The purpose of this experiment was to determine which of several commonly consumed beverages did the most damage to teeth after being exposed to the teeth for a long time. The beverages tested were Coca-Cola®, Diet Coke®, orange, and apple juice with a control of distilled water.
Information on the twenty teeth's mass and density was measured at the start of the experiment. Each tooth was placed in a designated container filled with one of the beverages. There were four cups for each beverage with one tooth per cup. The teeth were soaked for seven days, then they were removed from their beverage, dried over a period of one hour, and then density was recorded. The change in density was determined from the starting information with the density measured after seven days.
The results showed that distilled water and Coca-Cola® decayed the teeth at a rate of about .017g/cm3/day. Apple juice, which was the most damaging, decayed the teeth at a rate of about .035g/cm3/day. For the average tooth with a density of about 1.5g/cm3, the apple juice could decay the tooth completely in a little over a month. On the other end of the spectrum the experiment showed an increase of about .03g/cm3/day in orange and Diet Coke®. A thick film was easily observed on the teeth from the liquids that caused tooth density to increase. Although the teeth probably did decay underneath the film, the film deposit was denser than the decayed material.
Although there were some unexpected results with this interesting experiment, it showed that decay would occur in varying degrees from liquids. Procedural steps could be fine-tuned to avoid problems encountered such as the film deposited on the teeth that made it impossible to accurately measure the decay. Overall this experiment demonstrated how variables many times will affect the results of a research project in an unexpected way and controls need to be added to minimize inaccurate conclusions.