Minty Fresh

By: Stephanie, Karene, and Nyoko

The topic of our investigation is mouthwashes. Mouthwash is a liquid that you put in your mouth to make your breath smell better. We picked this topic because we want to know which mouthwash makes your breath smell the best.

The question we are testing is, "Which mouthwash scent stay the longest on a cotton swab?" We picked this question because we are tired of picking out every mouthwash, seeing which mouthwash works the best.

On the computer we found information on Scope, Listerine (regular and blue mint). Both kinds of Listerine controls plaque and gingivitis. Listerine helps prevent and reduce supragingival gingivitis. Scope gets your breath clean. The motto is, "Feel the tingle. " On our web site it says nothing kills more bad breath germs.

First, we gathered the following materials: Cool Mint, Listerine, and Scope mouthwashes, one stopwatch, and 30 cotton swabs. Next, we stuck each cotton swab in a different mouthwash. We had ten cotton swabs for each mouthwash. We recorded data on a data log. Later, we found the answer to our question.

Some facts that we discovered is that Cool Mint last the longest on a cotton swab. Cool Mint lasted around 2-4 minutes. Regular Listerine was in the middle with around 1-2 minutes. Scope was the shortest with around 59 seconds.

Students should test which mouthwash makes your breath smell the best next year. We wanted to try to test it in our mouths instead of a cotton swab. We were going to try to do it in a grown-ups mouth instead of a child's mouth or on a cotton swab. So we could try or other students could try to find out how long does the scent stay in a grown-up's mouth. That is our investigation.