Egg and Toothpaste Experiment (Learn Importance of Brushing Your Teeth)
- November 4, 2020
- 3-4 Year Olds , 5-6 Year Olds , 7-9 Year Olds , Rainy Day Science
This wonderful experiment using eggs and toothpaste helps parents and teachers to teach children how important is brushing teeth.
Most parents out there have had difficult times to make your child’s brushing time fun and excited!!
Also, many parents experienced annoying times to stop their kid from grabbing artificial sweeteners like soda, candies, etc.
If you are one among such parents whose warnings just remain as warnings which are not put into serious action by your child, here is the super-fun activity for you!
Egg and Toothpaste Science Activity
Objective: To observe how eggshell is protected by tooth paste and learn how tooth reacts to acids and stain.
Time: The activity requires 24 hours to show stain on eggs.
Inspiration: One day, my younger daughter (who is 5 years old) came up with a question “Mumma! How come our teeth becomes stained and turn into yellow colored?”
Immediately, I asked her what is wrong with her teeth.
She replied, “Mumma! I am completely fine but today in my school, one of my close friends was suffering from teeth pain and I observed her teeth were yellow tinted.”
Then, I understood the complete picture and turned her question as a great opportunity to show her how important is brushing our teeth using toothpaste.
For this activity I used eggs and toothpaste to show her importance of brushing.
Why eggs? Eggshells are having the same material as of our tooth and bone composition. So, eggs make a great ingredient in this activity.
Appropriate For Age Group: this fun science investigation is perfect for preschoolers, kindergarten, and elementary children. Toddlers can enjoy and try to understand the results but they may not exactly know the science involved in this experiment.
Materials Required: For your surprise, this super cool egg and tooth paste science activity requires 3-4 ingredients from the fridge of your kitchen. Do you want to know what those simple supplies are!? Have a look here:
1) 4 plain and raw eggs
2) Tooth Paste (any kind of toothpaste right in your home is fine)
3) Coca Cola
4) Black Coffee
That’s it! Just collect these items from your kitchen and get ready at the experiment table to investigate eggs and toothpaste hands-on.
Simple Step-by-Step Instructions
This fun science investigation takes a few minutes to finish but we need to wait for a day or 24 hours to see the spectacular results. So, plan accordingly if you want to perform this activity either at home or in a school event.
Let us jump into the simple instructions and follow the same while experimenting with eggs and toothpaste.
Step-1: Do little Preparations
Before you start this activity, you need to help your children in making black coffee.
If your children are too young to manage burners, then prepare black coffee and directly offer them to use in the activity.
And keep four neatly cleaned transparent glasses ready! Also make sure the eggs you picked up are in good condition that means there is no breakage or leakage of egg inside contents.
Because leaking egg can damage the whole experiment results and looks messy too!
Step-2: Keep the eggs ready for the Experiment
Bring the eggs to the room temperature in order to achieve appropriate outcome.
Once you check the eggs are in good condition, ask your child to wash the eggs carefully with neat hands. And then let them dry the wet eggs using paper or cloth napkins.
That’s all! Your eggs are ready to go on to the experiment table.
Step-3: Cover the eggs with Toothpaste
Ask your child to coat two plain eggs with good amount of toothpaste evenly. And the rest two eggs remain as it is. That means we are not coating these eggs with any other material.
Step-4: Arrange the Glasses for Experiment
Now pick four transparent glasses and fill two glasses with coke and the other two glasses with black coffee.
Make sure you are placing these glasses on a plain and flat surface such that you can avoid unnecessary disturbances and messy work during investigation.
Also, remember to fill the glasses with the respective liquids in equal amounts. If you want, you can measure and pour the liquids in to the glasses to keep the quantity equal.
Step-5: Drop the Eggs
It is time to drop the eggs into the liquids for investigation! Pick one plain egg and one toothpaste coated egg and drop them in coke filled glasses respectively.
After that pick another set of eggs i.e. one plain egg and one egg covered with toothpaste and drop into the two glasses filled with black coffee respectively.
Step-6: Allow the set-up for a day
This is so simple and easy step where you have nothing to do or investigate! Yes, ask your children to leave the experiment set-up for 24 hours completely to see the fascinating results.
Step-7: Observe the Results
Are you done waiting for 24 hours to see the outcomes? Here are the results we experienced after a long wait of 24 hours. Hahaha! Yes, waiting for 24 hours is a long wait for children to see the results.
I am attaching the results table and pictures for your reference. Just compare and see whether you also experienced the same.
Glass-1 filled with coke and plain egg got stains where the one coated with toothpaste and dropped in glass 2 with coke does not have any stains.
In the same way, the plain egg dropped in black coffee showed stains whereas the egg coated with tooth paste does not show any stains. You can see the pictures attached for your reference.
Science behind the Egg and Toothpaste Activity
Egg shell is the rich source of calcium carbonate whereas black coffee and coca-cola are acidic in nature.
When the plain egg dropped in the coke and black coffee, the acidic contents immediately start reacting with calcium carbonate and forms stains.
As this is a slow process we are letting the experiment set up for 24 hours to see best results. On the other hand, the eggs coated with toothpaste, when dropped in the coke and black coffee, the fluoride in toothpaste build a protective layer between the eggshells and acidic solutions.
The fluoride in toothpaste makes the eggshell stronger and protects it from reacting to acidic contents of coke and black coffee.
Fluoride is the natural mineral helps the outer layer of eggs and teeth become stronger naturally.
Egg-Toothpaste Science Experiment and Importance of Brushing Teeth
Eggshells denote the teeth of humans as the outer layers of both made of same material i.e. calcium. And the chemical composition of eggs, bones, and teeth are same.
So, we are representing eggshells as teeth. Coke and black coffee represents the acids caused due to bacteria in the form of plaque. Plaque is the result of constant consumption of artificial sweeteners.
So, when we brush our teeth properly using toothpaste, the fluoride content in it helps teeth from the damage of acids, cavities, stains, and plaque.
This is how we can explain and give a great demonstration on importance of proper brushing teeth with fluoride contained toothpaste.
The fluoride content in toothpaste keeps the eggshells safe from the acids present in black coffee and coke. Hence, the toothpaste acts as a strong protective layer between the acids in coke and calcium content of eggshell respectively.
Liquids rich in acids are the best liquids to dissolve egg shells. For example: Orange Juice, Vinegar, Coke, Black Coffee, and other acidic liquids. The acids in these liquids react with calcium carbonate in egg shells. Carbon dioxide is the gas released during this reaction. If you let the reaction to continue for long hours, you can observe acids dissolving the egg shells gradually and completely. Finally, the reaction leave the egg to uncover its outer layer and exposes inside contents.
Osmosis is the process through which sudden drive of solvent particles happen from less concentrated solution to high concentrated solution. This is the same happens when you place an egg in pure water for 24 hours. The water travels from outside part of the egg through the semi-permeable membrane to the inside part of the egg. You can observe osmosis when the egg swells up after sometime the egg put in the water. Otherwise, add some food color to the water and let the egg sit for a day. You can easily observe the transmission of water through the color travel from outside to inside part of egg.
Take a glass of coca cola and place an egg in it. Let it remain in the coke solution for 24 hours. Then, take out the egg and you can see the egg is stained. This is because the acid the coke reacts with calcium in the egg shell.
Absolutely yes! Coke contains dissolving agent in it i.e. acidic nature, which is why the egg shells dissolves completely when an egg is placed in coke solution and left for long hours. The egg shell is nothing but calcium carbonate which softens and melts on long exposure to acidic solutions like coke. You can observe this amazing chemical reaction by witnessing the carbon dioxide gas releasing as a result of reaction in the form of tiny bubbles.
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How To Use Eggs As A Dental Hygiene Experiment
Eggs and teeth seem like an unlikely pairing for an experiment, but eggshells make a realistic model of dental enamel. In these experiments, hard-boiled eggs serve as a model for teeth, showing kids what can happen if they don't practice proper oral hygiene. These experiments are simple enough for kids of all ages, as they use basic materials that are readily available.
Assemble the Materials
In this dental health experiment, the eggs represent teeth. Inspect the eggs for cracks, as cracks could affect the outcome of the experiment. You'll need containers large enough to hold liquids and an egg. This project focuses on two different dental hygiene issues: stains and decay. For the stain experiment, you need a dark liquid, such as cola, and a light-colored liquid, such as water or milk. To model decay, you need vinegar and a cavity-protection toothpaste with sodium fluoride as the active ingredient. You also need a toothbrush.
The Stain Experiment
For this experiment, you need two eggs. Place each egg in its own cup or small container. Fill one container with your cola or other dark liquid. The egg should be completely covered. Pour the milk or water in the other cup. Ask the kids what they think will happen to each egg. After 24 hours, lift both eggs out of the liquid to see if they look different. Then, put them back in the liquid for another 24 hours. The egg in the dark liquid will have a slight stain on the shell. Let the kids brush the stained egg with toothpaste and a toothbrush.
The Decay Experiment
This experiment requires some prep time to protect one of the two eggs. Coat one egg completely with the fluoride anti-cavity toothpaste. You should have a thick layer covering the entire egg. Wait four days before you rinse off the toothpaste. Place the protected egg and another raw egg in a container of vinegar. After 12 hours, pull the eggs out of the vinegar. Tap each egg gently to see how the shell feels. The untreated egg shell should start to soften. If it isn't soft, put both eggs back in the vinegar for two more hours or until softened. Let the students gently tap both eggs so they can feel difference. The shell on the treated egg should still feel hard, and the untreated egg will feel soft, because the acid in the vinegar eats away at the shell.
The Takeaway Message
Reinforce the idea of good dental health care by discussing what happened with the eggs. Ask your students how the eggs could represent teeth. They might connect the stains on the eggs to stains their teeth might get if they don't brush well. The vinegar experiment shows that different foods and drinks can break down the enamel on teeth, just like the vinegar did with the eggshell. Remind your students that just as you cannot fix the eggshell, they cannot replace the enamel on their teeth. Have your students draw pictures or write about what happened to the eggs as a follow-up to the experiments.
- Scholastic: Brush Two Minutes, Twice a Day
- Crest: A Fun Eggsperiment
Cite This Article
Frost, Shelley. "How To Use Eggs As A Dental Hygiene Experiment" sciencing.com , https://www.sciencing.com/eggs-as-dental-hygiene-experiment-2192676/. 24 April 2017.
Frost, Shelley. (2017, April 24). How To Use Eggs As A Dental Hygiene Experiment. sciencing.com . Retrieved from https://www.sciencing.com/eggs-as-dental-hygiene-experiment-2192676/
Frost, Shelley. How To Use Eggs As A Dental Hygiene Experiment last modified March 24, 2022. https://www.sciencing.com/eggs-as-dental-hygiene-experiment-2192676/
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