Montco Dentist Buys Back Kids' Halloween Candy, Donates It To Troops
By Pat Loeb
FLOURTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- It's taken for granted that dentists hate Halloween: all that candy decaying all those young teeth.
But now, a Montgomery County dentists is doing something about it.
Dr. Angela Stout says she likes the "spirit" of Halloween -- the dressing up, the make-pretend. But, oh, that sticky candy!
"Sometimes, the day after Halloween, we have a few extra emergencies if they have caps or braces or appliances on their teeth," she tells KYW Newsradio. "Sticky candy can tend to pull them out."
So Dr. Stout (right), of Chesheim Dental Associates in Flourtown, has started a post-Halloween candy buyback with her pediatric patients: a dollar a pound, for up to five pounds from each kid.
This week, she'll take the hundreds of pounds of candy she has collected to the USO at Philadelphia International Airport, and they'll use it in care packages for the troops in Afghanistan and on domestic bases.
"I hear from the USO office the troops just absolutely love getting these care packages," Stout says, "so if we can make these soldiers smile and at the same time keep our kids' smiles healthy, I think that's a great thing."
