BINGHAM FARMS, Michigan — The Smile Creator, also known as Dr. Timothy Kosinski, DDS, wants to help children keep their lovely smiles by encouraging their parents to avoid candy in the Easter Baskets this year.
More teeth are destroyed Easter morning than at any other holiday except Halloween, says Kosinski. To address the problem, he recommends tooth-friendly baskets.
Americans spend more than $1.5 billion on Easter candy each year, second only to the $1.77 billion spent on Halloween, according to the National Confectioners Association. Americans each year eat the equivalent of 25 pounds of candy per person, plus an additional 2 pounds of gum each.
“Given the love we all have for candy, I certainly wouldn’t recommend that we not give our children candy for Easter, Halloween, Christmas or Valentine’s Day,” Kosinski said. “But I plan on making this Easter more fun and healthy by giving my children a tooth-friendly Easter Basket, which I strongly suspect many other parents also would like to do.”
Kosinski suggests parents substitute candy with stickers, stuffed animals, pocket-sized games, coloring books, Crayons, books, comic books, magazines, videos, and video games. Sugar-free gummy bears, gum and lollipops also are fun and healthy.
In sample baskets at his office, Kosinski also includes children’s toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss and even a tooth fairy pillow for lost teeth. In addition, he suggests key chains, baseball cards, flavored lip balm, colorful bandages, flower or vegetable seed packets, sidewalk chalk, sunglasses and colored shoelaces or building blocks. Grapes and carrots also are good additions to the Sunday-morning tradition.
“Brushing after eating candy or any food is still the best way to avoid cavities,” says Dr. Kosinski. “Parents can help by reducing or completely eliminating hard candy that children suck on or let melt in their mouths.”
Kosinski stresses that if you must indulge than brush immediately afterward.
“I am not a Scrooge,” admits Kosinski. “Eating candy is fine, and I know you can’t take that away. But I would rather they eat that whole bunny at one sitting, get it over with and brush the teeth, and then it is done. It is the constant snacking all day long – nibbling on an ear now and a foot later – that’s when we start to see the sticking to the teeth.”
For more information about Dr. Kosinski or SmileCreator go to www.smilecreator.net, call 248-646-8651 or send an email query to allquestions@smilecreator.net. SmileCreator is located at 31000 Telegraph Rd., Suite 170, Bingham Farms, MI 48025.
About Dr. Timothy Kosinski: He has practiced general and implant dentistry for 20 years. A graduate of University of Detroit Dental School, he completed comprehensive implant training at Harvard. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral Implantology/Implant Dentistry, The International Congress of Oral Implantologists and the American Society of Osseointegration. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Implant Dentistry and most recently received his Mastership in the AGD in Anaheim this year. Dr. Kosinski has been inducted into the American and International Colleges of Dentists and the Academy of Dentistry International. Dr. Kosinski was selected the Best Dentist in America by his peers in 2004-2005.