The Teeth-Decay Experiment

The Teeth-Decay Experiment uses six different beverages to demonstrate how they can affect our teeth over long periods of time. It uses popular drinks and eggs to demonstrate how they can hurt our teeth.
Adib Kaddoura
Grade 8

Hypothesis

Hypothesis, which one will do the best? The worst?

My hypothesis:

The water would be left unfazed, remaining solid and intact.The coffee would deteriorate and destroy the shell.The juice wouldn't have done any serious damage, but will become soft.The coke will crack and destroy the egg. Leaving it shattered. The sprite would soften the egg, but wouldn't penetrate nor damage the shell. The kool-Aid would melt the shell. Infiltrating through cracks it would have made.

 

Research

North Americans drink an average of 399 servings of coke each year, imagine what that does to your teeth. This is why i have decided to make an experiment on the effects of different beverages on our teeth!  For this experiment i am using eggs to represent teeth, because eggshells have similar chemical composition to our tooth enamel. As Well as using six different beverages to see which is worst for your teeth, and which is best! The eggshells should react closely to the way our teeth would react. I hard boiled the eggs to make sure that when handling them, they wouldn't break. 

 

 

 

Variables

independant variable: The only thing changing from this expiriment are the different liquids the eggs are placed in.

controlled: All the eggs are from the same carton, all the eggs were hard-boiled at the same time, all of the eggs are in same size containers all eggs are in prestine condition, the eggs are in a controlled tempatatured envoirnment (fridge), The volume of liquid poured into the container. The number of days the eggs have been in the liquid.

dependant varible: The only dependant variable are the eggs.

Procedure

The first step of the experiment was to carefully place all 6 eggs into boiling water for 8 minutes. That way we were sure the eggs were cooked for the exact amount of time in the exact same temperature. The second step was to get 6 vessels and 6 different liquids to place the eggs in. Once the eggs were cooled., the vessels were filled and placed into the fridge. Every day I checked the eggs by removing them from the containers onto a paper towel, observed them, and then placed them back into their vessles to be observed again the next day. 

Observations

         

 day 0

                 

day 1:

The water was as expected, no change from the outside.

The coffee was tainted, but had remained intact

The juice was interesting, it was softer than the other eggs, and also had white dots all over it.

The coke was similar to the coffee. Stained, but still sturdy. 

The sprite may seem good at first glance, but upon further inspection, it had had excrements of the shell of the egg all over it.

The kool aid was nothing special, it was stained red, but other than that it was fine.

Overall, the eggshells were not as bad as i hypothesized. But that could all change quickly.

day 2: 

The water began to start getting murky, but the first egg remained solid.

The second egg was stained from the coffee. But did not have any exterior damage.

The juice was deteriorating the shell of the third egg. It also stained the egg purple with white dots around it.

The egg inside of the coke, began to develop brown spots around its stained shell and was starting to soften.

The fifth egg had its shell peeling off, melting away from the sprite.

The kool-Aid had only stained the shell, as it was still as solid as day 1.

Overall, they are starting to deteriorate more and more, becoming less solid, and getting more cracks.

day 3:

The first egg, began to yellow, possibly from the murky water.

The coffee-egg had little to no changes, only becoming a little more stained then day 2.

The juice had deteriorated the shell so bad it began to develop bumps and dents, the juice had also began melting the shell.

The shell on the coke-egg had finally began deteriorating. It also grew more brown spots.

The sprite-egg had become soft, scratching it would scrape the shell off easily.

The kool-Aid had the least amount of damage. Only being stained. Surprisingly solid As Well..

 

 

Analysis

 

 

Conclusion

My hypothesis was far from correct. Surprisingly the drinks you would least expect did the most damage, and the ones which seemed like they would be the worst did not do all the damage you anticipated them to do. the water was one of my only correct guess. The pomegranate juice surprised me. As Well as the Kool-Aid. The coffee, which i hypothesized to have done the worst damage, ended up not even damaging the shell. The coke and sprite both did some damage, but it wasn't as i expected them to do. But this should be a lesson to always watch what you consume, and to never judge a book by its cover.

Application

The results of my project changed my veiw on certain drinks and also made me more concious to what i consume, it made me aware of the effects of different drinks on the teeth,

Sources Of Error

leaving the containers uncovered, could have altered the acidity of the liquids, the eggs could have come from different chickens, making it impossible to have the same chemical composition of the shell.

Citations

Vanstone, Emma.

"Tooth Experiment with Eggs."

Science Sparks.

https://www.science-sparks.com/how-to-keep-teeth-healthy/

Februrary, 1, 2023.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my science teacher, mrs khalil for beliving my ability to go the distance nessary to become the greatest i can be. I would also like to thank my mother for assisting me for the things i needed extra help on.