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Plaque Watch School Project for better tooth care. Home * Brush * Floss * Chewing * Experiments * Supertooth book |
EXPERIMENTS:- Glass model of a groove * Egg experiments
Some 80% of cavities occur where food is left trapped, inside grooves on chewing surfaces after every meal or snack and where the brush, toothpaste, mouthwash, saliva and chewing gum, cannot remove plaque or trapped food.
Chewing Barium Sulphate before bitewing x-rays helps dentists show where food is trapped inside grooves. The barium suphate is difficult to remove indicating chewing a sugarless sealant food before eating can prevent food being trapped and changed to acid.
Dentists and hygienists can apply fillings and fissure sealants to prevent food being trapped and changed to acid inside Grooves in chewing surfaces where over 80% of cavities occur. These treatments are expensive and research with a glass model of a Fissure or groove in back teeth suggests other natural methods like chewing a sealant food before eating is also effective.
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- Two strips of glass are clamped together with a thin X shaped teflon gasket that pushed into food, replicating how chewing traps food between teeth and inside grooves.
- A saliva mix on a firm jelly confection is seen to be forced inside the glass model.
- Brushing, swishing and chewing gum cannot displace the red confection or trapped food.
- Chewing can force toothpaste on foam strip between teeth and inside grooves just like inside the glass model and clearly displaces the red confection indicating that saliva and fluoride can displace trapped food and help repair demineralised tooth before brushing.
Chewing a fibre like celery string or special foam after eating will help saliva displace trapped food, neutralise acid and repair demineralised tooth.
These experiments help identify foods that displace other foods and are themselves hard to displace, helping formulate chewy sealants that can prevent food being trapped and changed to acid while eating and fibre that can help saliva and fluoride toothpaste remove trapped food, neutralise acid, repair and toughen demineralised tooth.