One Of Our Young Patient’s Science Project!

SO… WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU COMBINE A FOURTH GRADER with nine pulled (and VERY sterilized!) teeth, AND nine different liquids? ANSWER: You get a really cool science project!

When one of our favorite young patients, Anna, came to us asking for pulled teeth we thought, “What the…?” Then she went on to explain that for her fourth grade science project at Challenger School she wanted to test the effects of certain kinds of beverages on tooth enamel! Wow, what a fun idea!

So, we collected about a dozen extracted teeth over the next couple of weeks. And of course, we went to great lengths to ensure that they were completely sterilized and safe for her to handle.

One of the first things Anna needed to figure out was how to weigh the teeth with a VERY accurate scale in order to measure the amount of enamel loss over time. We turned to our good friends at Utah Valley Dental Lab who gladly let Anna come in and use their very sensitive scale to weigh the teeth:

Anna conducted her test using the following liquids:

1. Sprite
2. Chocolate Milk
3. Water
4. Red Bull
5. Orange Juice
6. Spicy V8
7. Gatorade
8. Coke
9. Iced Tea

Then, she took her results and created a nice presentation for the science fair:

The results?

As Anna’s hypothesis predicted, the liquids that are hardest on teeth are the ones that are highly acidic—namely Lemon-Lime Gatorade and Red Bull.

So… A lesson to all of us! Dr. Hammond and Dr. Ellis both recommend that when you drink highly acidic beverages it’s a good idea to rinse you mouth with water afterwards (or brush you teeth).

And thanks, Anna, for letting our practice be part of your experiment!

If any of you would like our help for similar kinds of projects, we’d love to help. Let us know!

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