Hyderabad – Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. DRREDDY, hereafter referred to as “Dr. Reddy’s” announced the creation of ‘Fastminar’, the world’s largest toothbrush sculpture of a bodypartdedicated to raising awareness of dentine hypersensitivity. Fastminar is a 40-feet structure made with approximately 80,000 toothbrushes and is located at Terna Dental College in Navi Mumbai. The monumenthas been certified by Guinness World Records as the largest toothbrush sculpture of a body part in the world (supported).

The monument was unveiled by  Dr. Ashok Dhoble, Hon. Secretary-General of the Indian Dental Association(IDA), in a special ceremony in the presence of officials from Guinness World Records, the IDA, Dr. Reddy’s and Terna Dental College. The event saw Dr. Romi Jain, Head of Public Health, Terna Dental College, speak about recent trends in treating sensitivity and the IDA on the importance of raising awareness on sensitivity. This was followed by a formal announcement from the Guinness World Records adjudication team on the new world record set by the Senquel F team of Dr. Reddy’s.

The world record feat saw nationwide engagement and participation from 8,890 dentists who contributed toothbrushes to the construction ofFastminar. It is part of an ongoing attempt to draw attention to the topic of dentine and tooth sensitivity, treatment options, maximise outreach and to encourage timely actionto bring India relief from sensitivity.Fastminar will remain on display at Terna Dental College in Navi Mumbai for 365 days. In keeping with Dr. Reddy’s commitment to greener and more sustainable ways of living, the toothbrushes and material used in the monument will then be dismantled, pulverisedand re-used in building and construction activity.

Dr. Ashok Dhoble, Secretary, IDA, said:“One out of every five individuals suffers from tooth sensitivity in India, and inspite of this prevalence, there is often little timely corrective action against it. The biggest reason for this is low understanding and awareness of dentine hypersensitivity. With this activity, Dr. Reddy’s has undertaken the responsibilityof educating about tooth sensitivity or dentine hypersensitivity. This is a commendable exercise by Dr. Reddy’s and we completely support this initiative.”

M.V. Ramana, Chief Executive Officer – Branded Markets (India & Emerging Markets), said: “Minars are the pride of a city, and take years to be built. But our minar, which is a symbol of our promise to providefast relief from dentine sensitivity, was built in just over a month in keeping with our credo of ‘Good Health Can’t Wait’. Hence the name ‘Fastminar’. It marks two decades of our work in helping manage tooth sensitivity and renews our commitment to giving India effective solutions to this condition. We are pleased to see Fastminarrecognised by Guinness World Records and hope this will help in drawing attention to the treatment options available in this area, and encourage more conversations around this topic. We would like to thank the IDA and our nationwide network of colleagues in making this a successful effort.”

Dentine hypersensitivity (DH) is one of the most common dental clinical conditions experienced among the general public. DH occurs as a result of exposure of the dentinepart of the tooth to the oral environment following loss of overlying cementum or enamel. DH is initially experienced as episodic pain and over a period of time can become chronic due to the increase in tooth wear(2). It is a painful condition with prevalence ranging from 4–74% globally among the adult population. In India, the prevalence of hypersensitivity varies from 40-50%, and is higher in patients in the age bracket of 20-50 years(3). There are methods to manage DH, with the leading option being the use of a toothpastecontaining potassium salts, fluoride composites, resins, laser and bioglass(4).

1.     RahardjoA,et al. Efficacy of a toothpaste containing 5% potassium nitrate in desensitizing dentinhypersensitivity.Asian journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research.2016;9(2):3457

2.     Drug Invention Today. Vol 14, Issue 3, 2020

3.     J Clin Diagn Res. 2014 Sep; 8(9): ZC48–ZC51

4.     European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine, Volume 07, Issue 03, 2020