Science U
How to Test Tooth Decay - Acidic Drinks
Season 2 Episode 2 | 2m 20sVideo has Closed Captions
Dental Decay - Will the acid in drinks weaken your teeth?
Dental Decay - Will the acid in drinks weaken your teeth? Tooth enamel is tough but can be eroded by acids in your mouth. ScienceU campers tested their favorite drinks for acid levels with pH test strips and soaked teeth in each drink to see if the acid weakened tooth enamel.
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Science U is a local public television program presented by WPSU
Science U
How to Test Tooth Decay - Acidic Drinks
Season 2 Episode 2 | 2m 20sVideo has Closed Captions
Dental Decay - Will the acid in drinks weaken your teeth? Tooth enamel is tough but can be eroded by acids in your mouth. ScienceU campers tested their favorite drinks for acid levels with pH test strips and soaked teeth in each drink to see if the acid weakened tooth enamel.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Nothing like a cool drink on a hot summer day!
But, hey campers, lots of those drinks are filled with acids!
Phosphoric acid?!
Citric acid?!
What is this stuff doing to my teeth?!
Teeth are tough - they're covered with enamel - a mineral form of calcium.
But will the acid weaken my teeth?
So we put it to a test!
To measure the amount of acid in drinks we use PH test strips.
The lower the number, the stronger the acid.
The water was neutral - but the orange juice had acid.
Cola is very acidic.
The sports drinks had acid too.
What would happen if we soaked teeth in these different drinks?
Okay, we got these teeth just for this test!
These are shark teeth.
Shark teeth!
We poured each drink in its own cup.
And dropped in one tooth per cup.
Then let them soak for five days.
These are the cups from last time with teeth in them inside, okay?
Does that look pretty gross or what?
One of the tests that we do afterward is to see if we can scratch enamel off the tooth.
Okay, so the enamel was pretty tough in the tooth that was just soaking in water - But if I move to, let's say, a tooth soaked in cola, I was able to scratch the surface!
It's a smiley face!
Exactly!
And so you can see that the enamel was weakened by the acids in the cola.
In fact - if we let teeth soak in cola for 90 days - three whole months - the acid will completely dissolve the enamel!
So here's what we're going to do after drinking acidic drinks.
If you can, rinse your mouth with water!
Wait an hour - >> Kids: And brush your teeth!
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