Cindy Lange-Kubick: Hohl's goal: Get sticky treats off street

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My inner child thinks it’s a real crummy idea.

Blasphemous, almost. Buying back Butterfingers from tiny trick-or-treaters?

Gotta be a trick, right?

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Nope, says Rebecca Hohl, a Lincoln orthodontist offering $2 a pound for Halloween candy turned in to her office by Nov. 8.

We all know candy isn’t good for our teeth, she says, my inner mom grudgingly nodding along.

The sticky sugar sticks to her patient’s braces and lodges between their pearly whites, and at this time of year, it’s everywhere, in great cavity-inducing quantities.

So she posted a cheery sign in her office south of Campbell’s nursery on 56th Street.

“Got Candy? We’ll buy it!”

The idea came from the American Association of Orthodontists as a way to promote National Orthodontic Health Month.

Last year, she dangled $1 a pound in front of sugar-dazed children who took her up on her offer to the tune of 30 or 40 pounds of sweet stuff.

This year, she upped the ante to $2 a pound, with a matching donation to the American Cancer Society.

Anyone with extra candy is welcome.

She’s not anti-candy, Hohl explains.

Then she backs it up: Before she puts braces on her patients’ teeth. she actually gives them sugar.

Enjoy these gummi bears now, because you can’t have any for a long time, she tells them, handing over a bag.

And then, when the braces come off, she opens her candy cupboard.

Laffy Taffy? Snickers? Tootsie Roll, perhaps?

Hohl calls those the “bad candies.” Candy that can loosen a bracket on a patient’s braces.

But she figures a piece or two won’t hurt after all those months being a metal mouth, a small reward for being good.

She has three trick-or-treaters of her own, 3-year-old twins and a 6-year-old. And she’ll pass out candy at her front door Wednesday, stuff like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s bars.

“The soft, good candy.”

She knows kids aren’t going to turn in all of their Halloween loot.

“If they just turned in the sticky, gooey stuff,” she says.

Stuff like caramels and taffy and Sugar Babies.

Last year, people were excited about her idea. The kids liked making money for stuff they got for free by looking cute in their costumes, and parents liked the idea, period.

You don’t need to be a patient of hers to come in. You don’t need to wear braces.

She’ll even take candy from grownups, who just want to empty the Halloween bowl.

Anyone can stop by during business hours to have their candy weighed and collect the cash.

Think about it. It’s like when police departments have amnesty programs and citizens can turn over their pistols and shotguns, no questions asked.

Hohl’s just getting that candy off the streets, making the world a safer place.

Last year, after all the candy was weighed and bagged and paid for, one of her staffers hauled it to a nearby retirement center. (Apparently, the orthodontist wasn’t too worried about the effect on all those partial plates and crowns.)

“They put it out at dinner in candy dishes.”

They’ll pick a new place this year, spread the goodies — and the potential dental repair work — around.

Dr. Hohl hopes other offices will rally around the idea and candy amnesty will spread across the city.

She doesn’t even care if you bring in the stuff that might just find a place in the bottom of a plastic Goblin bag, anyway, lonely and forlorn with the bruised apples and stray honey roasted peanuts.

“Last year, we got a lot of that candy in the red and yellow wrapper. Yeah, Bit-O-Honey.

“Kids don’t really like those.”

Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com.