Some kids in my family start losing their milk teeth. 🦷
While we don’t do the tooth fairy 🧚 stuff, I wondered whether there’s any cool kid-friendly experiments 🔬 to do with their deciduous teeth? Like dissolving them in easily available liquids to teach them the importance of brushing, or maybe some material strength tests to show how cool enamel is?
Hit me with some cool ideas, I‘ve got a few teeth to experiment with 😃
One of the most infamous experiments is submerging the tooth in cola, to show the importance of brushing. In primary school, it was done on white eggs though, but using a tooth would be more authentic. Ironically, while the tooth should completely rot in cola, the liquid is perfect for washing household things (the sink or a toilet bowl for example).
That’s always been a pretty misleading interpretation of the experiment.
The experiment is great. It’s good to teach kids about acids and bases and this basic chemistry.
It’s just that the same thing happens if you put a dead tooth in any acid, including the ones that are required for you to live, like vitamin c, and the ones that people drink because they think it’s healthy, like vinegar.
Should I be drinking vinegar out of the bottle instead of dousing my chips with it?
My parents eat spoonfuls of cider vinegar, claiming it helps with arthritis. I tried it once and decided I would rather have the arthritis.
Vinegar is food, not medicine.
Consume it however you want.
I’m going to A&E before this thing cracks inside me.
Does it really? I tried that with some meat when I was a kid, and other than turning a little ugly not much changed.
Yes it totally does. My teachers got a load of disembodied teeth when I was about 6, and we tied them to string and left them suspended in various drinks. The ones in coca cola had completely disappeared by the end of the experiment.
And afterwards it makes a great mixer!
You guys and your awesome, eco-friendly, life hacks! Where would I be without you?
Dontchya think its a little disingenuous or at least contrived to be doing that when most people would have rinsed long before that even close to became an issue, if even unknowingly? Did they time its dissolution?
Come to think of it, I agree. Regarding the experiment with eggs, I distinctly remember the soda laden egg being submerged in the liquid for 24/7, where as the other egg received water and toothpaste. Perhaps a more accurate and interesting experiment would be to wash the tooth with soda and every morning/ evening wash it with toothpaste? Theoretically this can still show how important brushing is, if toothpaste really helps combat the acids from cola.