For my science project, I decided to investigate the question, “Which of your favorite drinks stains your teeth the worst?”. My research came strictly from the internet and my background knowledge of teeth staining and sugary drinks. As I was doing my research I found many articles that had the same story to tell. Sugary or dark drinks have particles, that if not brushed off of your teeth, can slowly lead to tooth discoloration.
Tooth discoloration, is when your teeth stray from their white tent and turn to yellow tents. Soda's sugars, coffee's dark tent, teas pigments can all cause this. After learning more about this, I came to the conclusion that because of Soda's harsh chemicals and large amounts of sugar, it will stain the teeth more then the other drinks. This conclusion soon became my testable hypothesis.
I decided to test this by using hollowed eggs as teeth and soaking them in coffee, tea, Coke, and Pepsi for 5 days. I would fish them out and observe their progress everyday. I could only do this for 5 days because soon the containers would start to grow mold from the moisture. The first day of bathing in the various drinks was when I saw the most change in the egg's tent. For the next four days there was only a very slight change in it's discoloration.
After completing my project I found that my hypothesis was wrong. Instead of Soda causing the most discoloration to the teeth, it was Coffee that gave the most discoloration. This left Pepsi and Coca-Cola to take 2nd and 3rd place. This also kicked Tea to last place. But, although my hypothesis was wrong in stating that Soda would cause the most discoloration to the teeth, this discovery did answer my scientific question as to which would stain the teeth the worst.