A campaign to promote oral health features a video created by Andrew Rosenstein, a fourth-year student at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine.
Rosenstein, of South Windsor, directs and stars in “Frank D. Kay, Professional Cavity,” a light-hearted 2-minute public service announcement worthy of the Connecticut Coalition for Oral Health’s first video award.
CCOH launched a video contest for Connecticut dental, dental hygiene and dental assisting programs in August with the idea of creating a video capturing the message “A healthy body starts with a healthy mouth.” The group credits Rosenstein for his “creative and entertaining film illustration of how oral health is part of overall health.”
Rosenstein, in the role of the title character, advises viewers, “Take control of your sweet tooth… before I do.”
“The inspiration for the character of Frank D. Kay came from an episode of the Twilight Zone (“One for the Angels”) where a man is visited by death in the form of a man in a suit, who was sent to help re-organize the man’s priorities in life,” Rosenstein says. “I have always enjoyed acting and film making as well as dentistry. This contest allowed me to do both at the same time.”
CCOH honored Rosenstein at its annual meeting in December. This month, the Connecticut State Dental Association is using the video to help promote the American Dental Association’s National Children’s Dental Health Month.
“Oral hygiene instruction is white noise for most people,” says Rosenstein, who next year will be a pediatric dentistry resident at the UConn School of Dental Medicine and the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. “It’s only when you throw humor into the ‘lesson’ that you can be sure to grab everyone’s attention. Ironically, people tend to take humor more seriously than seriousness. I felt that making the video funny would captivate the audience and leave them wanting to learn more.”
See the video at http://youtu.be/UvJZt9DvAoQ. And expect Frank D. Kay to show up again. Rosenstein says he’s working on more videos with the same character that will cover other aspects of oral health and target different age groups.
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