Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Science Buddies,
I am having difficulty with one aspect of my project... I have been unable to find the chemical composition of enamel and dentin. The question for my research is: Which over the counter dental bleach makes teeth whiter? If you could help me out I would really appreciate it!
Sincerely,
lolopwalters

This is an interesting project.

Why do you need to know the chemical composition of enamel and dentin? Are you considering doing your experiment on some kind of synthetic samples? This is a pretty sophisticated approach that may be beyond your capabilities.

Both enamel and dentin are complex organic compounds. To demonstrate that to you, here is an article I found describing how a research team and a top university was able to synthesize tooth enamel. It took a whole team of really smart people to do this.

http://www.ns.umich.edu/index.html?Rele ... 05/r080405

Maybe you might want to type this into a Google search: "how to test teeth whiteners". It might give you some ideas on how to design your experiment.

Good luck and have fun.