The Mineral Project: Fluoride Edition By: Jack C and Lucas D

Question History:  We have had many different iterations of this question. Here is our question history:  What minerals are in our toothpaste?  How does Fluoride in our toothpaste affect our teeth?  How does Fluoride affect our breath and the strength of our teeth when we brush?  How does the Fluoride in our toothpaste affect the strength and color of our teeth?  How does Fluoride in our toothpaste affect our tooth enamel, in terms of color and strength of our teeth? (Final Question)

Original Assumption  We original assumption was that when you wet the toothpaste on your brush and it makes contact with your teeth, the tooth absorbs the fluoride, and strengthens the roots of your teeth. We also assumed that the fluoride bleaches your teeth to make them whiter.

Definitions:  Tooth Enamel: One of the four major tissues in our teeth. It is the white part of the tooth that you can see and feel, as it covers the crown.  Tooth Decay (Demineralization): The breakdown of your tooth enamel through bacteria  Remineralization: The restoration of your teeth’s minerals  Plaque: A think, sticky substance that covers teeth enamel, making their appearance darker  Acids: A substance that breaks down tooth enamel, and causes demineralization of teeth

How does Fluoride help your tooth enamel, in terms of strengthening your teeth?  Some toothpaste’s contain fluoride. Fluoride is a mineral that, when comes in contact with the outer layer of a tooth (Tooth enamel), it attacks acid and bacteria (Plaque). After it targets and eradicates the bacteria, it helps with the remineralization process, in which it rebuilds and heals tooth enamel.  Fluoride in our toothpaste doesn’t fully prevent cavities, but it does control the rate at which they form. So if someone brushes their teeth a lot, they won’t get cavities.

How does fluoride in our toothpaste help our tooth color?  Fluoride doesn’t directly affect the color of your teeth, but it does affect your tooth enamel. Like we said in the previous slide, fluoride targets and eradicates plaque and bacteria.  When you smile, light reflects off your teeth. So, if you have more plaque covering your teeth when you smile, the light won’t reflect as bright, making your teeth have a duller look. If you brush your teeth a lot, and there isn’t a lot of plaque covering your enamel, the light will reflect off your teeth, and shine brighter.

Wrap-Up:  Why is this important: Teeth are very important to how a person looks, and people don’t want to see teeth with holes in them. This is also important because we believe that people would want to know how to prevent their teeth from decaying, so they can live a cleaner, happier life. Now, please take the survey we are about to give.  What did we wanted to learn/ accomplish: We didn’t just want to learn our topic, we wanted to lean how to narrow down our research, and really focus on one topic. We also learned and accomplished delving further into information.

Wrap-Up (Continued):  Obstacles: We faced many different obstacles while doing this project. We went through about three different topics about baseball bats and evoshieds, and finally found the topic about fluoride. We got shot down many different times when we called different places, yet we kept on going, and found the answer to our questions.  Moving forward: We will continue to look into this topic. We actually found this really, really interesting. This taught us a lot about tooth care, and what toothpastes were most affective in taking care of plaque.

Soures  Sighted Sources: "Learn More About Toothpastes." Learn More About Toothpastes. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar "How Does Tooth Whitening Work?" Dental Tooth Bleaching. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar "How Does Fluoride Strengthen Teeth and Why Add It to the Public Water Supply?" Tufts Now. N.p., 16 Feb Web. 26 Mar "Search for Colgate-Palmolive Products and Information." Search for Colgate- Palmolive Products and Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar "How Does Tooth Enamel Affect the Color of My Teeth? - Healthy Teeth & Mouth." Sharecare. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar

Picture Sources  Picture Sources: "Good Oral Hygiene Starts at a Young Age." Good Oral Hygiene Starts at a Young Age. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar "The Tooth Decay Process: How to Reverse It and Avoid a Cavity." NIDCR-. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar "Adding Fluoride to Public Water Supplies." Biology Notes for IGCSE N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar "TopDentist-NY.com." TopDentist-NY.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar "Question Mark Clip Art | Clipart Panda - Free Clipart Images." Question Mark Clip Art | Clipart Panda - Free Clipart Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar

Questions? Concerns?