Having a sweet tooth can pay off

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For the past seven years, however, he and his partners — Drs. John Archer, Brian Amy, Justin Power and Geoff Sparks — have asked patients for pounds and pounds of the sweet stuff.

The request isn't because the men have a sweet tooth — quite the opposite. Instead, the partners at Orthodontics Associates, with offices in Oklahoma City and Edmond, each year do a candy buy-back program after Halloween.

"This started just as an attempt to take some of the candy out of circulation after Halloween,” Birdwell said. "Now it's become incredibly popular.”

So popular, in fact, that this year the partners netted 424 pounds of candy — their biggest haul since the program started in 2000.

"I'm sure we got candy from Christmas, Easter and Halloween,” Birdwell said. "I don't know how long some of this candy has been sitting around.”

One family brought in 27 pounds of candy, he said — all of it weighed on a big scale in the office.

Not only does the buy-back program help save the teeth of patients (people with braces should avoid candy anyway, Birdwell said), but the orthodontists also give $1 for each pound of candy to juvenile diabetes research.

And the patients get a sweet incentive as well.

For each pound of candy brought in, the patient gets an "OAT,” an Orthodontics Associates Treasury, good for redemption on all sorts of gift certificates to restaurants and stores or on toys for kids and adults alike. OATs can even be used to pay for teeth bleaching.

Birdwell said OATs are given for other reasons as well, such as for practicing good orthodontic care and for community service or good grades.

Birdwell guessed more than 200 people participated in this year's candy buy-back, adults and kids alike.

Though the program was deemed a huge success, Birdwell has just one more problem. "Now I have to keep my staff out of it,” he said, and laughed.

Actually, the goodies are donated to area churches for use in festivals and other events, he said.