Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

have an experiment about soda. it'll be like,, I will take two teeth from the same person and clean them with some substance to decease all bacteria. Then, place one in ordinary bottled water, and the other with a soda. is it a good one, or should i start a new one?[

Hi illeval,

Your question is nice: what does soda do to your body? And now you want to test to see if teeth dissolve in water or in soda? Well, I don't know exactly what you need help with. Have you done research on soda and its effect on humans?

On other note, your question is very general, but your test is very specific. If you want to see its effects on teeth, then your question should directly indicate that. If you don't, rather you want to see soda's overall effects, then you should change your test.

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Sareena

Hi illeval,

Your question is a good one, and it will make a nice project.

Here are some things to consider:

1) It might help to have more than one tooth for each treatment. With only one tooth in water and one tooth in soda, you can't say for sure that the changes you see are due only to your treatment and not due to something like contamination. Your idea to get two teeth from the same person is a very nice one, though. Perhaps you can get two teeth each from more than one person?

2) What are you planning to use to clean the teeth initially? Make sure it is something that kills bacteria but does not wear away tooth enamel. Otherwise, you may cause damage to the teeth before applying your treatments!

3) Think about the things you want to measure. For example, you can look at tooth color, size, and shape. If you want to record any changes, you need to measure these things initially (before you put the teeth in the liquids). You can use color photographs to record the initial color and shape, and then measure the size of the teeth with a ruler.

I hope that helps get you going.

Cheers,
Heather

mostman wrote:Hi illeval,

Your question is a good one, and it will make a nice project.

Here are some things to consider:

1) It might help to have more than one tooth for each treatment. With only one tooth in water and one tooth in soda, you can't say for sure that the changes you see are due only to your treatment and not due to something like contamination. Your idea to get two teeth from the same person is a very nice one, though. Perhaps you can get two teeth each from more than one person?

2) What are you planning to use to clean the teeth initially? Make sure it is something that kills bacteria but does not wear away tooth enamel. Otherwise, you may cause damage to the teeth before applying your treatments!

3) Think about the things you want to measure. For example, you can look at tooth color, size, and shape. If you want to record any changes, you need to measure these things initially (before you put the teeth in the liquids). You can use color photographs to record the initial color and shape, and then measure the size of the teeth with a ruler.

I hope that helps get you going.

Cheers,
Heather

Someone has asked about a similar project before... one thing that came up in that discussion is using egg shell instead of teeth. This way, you can do many different experiments or trials as Heather suggests above.

You should be able to search the forums for "teeth" or "egg shell" "eggshell" and find this discussion.

Louise

My advice is that if you aren't sure if your project is good, you should start over (if you have the time). Especially at such an early stage, I reccomend changing your topic because it should reflect something you are passionate about AND something that you know you have the resources to complete well...
Paulo