Dental Health Egg Experiment

Have you ever wondered what pop or juice does to your teeth?  In our kindergarten class we decided to do an experiment to see what would happen if we drank pop or juice and didn't brush our teeth.

We took 10 eggs (not hard boiled) and put them in clear plastic cups.  We covered them with different kinds of pop and juice and made our observations of what the eggs looked like.  We predicted what we thought would happen to the eggs after sitting in the liquids.

We recorded what we thought might happen to the eggs in our journals.

After 2 days, we checked the eggs again.  We noticed that the eggs that were sitting in the pop were discolored.  The shells of the eggs that were sitting in the Gatorade, grape juice and Energy drink started to look like the liquid was eating through the shells.

 Pop

 Grape Juice

 Energy Drink

Gatorade

We checked on the eggs a week later.  All of the eggs in the regular pop and the water were stained.  The 4 eggs that looked like it had the most change are below. The egg in Gatorade had the most change.  The shell looked like it was almost gone.

 Diet Pop

 Grape Juice

 Energy Drink

Gatorade

We checked the eggs again after 2 weeks.  We noticed the same changes occurring.  The shells looked like they were being eaten through. (I am not sure where my pics are...maybe on other camera?)

The eggs below having been sitting in their liquid for 3 weeks.

 The egg that was sitting in water looked okay.  The water mostly evaporated from the cup.

 The egg that was sitting in the Root Beer looked stained and like the shell was disappearing.  All that was left in the cup was a thick syrup.

 The egg in the Grape Juice was the grossest.  There was mold forming all over the sugar that was left in the cup and on the egg.    The shell had been eaten through.

 The egg in the Lemon Lime soda didn't look too bad.  It was bumpy.  All that was left in the cup was sugar water.

 The egg that was in the orange soda was pretty stained.  The soda started to eat through the egg.  There was a syrupy, sugar mixture left in the cup.

 The egg in the cola was stained.  There was a syrup left in the bottom of the cup.

 The egg in the Diet Pepsi was gross.  That's the best that I can describe it.  It looked like it was burned and charred.  The liquid left in the cup was a filmy, mucky mess.

 The egg shell that was in the Energy Drink was eaten through.  There was a lot of sugar left in the cup.

The egg in the Gatorade had most of the shell gone.  This is the egg that we noticed the biggest change in.  There was only sugar left in the cup.

We determined that the Gatorade was the worst thing for our teeth, followed by the Grape Juice and Energy Drink.  We threw out the egg that was in the V8 juice after week 1 because the juice became a thick mess covered in mold.

We learned that if we can't brush our teeth soon after drinking one of these beverages, we should at least rinse our mouth out with water.  Hopefully after doing this experiment my kids will keep in mind what could happen to their teeth if they don't brush them.

We really enjoyed writing in our journals after we made observations of what was happening.

I highly recommend doing this with your kids.  Mine loved it and we had great discussions.
Sara