I need help with my chemistry project?

Question

I was planning on doing a project on which toothpaste whitens the best and if I made my own would that work better than storebought toothpaste. Can anyone please help me and tell me what to do or where to get instructions. Thanks

Answer 1

I gather that you are wanting to compare the effectiveness of a homemade toothpaste vs storebought toothpaste?
If that is what you are planning this is what I would do ( I don't know how much time you have so you may need
to make some changes)
Choose one or more brands of commercially made toothpaste.
Make your homemade version- do you have your recipe already? if not here are a few:

1.For Tooth powder:
3 parts baking soda and 1 part salt. Can add a few drops of peeprmint or wintergreen oil to flavor.
TO use, Shake a little of the powder into the palm of you hand, moisten toothbrush in water and dip into the powder.
Or to make into a toothpaste, make 1/2 cup of the above powder and add 3 teaspoons of glycerin and mix and
add a little water to make into the consistency you want.

2. Mix Hydrogen peroxide and baking soda into a paste.

3.Orange or lemon toothpowder:
2 Tbsp dried lemon or orange rind (can find in the spice section of most supermarkets)
1/4 cup baking soda
2 Tsp salt
Place rinds in food processor, grind until peel becomes a fine powder. Add baking soda and salt then process a few seconds more until you have a fine powder.
Store in an airtight tin or jar. Dip moistened toothbrush into mixture, brush as usual. Can make into a paste as in the first recipe.

Next choose test subjects or just yourself if you are doing it yourself.
Make a list of your test criteria, probably something like this:
Each paste used for 5 days, 2x daily, brushed for 2 minute duration.
Record:
a.Paste #-
b.Effectiveness, how clean teeth felt after using-rate on scale of 1 to 5
c.Appearance, how clean and white teeth appear arter using-rate on same scale
And so on...you can use any criteria you like. Can compare cost, use before and after photos, how well each kind is liked for taste, etc.
You could use a chart to compare the results of each kind . It would be more interesting maybe if you can get several other people to take part in the experiment , have each rate the pastes and then use their score averages to compare and decide if home made or storebought is better or the same.
Good luck!

Answer 2

Well, I think you've picked a tough one.

First you need to do some research to determine just how retail toothpaste whitens teeth. (I suspect oxydation - bleaching)

Look at active ingredients of the various tooth paste and determin what compounds are responsible. (I'd look for peroxides and other oxydizing compounds in the active ingredients.)

Then devise and experiement to test the effectiveness of each of the available toothpaste. ( Need standard stain on staindard material and a way to quantify whitening power) Probably reflectance of material against a white standard.

It would be a simple matter to make one of your own that worked better as far as whitening. The problem is would it be safe for mass consumption?

Answer 3

I would use storebought because not many people that I know make their own toothpaste. So it would help more if people knew which storebrand instead of how to make their own toothpaste. Sorry if its confusing.

Answer 4

i agree with what she said.. don't try to make it yourself because if the people like it and want to buy it they can't.. because you made it. so just go to the store and buy two different kinds and make a hypothesis.. and then test them out and see which one works better.

Answer 5

first you need to tell what your chemistry project is.Then i might be able to help