Goodbye Teeth, What’s left of Em’s tooth after 48 hours soaking in a Pepsi soda (one can), photo © 2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
This has been a rough week as far as Em’s concerned. First we had to tell her that there is no tooth fairy and that, in fact, we had in our possession all the teeth she ever contributed to the making of new stars in the sky (that’s what tooth fairies do with teeth, you know). Second, she had to take two of those teeth and set up a science fair project to look at the Big Question: Which will dissolve a tooth faster — Mtn Dew or Pepsi? And third, she had to watch before her very own eyes as one of her teeth dissolved within two days in a can of Pepsi (something she used to be supremely fond of drinking whenever we let her).
(She also had to get her teeth cleaned last week, but the dentist and his staff were so excited about her science experiment — the doc predicted that Pepsi would dissolve the teeth faster than Mtn Dew — that they paid her oodles of attention and gave her extra stuff from the goody chest.)
So, I’m giving up my occasional Pepsi or Coke, plus every other carbonated drink, for that matter. (Shoot, I was just starting to like Arizona Iced Teas!) I hate to be such a goodie-two-shoes, but that little floating string of a tooth, the one that resembles goldfish poop…well…it’s grossing me out more than you can imagine. (It grossed out Em so much that she didn’t even take a photo of it to include on her science fair project board.)
Jim says that during this week’s Science Fair, all the parents will be dragging their kids over to see Em’s project and all the kids are going to glare at Em for doing it.
I don’t know. I don’t think it will have much an effect on anyone’s drinking habits. Now, if we printed a few wallet-sized prints of that stringy tooth, that might make a person think twice before drinking a soda.
How ’bout you? Still gonna pop the top?
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Postscript: Over a week after the Pepsi tooth dissolved, the Mtn Dew tooth was still intact. We finally threw it out but took this last photo for posterity.
I guess the moral of the science project is: If you must drink a soda, go for Mtn Dew instead of Pepsi. Less wear and tear on the teeth. 🙂 (Wish I had a smiley face icon with a missing tooth.)
-related to post Less Than 1 Calorie Per Bottle
Very good public service.
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My husband says he wishes he’d done this experiment when he was a kid. He was a Coke fiend. (That sounds wierd.) But truly, when I first met him, he’d daily have one of those King-sized Reece’s pb cup candies and a Coke, and that was just between lunch and dinner.
He said he drank about two or three Cokes a day, every day. And his stomach is prone to a lot of aches and pains now, which he attributes to his daily intake as a kid.
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Wow, glad I don’t drink soda…yikes! That’s plain scary and probably the coolest Science project I’ve ever heard of. Did she come up with it on her own?
I can just see the “Pepsi Swat Team” rush the event to try to grab the offending can and all the participating Science Kids tossing it back and forth to keep it from them! What a fabulous news story that would make!
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Very cool project. I hope the message sinks in . . .
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Heather, you’re a night owl, aren’t you?
I’m not sure how this project arose. I’ll check with her and Jim. Jim might have had the idea, as he’s been a real proponent of the project. It had come up as a “wouldn’t that be cool if we could get some teeth and do the soda experiment?” but then we didn’t have teeth. You know, the tooth fairy takes them and such. So we looked up some other science fair projects and came up with the boring, What gets peanut butter out of hair better? Rubbing alcohol, vinegar, or one other liquid that I can’t remember.
But then one day I came home from work and wa-la, there were two big ol’ teeth. Jim had found the two that Em had to get pulled because of crowding—new teeth coming in, these old ones wouldn’t leave. Em has good teeth. Big teeth. And these baby teeth were just not going anywhere. They had long roots and weren’t even loose when the next set came in.
I love your imaginary scene with the Pepsi Swat Team. After they toss it around, someone opens it to drink it down before it can be confiscated, and pop, the soda flies everywhere. 8)
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The stringy tooth pic helps it sink in, Brian, don’t you think? I’m going to print it out and see if Em changes her mind about including it on her poster board.
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I think it will have the same impact as the movie “Super Size Me” had on me and then my son. You get grossed out and vow never to set foot in McDonald’s ever again..and you keep that promise for awhile…then you realize in a bit of a dire situation that your only option is a quick cheeseburger before a baseball game that you really cannot play on an empty stomach and….vow broken! Somewhere along the line your brain can justify the soda splurge “Hey, it’s just one soda. I’m not gonna soak in it for 2 days!” and…. 🙂
I think the best is noticing if you’ve just been relying on those types of food TOO much and then making sure you do relegate them to ‘treat’ status. I stopped buying soda and bringing it into the house, but if we choose to have some when we do eat out, no problem. We’ve eliminated the daily drink which is most important. Same with fast foods. If I make sure we always have something quick to grab for food in the house, then there is no need to hit the drive through. I look at it as all starting with how I plan my grocery trips and in house meals.
That top photo is pretty darn gross!!
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This is from four writers you know in Kansas City who have spent the weekend consuming a gallon of sweet tea (Lipton), sugar-free chocolate pudding, Oreo Goldens with Chocolate Filing, mini-chocolate bars, designer chocolates from Christopher Elbow’s Chocolate Shop, designer chocolates from Andre’s Suisse Confiserie, 50 pounds of Kansas City barbeque with sweet sauce, regular sauce, and spicy sauce, baked beans cooked in molasses, and, as far as we know, our teeth are fine. (NOTE: I did not include the various kinds of sweet drinks that we can’t remember due to brain damage from excessive sugar consumption.) Wish you were here. Now, what’s your name again?
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Oh ho, Bob, what a treat to hear from you on behalf of the Fab Four. OK, I just went through the calcs on all that sweet stuff, and I happen to know that one among you is super health conscious, so I’m wondering if the other three of you have been eating more than your fair share of 50lbs of barbeque. 8)
But honestly, it sounds like y’all are nourishing spirit, soul, and body. And QM is in sweet tea heaven.
You know, you four should write about your experience. I mean, I hate to always be thinking of food for red Ravine, but what you have going on is special. This is your third retreat together, right?, since the big retreat. That’s some dedication, and it sounds like each host makes it so worth the while.
Have a good rest of your time together. Eat extra bacon for me. (I assume you’re eating bacon for breakfast, yes?)
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Yeah, me too, tp. I already had a Pomegranate flavor Hansen’s soda. All organic, but still.
That tooth is grody. I’m going to have to put something up tomorrow asap. The floating root is downright unappetizing to pull up as the first screen shot, esp if it paints slowly. Ugh.
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I gave up soda (as I grew up calling it) many years ago. I occasionally indulge in a birch beer when we go to Pennsylvania as a treat, but it’s pretty rare. I was never much of a soda drinker to begin with except for when I worked in the pharmacy and got hooked on diet coke for a few months.
That top photo is just gross.
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BTW, the Mtn Dew tooth is still intact. It’s probably softened some, but so far it’s lasted more than twice as long as the Pepsi tooth.
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Oh wow. Wish I had seen something like this years ago. My doctor banned all dark sodas two years ago and rather than have to think about it, I stopped drinking ALL sodas. Just think about all those kids whose parents don’t make them brush teeth at the end of the day.
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[…] Is Your Tooth On Pep…ybonesy on This Is Your Tooth On Pep…Bob Chrisman on This Is Your Tooth On Pep…ybonesy on The Goddess Inside My Hea…A~Lotus on haiku 2 (one-a-day)Margie Tatos […]
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I had to come back and tell you yb…
I’ve been emptying out things to make room at my house to store the Gallery and it looks like I may fit it all BUT today I opened an old carton and my actually science project from elementary school was inside…”The Opening of a Clivia”, complete with colored pencil illustrations and polaroids! HA! It must be 40 years old! I was cracking up at the kawinkydink!
😉
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Heather, wow, must be hard to be packing all that up and into your house. ybonesy is out of town for a few days. I’m checking in on comments as I was just out of town, too, last weekend and not checking into electronics if I could help it. WOW, I’d love to see those Polaroids. I love Polaroids. What is a Clivia? Is that a flower? And you did colored pencil illustrations? You’ve got to post those. 8)
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Yikes. I have no words. I drink only diet, but even that is unappetizing to me right now…
Too bad you didn’t have two more teeth; I’d love to see the difference between Pepsi and Coca-Cola…
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Great experiment! I just had a couple glasses of Pepsi after school! Uck!
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I flew in this afternoon from Portland and went straight to Em’s school for the Celebration of Children. Got to see Em’s science project in the gym with all the other projects. That and the art exhibit are my favorite things to see. Such talent!
mm, Mr. Science, do you remember what your science projects were when you were in Elementary, Jr. High, or High school?
Heather, yes, I also would love to see your science project board and pics. How fun! I also did not know what clivia was, so I did a quick search [LINK]. Its foliage remind me of a lilly, but the flower something very different. Beautiful. Did you set up a tripod and photograph it every few hours?
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Scaramastra, that would have been a good comparison. Also, non-diet and diet.
Jackie, was the dark soda ban due to effect on teeth or effect on digestion? Curious since Jim has also swore off dark sodas, but more due to his gut. Not surprising that sodas would have a corrosive effect on the gut; seems the drink would spend more time in the stomach than in the mouth.
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Ok, wow, that is seriously cool…. in a totally gross kind of way. What a fantastic idea for a science project! Pepsi Max is my toothy-death-wish of choice… guess I should stop now, huh?
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eww.
does that mean coke’s out of the question too? stringy tooth… eww
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I would think so, aefiel. 8) Yeah, stringy tooth. Eww.
Simonne, Pepsi Max?! Wow. What’s the Max part? I’ve never heard of it.
The Mtn Dew tooth did not dissolve, not even after another week soaking in the drink. I’ll do a little postscript on that. So, I guess it’s not just the sugar, but the other ingredients in Pepsi.
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Cool experiment, but (and no, I do not work for a soda company) there is no saliva to protect the tooth. And when was the last time you took a sip of cola and didn’t swallow it for 48 hours. I admit these beverages can ruin teeth, but brushing and flushing go a long way people. If you do the same experiment with some meat i’m willing to bet it would disolve completly yet we don’t fear spilling some cola on our skin.
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[…] here to see a child’s science […]
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It’s because Pepsi has Phosphoric Acid in it, while Mountain Dew has Calcium EDTA in it. Both are essential minerals required in balance. Phosphorus balances calcium and put’s it in the body where it is needed, hence why the tooth is dissolving. The Mountain Dew tooth does not contain Phosphorus but Calcium, which is why it doesn’t effect the tooth. Calcium in large amounts is just as bad for your health as too much Phosphorus.
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