Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Project Overview:
I will be testing whether alcohol free mouthwash is as good as the alcohol based mouthwash. My dependent variables are, the amount of plaque on the top two front incisors by using plaque exposing tablets, and the kinds of bacteria present in oral swabs taken before and after using the mouthwash by observing the samples under a microscope.

I need help finding 1 article on my dependent variable(s) and 2 articles on my independent variable. A .gov or .edu site is preferred but, even a nudge in the right direction is greatly appreciated. I am comfortable reading with articles using college level vocabulary, so you don't have to try to find an article "for kids" but, really any article pertaining to the subject will work fine.

Thank you, and I hope you have a nice day.

Hi,

This sounds like a great project!

When scientists are looking for articles about their topic, the website we usually use is http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed. This basically searches all of the scientific literature being published, so it will definitely have articles on your subject. The problem is that these articles are all written for fellow scientists, and mostly fellow scientists in the same field, so sometimes they are very difficult to understand (even for us scientists). You can give it a try, but don't get discouraged if you don't follow a lot of it. That is absolutely to be expected.

Alternatively, I would go ahead and do a bunch of google searches on your topics. As you mention, you'll then need to winnow out a lot of irrelevant, untrustworthy data and try to focus on .gov and .edu sites. You could also go directly to some government sites (CDC, FDA) or professional organizations (maybe the American Dental Association) and search directly on their website.

I hope this helps!
JMP

Thank you so much! It really helps with my research so I don't have to go sifting through articles written for second graders! Also, when it comes to new scientific terms, google is my secret weapon.

I wish you a good day,
Demetrios