Oakbrook Terrace dentist will buy your Halloween candy

Dentist Mark Ligocki is offering a sweet deal to young trick-or-treaters.

For the second year, the Oakbrook Terrace dentist is offering to buy back their Halloween candy for $1 a pound and ship it to U.S. troops overseas. He'll throw in a free toothbrush, too.

“It's a good way to keep sugar off the streets, or out of (children's) mouths, and to put a big smile on the faces of our servicemen and women,” Ligocki said.

Last year, he collected 135 pounds of snack-size Snickers bars, Tootsie Pops, Dots and other Halloween treats. This year, he hopes to double that amount, or more.

Now Ligocki isn't one of those dentists who hates candy.

He even has a candy bowl in his office filled with real candy, “not the sugar-free junk.” Usually, it's Life Savers or Jolly Ranchers.

He uses it as a teachable moment to reinforce the habit of brushing after eating.

A little candy followed by tooth cleaning is one thing, but most trick-or-treaters get a huge haul. Nobody needs 10 pounds of candy, he said, and some types of candy can lead to broken teeth and damaged braces.

Ligocki will collect the candy from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 1 at his office, 1S224 Summit Ave., Suite 202. Kids can watch as their extra candy is weighed on a baby scale borrowed from a pediatrics practice in the same building. And they'll have a chance to guess the number of candy corn pieces in a jar to win a door prize.

Ligocki also is accepting donations of Beef Jerky to send to the troops and cash to help pay for shipping and shipping boxes.

Some parents have an ulterior motive to encourage their kids to donate excess candy. It's too tempting for Mom and Dad.

“The parents don't want all that stuff laying around,” Ligocki said.