
Dental care brand Oral-B
kicked off the Smile India Movement sometime ago. The movement aimed to
improve the oral health standards of the nation.
The movement was launched after Oral-B
came together with AC Nielsen to conduct a nationwide survey, which
revealed alarming results about the poor state of oral hygiene in India,
and the need for increased education and awareness on the subject.
Lead by more than 10,000 dentists
across India, the initiative travelled to malls and schools across the
nation to reach out to the masses and impart knowledge on the
significance of good oral health.
The
movement received support from 10,000 dentists and in a month, managed
to get more than one crore Indians to take the pledge to brush in the
right manner and to visit the dentist regularly. Pledges were taken on
two fronts – that they will brush right (that is, brush for two
minutes), brush twice a day and use the right toothbrush; and secondly,
visit the dentist regularly (once in every six months).
The culmination of the movement was
celebrated with Bollywood actors Prachi Desai and Juhi Chawla. The
celebrities highlighted how the state of oral hygiene of the country is
low, with 53 per cent of Indians suffering from common tooth problems
such as toothache, bleeding gums, bad breath and decayed teeth. It also
received support from celebrities such as Vidya Balan, Sonali Bendre,
Jennifer Kotwal and Andrea Jeremiah, who played a key role in
influencing more consumers to join this movement.
Discussing the movement, Sharat Verma,
brand manager, Oral-B, says, “We launched Smile India Movement with the
aim of helping create an India with healthy, confident smiles, by
educating the nation on the right oral care habits. I am proud to say
that we have contributed significantly towards improving the oral health
standards of the nation, with the support of more than 10,000 dentists
and by getting one crore consumers to take the Oral-B Smile India
Pledge.”
As part of its Smile India
Movement, Oral-B, in association with The Indian Dental Association and
dat help, has broken the Guinness World Record for conducting the
largest number of free dental checkups in 24 hours at a single
location. A total of 48 doctors teamed up to conduct 19,904 dental
checkups to break the world record previously held for conducting 3,300
free dental checkups by 600 dentists in 24 hours.
The dental checkups were conducted by the
IDA Coimbatore branch continuously, starting from 8:01 am on October 7,
2010 and extending up to 7:59 am on October 8.
Wrigley Orbit and Colgate have also
carried out similar mass contact programmes earlier. In a similar
activity done on a smaller scale, the Indian Dental Association (IDA),
in partnership with Wrigley’s Orbit sugar free chewing gum, organised an
oral care marathon, Mumbai Smiles, in October 2009. Mumbai Smiles was a
part of the World Dental Show, where more than 600 dentists from
across the country met and participated in a 24 hour dental checkup
marathon.
Colgate-Palmolive India,
along with the IDA, successfully concluded the sixth edition of the
oral health awareness programme in 2009. Oral Health Month (OHM) was
initiated in 2004 as a programme spread across six cities, with an aim
to establish and promote the importance of good oral care habits and
dat practice.
In 2009, it managed to
reach out to 1,000 towns for the first time, with the support of
17,500 dental professionals. Through a mobile dental van initiative,
the company also reached 37 cities and provided more than 1.2 lakh free
dental checkups, while more than four lakh school children were given
tips on oral care hygiene through the special School Oral Health
Awareness programme.
Article Source:http://www.afaqs.com/news/story.html?sid=2 9227_Oral-Bs+Smile+India+Movement+ends+w ith+pledges+from+one+crore+Indians
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