Bacteria in your mouth break down food to produce acid (HA), which is harmful to teeth.?

Question

a) suggest a readily available compound that could be used to remove the acid
b) write an equation for this reaction and say what type of reaction this is
anyone?

Answer 1

Under no circumstances should you use aqueous ammonia (NH4OH or NH3(aq) ) to neutralize the acid formed in bacterial digestion.

Aqeous ammonia is a poison. This is why your local poison control center gives Mr. Yuck stickers to put on Windex and other household cleaners that are ammonia solutions. From the MSDS sheet on aqueous ammonia (ammonium hydroxide), 10-35%:

SAF-T-DATA(tm) Ratings (Provided here for your convenience)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Health Rating: 3 - Severe (Poison)
Flammability Rating: 0 - None
Reactivity Rating: 1 - Slight
Contact Rating: 4 - Extreme (Corrosive)
Lab Protective Equip: GOGGLES & SHIELD; LAB COAT & APRON; VENT HOOD; PROPER GLOVES
Storage Color Code: White Stripe (Store Separately)

The user who suggested baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) was spot-on. Normally I wouldn't post an answer to a question with such a correct answer, but I had this horrible fear that you might (or someone reading it might) get the idea to drink an ammonia solution, say to negate the effect of carbonic acid on teeth. Stick with your baking soda, please.

Answer 2

Oh, sodium hydroxide, for example. Or, say, ammonia. Ammonia is available as a household cleaner. Or, I dunno, readily available? Some harmless base. I can't think of any off the top of my head right now. I'll wager there's one in toothpaste.

Say the base you found is represented by BOH, because it has hydroxide in it....
then HA + BOH --> H2O + BA

Or say it doesn't. Say it's ammonia, for instance, NH3. Then you'd have

HA + NH3 --> [A]+ + NH4+

Ammonium, as ions go, is probably fairly innocuous. (I said PROBABLY. Don't take my word for it, for God's sake.) This would be, for your edification, an acid-base reaction.

Answer 3

a) Drink lots of water to dilute and remove the acid.
OR
Use baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to convert the acid to harmless chemicals

HA + NaHCO3 --> NaA + H2O + CO2
Reaction is a neutralization one with decomposition of the weak acid (carbonic acid) that is formed.
Carbonic acid = H2CO3 and will spontaneously breakdown to CO2 and water. A soda (pepsi or coke) are good examples of this decomposition.