Sunstar announces recipients of international hygiene award
Sunstar Americas, Inc., which produces oral care products for both professionals and consumers worldwide, announced May 1 the winners of the first World Dental Hygienists Awards.
Sponsored by the Sunstar Foundation for Oral Health Promotion, based in Japan, and co-sponsored by Sunstar Americas, Inc., the new awards were created to recognize and encourage dental hygienists and students of dental hygiene who make great contributions to the community of dentistry, their profession, or to the public in general.
Award winners were chosen from papers submitted to a collaborating sponsor of the awards, the International Journal of Dental Hygiene. Submissions were divided into three award categories: research paper on dentistry, report of activities that contribute in the promotion of oral health, and activity report or essay written by dental hygiene students on dental hygiene or volunteer work.
The award recipients are as follows:
• Research category: "Risk for development of atherosclerosis in women with high amount of dental plaque and severe gingival inflammation." Birgitta Soder and Maha Yakob from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
• Project category: "The experience of a Canadian dental hygienist in the Dominican Republic." Elina Katsman from Toronto, Canada reports on the activities carried out by "Sonrisas" to promote oral health.
• Student category: "Dental hygiene residential care in a 3-year dental hygiene education programme in Japan. Towards dysphagia management based on the dental hygiene process of care." Tomomi Nishimura, Chigusa Takahashi, and Eri Takahashi from the Miyagi Advanced Dental Hygienist College, Japan.
The World Dental Hygienists Awards are granted and selected by a screening committee, and will be conducted every three years. Recipients receive a commemorative trophy and a cash prize ($5,000 for the research category; $3,000 for the project category; and $2,000 for the student category).
The award ceremony will take place at the IFDH (International Federation of Dental Hygienists) Symposium on Thursday, July 19th, at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto, Canada.
Sunstar is a company founded in Japan with worldwide sales of over $1 billion. The company has offices in 15 countries and four major geographic divisions, including Sunstar Americas, Inc., which serves North and South America. Sunstar's Butler® brand of professional dental products and GUM® brand of patient oral hygiene products have been two of the dental profession's recommended brands for more than 80 years (www.SunstarAmericas.com).
