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We invited secondary school students to conduct an experiment to study dental decay using atomic force microscopy (AFM). High school and junior students used AFM to observe the surface of teeth treated in various media such as alkali and acid solutions of different pH, sugar solution, sugar+saliva solution, and soda. The samples were dipped in these solutions for different periods and examined the morphology using AFM. For comparison, the quantitative analysis of the amount of decay, i.e., the amount of dissolved enamel was measured using a calorimeter. The experiment contributed students' concept on the origin of dental decay, i.e., many students originally thought that a cavity is caused by sugar itself but actually it is caused by acid produced by bacteria using sugar as food. Tooth surface damage by too strong brushing and the effect of fluoride dental gel were also studied. Our experience showed that AFM is an easy and effective tool to visualize the nanoworld to secondary school students and draw their interest to nanoscience through a simple experiment. |