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Bondi dental clinic offering kids cash in exchange for Halloween candy

Youngsters come back from a night of trick-or-treating with a bagful of candy. However, Entrepreneurial kids can this year return with a bagful of cash.

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A Bondi dental clinic will buy back children’s trick-or-treat candy after the cavity-producing holiday.

Bondi Dental is paying $10 per kilogram for bags of lollies collected over Halloween.

The dentist will donate the lollies to the Wayside Chapel to be eaten by adults in moderation.

Bondi Dental launched the ‘trick-or-treat buyback’ initiative five years ago to stop kids eating “all that candy at the same time” on Halloween and “promote better oral health habits”.

“Eating a lot in one day is particularly bad for teeth,” Bondi Dental practice manager Agustina Alvavalve said.

Kids handing in their candy for the trick or treat buyback at Bondi Dental.
Kids handing in their candy for the trick or treat buyback at Bondi Dental.
Bondi Dental practice manager Agustina Alvavalve.
Bondi Dental practice manager Agustina Alvavalve.

“They’re eating one piece of candy one hour, and another one hour later, and another. It causes the PH to go down every time we have the lollies, with no time to buffer acid attacks from the sweets,” she said.

Ms Alvavalve said one child who didn’t like sweets came into the clinic last year hoping to pick up enough money to buy a surfboard.

“Little kids get super exited and try to guess how much their going to get (for their candy),” she said.

Tooth decay in early childhood often leads to future tooth decay in adolescence and adulthood.

By nine years old, 50 per cent of children in NSW have experience tooth decay in their baby teeth, and by 12 years old, 35 per cent of kids have experienced tooth decay in adult teeth.

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/wentworth-courier/bondi-dental-clinic-offering-kids-cash-in-exchange-for-halloween-candy/news-story/ff02d7d057d59bb2ba8b383f0671e28e