Have a sweet tooth?

This Valentine’s Day, more than 36 million heart-shaped chocolate boxes will fly off the shelves as last minute shoppers scoop up presents to give their loved ones. Underneath those red cellophane wrappers lie a delectable collection of nuts, nougat, caramel and other exotic fillings encased in rich creamy chocolate. Is your mouth watering yet? Open up the package and sink your teeth into a nice chewy caramel-pecan crisp.

Your dentist is cringing somewhere.

“We get a lot of calls after holidays like these for tooth sensitivity,” Dr. Charles Ranson of Ewing Family Dentistry says. The holidays credited with doing the most damage to your teeth are Halloween, Easter and Valentine’s Day, in that order.

“Cavities don’t happen overnight,” Ranson says, “But if a cavity gets deep enough, or close enough to the nerve, that exposure will cause sensitivity to hot or cold or to sugars because the enamel that used to protect it is not there anymore.”

“Candy doesn’t cause cavities, plaque does,” Ranson says. Although candy doesn’t contain plaque, it provides a food source for the plaque that is already in your mouth.

Plaque is a bacteria that lives on the surfaces of your teeth or your gums, he says. It is a sticky white substance that films over teeth and erodes the enamel and tooth surface. It causes cavities and gum disease. When plaque is exposed to sugars and starches, it attacks your teeth for 20 minutes.

“Sticky caramels, taffy or any kind of hard candy that stays in your mouth for a long period of time are the worse for your teeth,” says Ranson.

He explains that when you have sticky candies like that, the food source, which is the candy, is available to the bacteria for longer. That’s why chocolate by itself isn’t that bad because it’s melted away by your warm saliva. “The sticky candies get wedged into small places and can stay there, providing a food source for the plaque. In a similar way, long-lasting hard candies sit in your mouth against your cheek and supply sugars to the bacteria,” Ranson says.

The American tradition of exchanging sweets on Valentine’s Day is an old one. It began with the colonists when they started giving each other home-made candies and treats. Commercialization set in soon after and in 1868, Richard Cadbury created the first Valentine’s Day box of chocolates. In 1902, Sweet Hearts were created by NECCO with sayings like “be mine” already etched on them.

The tradition is alive and strong today and this year eight billion conversation hearts will be produced for the six-week selling season. So, in order to minimize holiday harm to your pearly whites, follow these American Dental Association guidelines.

Brush your teeth twice a day using fluorinated toothpaste. Try to limit in-between meal snacking, chew sugarless gum, and floss.

Dr. Ranson recommends drinking plenty of water or rinsing out your mouth after a sweet treat. He says that brushing is best, but rinsing can wash the sugars away from any plaque that may be on the teeth.