Att. Dentists, orthodontists, etc. I am doing an 8th grade science project.?

In this project I am going to soak real teeth in pop, tea, coffee, etc. I need to know what I can use or if I can measure how the tooth decays (weight). Also you know how a dentist pokes your teeth to see if you have cavities and if the "poker" sticks you do. Can you measure that in an extracted tooth?

Att. Dentists, orthodontists, etc. I am doing an 8th grade science project.?
You will not really be able to create a cavity in time for your science fair. Besides, the sugar in the Coke (whatever) would need some live bacteria on the tooth to interact with, so you won't be able to "grow" a cavity under lab conditions at home. You MIGHT be able to etch the tooth with the acid content of the Coke, but do not count on showing any damage that you can attribute ot the sugar.





Etching is the first step of tooth decay, though, so this might be acceptable. You need to understand what is going on and know how to explain it, though. Etching would show up as a very slight change in the appearance of the enamel surface. It would look sort of frosty white. The thing is, you would need an unetched surface to compare it to, or you probably would not notice any difference. Maybe you could put the tooth half-way under the liquid, hoping to etch one side and not the other. This may take a long time, though, as in probably a few days.





If you type "caries etiology" into a search, you will find over 15,000 articles to help explain how cavities are formed.





As far as weighing the tooth, this is not a bad idea, but the amount of weight change would so infinitesimally small that I doubt you have access to a scale that could detect it.
Reply:I hope you are able to come up with a good project in time... Report It

Reply:It cannot be measured in an extracted tooth.

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