Imagine your five year-old self post Halloween basking in the glory of your stash of October 31st sugar. This stuff is going to make your stomach hurt for months.

You go to pick out which pieces you’ll enjoy, only to find a dollar in place of the beautiful candy you worked so hard for. I mean you had already traded with your friend who likes Almond Joys for all of their Reese’s (which are your favorite). Where the heck did it all go and what’s with this dollar?

Dentists have killed the buzz of Halloween even more than usual this year. (How could it be worse than passing out toothbrushes?) They took a page from Jimmy Kimmel and are buying back candy from kids. Let’s hope these kids were as smart as we were and remembered to hide some under their beds.

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Photo by Paulina Lam

The program isn’t actually there to ruin kids’ Halloweens. Rather, it aims to serve a larger purpose. It started with one dentist in 2005 buying back candy to reduce the amount of sugar in circulation after Halloween, but since then, dentists across the nation have taken it up a notch by teaming up with Operation Gratitude, an awesome organization that sends care packages to our troops. So far, they have sent over 130 tons of candy over seas.

So I guess dentists aren’t actually trying to kill the sugar high of Halloween. They mean well, but I bet there are more tears than Jimmy Kimmel’s “I Ate All Your Candy” videos every year. I would probably prefer keeping my candy over one measly dollar.

See for yourself how the Halloween Candy Buyback and Operation Gratitude are making a difference in the lives of soldiers. Check out the website here.

And just for fun, check out all these poor, sad kids whose parents ate their candy.