Effect of acids on the teeth

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
A simple trip to the grocery store could lead to a pantry stocked
with acidic foods that can be harmful for your teeth. As great as
candies, sodas, and citric fruits taste, they can end up doing your
mouth more harm than good. While there is a lot of awareness
regarding how such food items affect our body, there is little
debate to how it affects our teeth.
The top culprits are fruity and sour candies, often times being
loaded with high levels of acid and sugars to make them taste
better. Sodas are also top contenders, with teens today drinking
on average three times more than 20 years ago, only made worse
by the easy access to these products in middle and high schools
In addition to the obvious products, citric fruits like lemons,
grapefruits, mangos, oranges, apples, and limes contain
damaging acids as well. While they offer an abundance of
vitamins and minerals that are essential for the body, regularly
consuming these fruits will expose your teeth to high levels of
acid that can contribute to erosion.
 INTRODUCTION
We often see claims thrown around of acids in drinks eroding
teeth and destroying enamel, but are these truly substantiated
which acids or foods should we should most stay away from.
For this study commercially available form of acids were used.

The aim of this study is to understand the level of erosion of

various acids and soft drinks on our teeth and what agents we
should most avoid.
It’s citric and phosphoric acid in these food items/beverages
that do the damage by attacking and dissolving the calcium that
comprises teeth. People battling dry mouth or low saliva are
especially vulnerable to developing tooth decay.
The mineral in our teeth is composed of a calcium-deficient
carbonated hydroxyapatite (Ca10-xNax(PO4)6-y(CO3)z(OH)2-
uFu).
These substitutions in the mineral crystal lattice, especially
carbonate, renders tooth mineral more acid soluble than
hydroxyapatite. During erosion by acid and/or chelators, these
agents interact with the surface of the mineral crystals, but only
after they diffuse through the plaque, the pellicle, and the
protein/lipid coating of the individual crystals themselves. The
effect of direct attack by the hydrogen ion is to combine with
the carbonate and/or phosphate releasing all of the ions from
that region of the crystal surface leading to direct surface
etching. Acids such as citric acid have a more complex
interaction. In water they exist as a mixture of hydrogen ions,
acid anions (e.g. citrate) and undissociated acid molecules, with
the amounts of each determined by the acid dissociation
constant (pKa) and the pH of the solution. Above the effect of
the hydrogen ion, the citrate ion can complex with calcium also
removing it from the crystal surface and/or from saliva.
 Materials Used In Experiment-
 Egg shells are made of calcium carbonate – a hard mineral
that is similar to calcium phosphate, the substance our
teeth are made of. So these were used as a substitute
 The First tests included various soft drinks available in the
market namely Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola light, Sprite, apple
juice, Red Bull, orange juice and lemon Juice.
 The following acids were also tested: • Aqueous solution
of hydrochloric acid (HCl): 25 ml (14.6 ml of 37% HCl +
10.4 ml of water)
 • Aqueous solution of nitric acid (HNO3 ): 25 ml (16.25 ml
of 65% HNO3 + 8.75 ml of water)
 • Aqueous solution of sulfuric acid (H2 SO4 ): 25 ml (24 ml
of 96 % H 2 SO4 + 1 ml of water)
 Concentrations that have been used are the ones that are
most commonly available commercially.
 METHOD
 The drinks were first kept at room temperature for one
day
 The eggshells were immersed separately in different
containers containing the specimen. At various intervals
(30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 4 h, 8 h, 15 h, 20 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72h) the
samples were taken out of the container and examined for
any changes.

 For the soft drink and juices eggshells were weighed using
precision balances and their mean weight loss was
calculated as they didn’t completely dissolve like the
strong acids
 OBSERVATIONS
For each drink mean weight loss was calculated after 3 days
of immersion. Initial weight was 7grams on average for the
eggshells
THE RESULTS WERE AS FOLLOWS

Coca-Cola:6.6 mg
Coca-Cola light 3.5 mg
Sprite 17.7 mg
Apple juice 27.1 mg
Red Bull 17.0 mg
Tap water: no change
Orange juice 24.3 mg
Lemon juice 28.3 mg

From all drinks, Cola and Cola light showed the least whereas
lemon juice showed statistically significant higher erosivity
than all other drinks
Observations – Hydrochloric acid group
 There was effervescence in the solution after 30 min.
Following this transparency was observed; this
progressively increased. After 8 h of immersion in HCl,
there was near complete dissolution of the eggshells
except for some remnants; these too had completely
dissolved after 15 hours.

Nitric Acid
 Nitric acid group there was effervescence in the solution
and a yellow-colored residue was deposited over the
eggshells. This progressively increased until it had covered
the entire eggshell specimen. There was initial breakage at
the 2 hour mark, After 15 h of immersion there was nearly
complete dissolution of the eggshell except for some
remnants, which too had completely dissolved by 20 h.

Sulphuric Acid
 There was no alteration observed in the eggshell structure
up to 4 h of immersion. After 8 h there was a slight white
precipitate deposited over the eggshell and at the bottom
of the container. This white precipitate increased with
time. At 24 h there was fragmentation of the eggshell,
which increased with the passage of time. After 72hrs, the
 eggshell had completely disintegrated and only the
precipitate was observed.

DISCUSSION
Surprisingly the least erosive drink out of the bunch was coca
cola light while the most erosive turned out to be lemon juice
showing nearly ten times as much damage this is certainly due
to a high degree of citric acid present in it. Out of all the soft
drinks the most erosive was sprite which was six times as
erosive than five times as much as coca cola light Apple juice
showed higher erosivity than any of the soft drinks. Erosion
seemed to be effected by the sugar content slightly as lower
sugar level drinks were on an average better than those with
higher levels of sugar saturation. Ph level or acidic content were
also major factors. In order to verify readings the experiment
was also done with tap water but no changes were observed.
Despite of these observations properties other than pH, such as
buffering power, kind of acid, and chelating effect of the drinks
have a strong impact on their erosivity.
Does this mean that we should drink coca cola indiscriminately,
well no when you drink soft drinks, the sugars it contains
interact with bacteria in your mouth to form acid. This acid
attacks your teeth. Both regular and sugar-free sodas also
contain their own acids, and these attack the teeth too. With
each swig of soda, you’re starting a damaging reaction that
lasts for about 20 minutes. If you sip all day, your teeth are
under constant attack.

There are many measures given by dentists which you can take
to counteract this
 Drink in moderation. Don’t have more than one soft drink
each day. Just one will do damage enough.
 Drink quickly. The longer it takes to drink a soft drink, the
more time it has to wreak havoc on your dental health.
 The faster you drink, the less time the sugars and acids
have to damage your teeth.
 Use a straw. This will help keep the damaging acids and
sugars away from your teeth.
 Rinse your mouth with water afterward. Flushing your
mouth with some water after drinking soda will help wash
away any remaining sugars and acids, and stop them from
attacking your teeth.
 Wait before you brush. Despite what you may think,
brushing immediately after you have a soda isn’t a good
idea. That’s because the friction against the vulnerable and
recently acid-attacked teeth can do more harm than good.
Instead, wait 30 to 60 minutes.
 Avoid soft drinks before bedtime. Not only will the sugar
likely keep you up, but the sugar and acid will have all
night to attack your teeth.
 Get regular dental cleanings. Regular checkups and exams
will identify problems before they worsen.
All the strong acids managed to completely dissolve the
eggshells eventually hydrochloric acid was the fastest in this. All
three had a residue or precipitate on them the following
reactions are responsible for this.
Ca+2 + 2HCl - CaCl2 + H2
Ca + 2HNO3 - Ca (NO3) 2 + H2
Ca+2 + H2 SO4 - CaSO4

The least destructive was sulphuric acid and nitric acid was in
the middle, you don’t have to worry too much as these acids
are almost never used in any kind of commercially available
foods.
 CONCLUSION
Many types of acids and sugars are present in the food we
consume everyday contain may acids and sugars we consumed
everyday and even though their adverse effects cant directly be
correlated with factors like sugar and acidic content all the
time, these are factors we should always check before we
consume something, all things are bad in excess and these
foods are no exception, moderate use while maintaining proper
dental hygiene is sufficient for it to not be too harmful, it
should be noted that the eggshells were immersed in for a very
long time and they had almost no real effect when the time of
exposure was kept very small same is true for real life where
cleaning your teeth gets rid of any residue left after
consumption.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
The necessary information for the project is collected
from the references stated below:

 EVERGEEN Chemistry Lab Manual

 Understanding the chemistry of dental erosion -
PubMed (nih.gov)
 Foods and Beverages That Can Cause Tooth Erosion
(mouthhealthy.org)
 How can chemistry help you take care of your
teeth? | Let's Talk Science (letstalkscience.ca)
 Effect of acid etchants on enamel and dentin
(usp.br)

Made by –
PARTH GOEL
S6C