|
Young World
All for the Guinness
JAIDEEP SHENOY
|
A swish of the brush to clean teeth and glory!
|
Firm strokes: Meeting the Brush Up Challenge
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. But what happens when over 1.7-lakh people, mostly students, brush their teeth simultaneously across 380 locations in India? No doubt they create a lot of foam, but it also helps them find their way to a Guinness Record. This is what happened in many schools across India, including in Mangalore during the oral health month organised by Indian Dental Association and Colgate Palmolive India Ltd.
This foamy endeavour helped create a Guinness World Record in India for ‘most people brushing their teeth at multiple venues smashing the previous record of 41,038 held by the Philippines. Colgate and IDA were awarded this certificate of achievement by Guinness World Record.
A record number of 177,003 people brushed their teeth simultaneously at 380 locations across India, in one day, at one time at the Colgate ‘Brush-Up Challenge’.
Healthy teeth
Conceptualised and implemented after months of planning, centre-piece of the challenge was a mass brushing event organised at Kalka Public School in New Delhi, where over 5,000 children from seven schools assembled and simultaneously brushed their teeth as they attempted to create a new world record.
Actor Saif Ali Khan, brand ambassador for Colgate MaxFresh, flagged off the event and encouraged the children on as they brushed.
In addition to the centralized mass brushing event at Kalka Public School, over 1.7-lakh children from 379 locations across India participated in satellite brushing events held at various school venues. Organised as part of the fourth edition of Oral Health Month (OHM), this world record attempt was aimed at boosting and spreading greater awareness about oral health in India, while teaching school children the right way to brush.
Dental health packs were provided to each student taking part in the attempt, which included toothbrush, toothpaste, bottled water and container for rinsing. Prabha Parameswaran, vice president, (marketing), Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd. says, “Good oral care habits are best imbibed at an early stage. That is why Colgate and IDA have been conducting oral health care education in schools/local communities since 1986.”
Oral health education is not rocket science for people not to understand. It entails education and prevention by following simple every day habit like brushing twice daily and eating right food. The challenge was an attempt to generate mass awareness.
Creating a new world record is a remarkable achievement that will help in furthering awareness of good oral hygiene as India powers towards its mission: zero tooth decay.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Young World
|
