Health and medicine

 

Health and medicine

Doctors and dentists use minerals too.

When you have a high temperature and are feeling ill, if you're at the dentist, or if you've had an accident and broken an arm or a leg, minerals are used to help you get better.

There are lots of places you can find minerals in the doctor's or dentist's surgery.

 

 

crysal hospital bed

 

About this resource
 

Science topic: Minerals

Key Stage: KS2, KS3

Type: Information

Keywords: minerals, every day use of minerals

Find out more about the minerals you use to be healthy

 

Plaster casts

Have you ever broken an arm or a leg? If you have, did you have to wear a plaster cast while your bone mended?

Casts are made from bandages soaked in wet plaster. When they are wrapped around your arm or leg they set in a solid mass after a couple of hours. Plaster is made from a mineral called gypsum.

 

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gypsum

Gypsum

Powdered gypsum is used to make plaster products. Casts are made from bandages soaked in wet plaster.

Properties of gypsum:

  • easy to shape when wet
  • quick to set (or harden)
  • strong and rigid when set

 

Thermometers

When you are ill you may have your temperature taken using a thermometer. Many thermometers contain mercury that comes from an ore called cinnabar.

Mercury is a metal, but it is a liquid at normal room temperature. When you pop a thermometer under your tongue the mercury warms up and expands, shooting up the thin tube that holds it. You then read the thermometer to find out whether you have a temperature or not.

 

thermometer 869392

 

cinnabar
 

 

Cinnabar

Cinnabar is a mineral that contains mercury. Mercury is a metal, but is unusual because it is liquid at normal room temperature.

Properties of mercury:

  • liquid
  • expands when heated

 

 

Dentistry

Mercury is also used at the dentists. The fillings you get when you have holes in your teeth are often made of amalgam - mercury is an ingredient in amalgam. Gold is also used to fill cavities, and to construct caps for teeth.

 

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gold mineral
 
 

Gold

Gold is used in dentistry to fill cavities and to construct caps for teeth. Diamonds and other precious minerals can be used to decorate the teeth of the rich and famous.

Properties of gold:

  • strong
  • does not rust

 

Medicines

Some medicines also contain minerals. Kaolinite is a clay mineral that is sometimes added to medicines you swallow and to lotions that you rub on your skin.

 

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kaolin
 

Kaolinite

Kaolinite is a clay mineral used in medicines and lotions..

Properties of kaolinite:

  • soft
  • breaks up easily

Learn about other uses of minerals