World Toothbrushing Record Attempt Aimed At Inspiring Generational Change In Oral Health - Dr. Lawal Bakare

Dr. Lawal Kola Bakare, head of HEIT Solutions, organizers of Lagos World Record Toothbrushing Challenge, has revealed that the goal of the challenge is to inspire a new generation of Nigerians that would hold on to the message of oral hygiene and transfer such to their families without the intervention of a third party. He revealed this in an exclusive interview with HealthNewsNG.

He said to achieve this goal, the organizers are focusing on students of secondary schools in Lagos state. 

"By the time every kid will be leaving secondary school, we hope we would have been able to get 70 per cent of them to imbibe the oral health behavior and skills into their lives as they grow older. We are looking at adolescents who in the next years will be the young adults of the generation and in the next twenty years will be starting their own families. By then we believe we would have been able to inspire a new generation of people that would hold on to the message and transfer it to their families without the influence of a third party, those are the kind of things we have in mind," Dr. Bakare said.

In addition to the world record attempt, he said the children will learn three important aspects of oral health.

He said: "We are training the school children to be able to do 3 things – to brush twice daily which is a behavior that one doesn’t get naturally; to brush properly and to visit the dentist twice a year which will give them professional oral hygiene advises which they may not be able to get at home."

In addition to inspiring the future generation on oral health, he said the world record attempt is an opportunity to encourage discussions on health across all platforms and barriers. According to him, people only discuss health issues when doctors are on strike.

"I was looking for a mechanism to ensure that we discuss the lingering challenges of oral healthcare. We have some challenges with policy, oral health education, service utilization. In the bid to look for something to get all our stakeholders to think at the same time some government, clinicians, organizations, businessmen and others. The world record came as a means to galvanize motivation and cohesive actions, and enlarged collaboration.

"We were looking for something that will be sustainable and that would last for a long duration that is why majority of the participants are young children, people in school. Adolescents who are developing. By extension, we will be able to focus on other facets of life. It will also inspire youth empowerment, grow the youth energy given that the drive is moved by young people. 

"It will also promote health conversation because before, nobody talks about except when doctors are on strike. But now, we are galvanizing efforts across barriers. The challenge was inspired by the need for collaborations and as a means to tackle oral health challenges," Bakare told HealthNewsNG.