Indian Dental Association's Coimbatore Branch said here on Tuesday that it has entered the Guinness World Records for screening 19,904 people at a special 24-hour camp in which 48-member dental surgeons of the branch participated.
Displaying the Guinness certificate, president of the branch P. Surendran and secretary R. Saravanan told presspersons that the camp was held from 8.01 a.m. on October 7 to 7.59 a.m. on October 8.
The Coimbatore Corporation and Sri Gambhirmal Bafna Charity Trust teamed up with the IDA and dental care products manufacturers Oral-B to conduct the camp, titled “Teeth 2010”.
ADVERTISEMENT
The aim was to generate awareness on dental health, Dr. Saravanan said. There was focus on educating young students on dental hygiene. Of the total number of people screened, 13,622 were students of Corporation schools and 2,877 from other schools in and around the city.
As many as 513 college students, 56 differently-abled persons and 2,836 members of the public were also screened.
“We broke the record of 3,377 people set by IDA's Mumbai branch, in fact the headquarters branch, in 2009,” Dr. Saravanan said. On that occasion, 150 doctors were involved, as against the 48 in Coimbatore last month.
ADVERTISEMENT
IDA Coimbatore held the national record for screening 1.32 lakh school students in 2002, a press release issued by the association said.
‘Overwhelming'
Dr. Surendran attributed the success of the camp to the “overwhelming” response of the people of Coimbatore to an effort by the association to create awareness on dental hygiene and, in the process, create a record of screenings.
After the screening, those found to be requiring treatment for dental problems were provided a list of dentists whom they could consult. Tooth extraction and filling would be done free of cost on every Saturday for three months.