Thirty Bovine Teeth Experiment

In designing an appropriate method for my investigation, I consulted a number of local dentists, orthodontists, and dental professors for information relevant to this study. In shaping my experiment, I reviewed and looked through several higher-level or graduate-level studies done on this same topic. The largest obstacle I needed to overcome with this experiment was finding the appropriate teeth to do my experiment on. It was originally planned that I would use human extracted teeth, which I would acquire through a local orthodontist, but after many meetings with a dental professor I found that I would not be completely sure if my procedure would call for more teeth until I actually proceeded to do my experiment. An orthodontist may not wish

My adult supervisor had to collect the teeth, as well as sterilize and disinfect it through the process of microwave sterilization. The teeth were placed in a sterile dish and microwaved for a minute and then removed. Until experimentation, the bovine teeth were kept in a beaker of distilled water. For the experiment, each tooth was placed in an individual acrylic block and the thirty blocks were divided randomly into three groups of ten. This would be important for the shear bond strength test at the end of the experiment. The three groups were labeled “control”, which had no bleaching done to it after the orthodontic brackets were added and later debonded; “carbamide”, which had carbamide peroxide bleached onto the surface of the teeth after the brackets were applied; and “hydrogen”, which had hydrogen peroxide bleached onto the surface of the teeth after the brackets were

The most important variable I took into consideration was what the strength of each peroxide would have to be. Having learned that the relationship between carbamide peroxide and hydrogen peroxide is a 3:1 ratio, I would have to find a strong carbamide peroxide gel and an equally strong hydrogen peroxide gel. The challenge faced here regarded me having to find a brand that would offer both a 36% carbamide peroxide gel product and a 12% hydrogen peroxide gel product. Having to work with resources that were readily available to me, I decided to obtain the “MaxxGel Tooth Whitening Pen” with a 12% hydrogen peroxide concentration and I obtained the “ContrastPM Plus Whitening Gel Mini Kit” with a 36% carbamide peroxide