Is a Dog's Mouth Cleaner than a Human's?
Overview
Objectives/Goals My objective was to learn if a dog's mouth has more bacteria than a human's. My hypothesis was that a dog's mouth would be cleaner because I had heard that a dog's saliva can heal wounds faster and thought this might apply to my experiment. Methods/Materials The materials I used were agar plates, cotton swabs, a kindle for note taking, and a camera. I took five dogs and five humans. I swabbed each tongue and gum-line from 6:30-7:00pm. After every time I swabbed their mouth, I then swabbed it onto an agar plate. I let each group sit for five days before counting the bacterial colonies. Results The results of my experiment showed that in each round, a dog's mouth had a higher sum of bacterial colonies. These followed my goals and objectives as planned with few problems. Conclusions/Discussion The project results proved my hypothesis false. This expanded my knowledge about a dog's mouth and a human's mouth. I learned many different types of bacteria. These results can also help people know to better take care of their teeth after I told them that they need to take better care of their or their pet's mouths.
Summary statement
The purpose of this experiment was to see if a dog's mouth has more bacteria than a human's.
Help received
My father drove me to subject's houses. My father payed for all of the needed supplies.
Competition history
- CSEF 2012
Resources
Related projects
CSEF · 2005
Whose Mouth Is Cleaner?
CSEF · 2010
Is a Dog's Mouth Really Cleaner Than a Human's?
CSEF · 2005
Drool and Saliva: Is a Dog's Mouth Cleaner than a Human's?
CSEF · 2009
It's a Dog's Mouth
CSEF · 2006
A Real Mouthful
CSEF · 2008
A Comparison of Bacterial Numbers and Types in Homo sapiens and Cinis familiaris
CSEF · 2007
Bacteria Facteria
CSEF · 2002
Which Is Cleaner, Dog Spit or Human Spit?
Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.
Browse more like this
Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects