flossing if all sides of a tooth cannot be cleaned by brushing alone. It's a busy, exciting time, but as is the case with every other day of the year, kids should brush their teeth for at least 2 minutes, twice a day.

Women's Heart Attack Symptoms

7 Heart Attack Signs Women -- and Doctors -- Often Miss

Conventional wisdom has it that heart attacks come out of the blue. We're also trained to expect a heart attack to happen a certain way: The victim clutches his chest, writhes in pain, and collapses. But for women, it often doesn't happen that way. Study after study shows heart attacks and heart disease are under-diagnosed in women, with the explanation being that they didn't have symptoms.

But research shows that's not always the case. Women who've had heart attacks realize, looking back, that they experienced significant symptoms -- they just didn't recognize them as such.

In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, 95 percent of women (that's almost all!) who'd had heart attacks reported experiencing symptoms that were decidedly new or different from their previous experience a month or more before their attacks.

Even when a heart attack is occurring, women are often slow to realize what's happening and call a doctor. The reason? Women's heart attack symptoms are different than men's. This failure to recognize heart attack signs in women has led to a grim statistic: Women are more likely to die from sudden cardiac death than men are, and two thirds of women who have a heart attack don't recover completely.

To prevent a heart attack from sneaking up on you, watch for these 7 little-known signs of heart attack:

Fatigue. More than 70 percent of women in the NIH study reported extreme fatigue in the month or months prior to their heart attacks. This was not just your run-of-the-mill tiredness -- the kind you can power through -- this was an overwhelming fatigue that sidelined them from their usual schedules for a few days at a time.

Sleeplessness or insomnia. Despite their fatigue, women who've had heart attacks remember experiencing unexplained inability to fall asleep or stay asleep during the month before their heart attacks.

Anxiety and stress. Stress has long been known to up the risk of heart attack. But what women report is the emotional experience; before their heart attacks they felt anxious, stressed, and keyed up, noticeably more than usual. Moments before or during a heart attack, many women report a feeling they describe as "impending doom;" they're aware that something's drastically wrong and they can't cope, but they're not sure what's going on.

Indigestion or nausea. Stomach pain, intestinal cramps, nausea, and digestive disruptions are another sign reported by women heart attack patients. Become familiar with your own digestive habits, and pay attention when anything seems out of whack. Note especially if your system seems upset and you haven't eaten anything out of the ordinary.

Shortness of breath. Of the women in the NIH study, more than 40 percent remembered experiencing this symptom. One of the comments the women made is that they noticed they couldn't catch their breath while walking up the stairs or doing other daily tasks.

Flu-like symptoms. Clammy, sweaty skin, along with feeling lightheaded and weak, can lead women to wonder if they have the flu when, in fact, they're having a heart attack.

Jaw, ear, neck, back, or shoulder pain. While pain and numbness in the chest, shoulder, and arm is a common sign of heart attack (at least, among men), women often don't experience the pain this way. Instead, many women say they felt pain and a sensation of tightness running along their jaw and down the neck, and sometimes up to the ear, as well. The pain may extend down to the shoulder and arm--particularly on the left side--or it may feel like a backache or pulled muscle in the neck and back.

How to protect yourself or the women you care about

In addition to the symptoms they do have, women differ from men in another significant way -- they may not experience many of the symptoms we traditionally associate with heart attacks. This, experts say, is a major reason why women's heart attacks go unrecognized and untreated. Almost half of all women in the NIH study felt no chest pain, even during the heart attack itself. Numbness is another symptom women may not experience, experts say.

If your body is doing unusual things and you just don't feel "right," don't wait. Go see your doctor and ask for a thorough work-up. And if you have any risk factors for cardiac disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, or family history of heart disease, mention these to the doctor. Time is of the essence, so don't count on medical staff to know your background or read your chart -- tell them your risk factors right away, so your condition can be evaluated fully and completely.