The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dentist holds world record his toothpaste collection
More than 2,000 tubes include brands from around the world.
Did you know Crayola makes toothpaste? Dr. Val Kolpakov does. He has the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of toothpaste tubes.
The Alpharetta dentist didn’t start out hoarding toothpaste, however.
“Back in 2001, when I was a young dentist, I was pulling lots of teeth, about 100 teeth a week,” he told Guinness’ Claire Elise Stephens during a Facebook Live three years ago. “And I remembered back in dental school there was a record for the number of teeth extracted, and I thought maybe I could beat that record, pulling that many.”
While researching the record for extracted teeth, Kolpakov came across the entry for a man in Germany who collected toothpaste but didn’t have a record.
“I thought, if I collect enough, I might even get a record,” he told Stephens.
And get a record he did. In 2012, Guinness declared Kolpakov the world record holder with 2,037 tubes of toothpaste. The dentist appears in the 2014 Guinness book.
Kolpakov’s collection includes the standard Colgate and Crest, but also Crayola, Hello Kitty and tubes from around the world.
Kolpakov said when he began the collection, he would ask friends in other countries to send him interesting tubes. Now, he says, people will bring him samples they picked up while traveling. He has tubes from Korea, China, India and Russia in his collection.
He even has a gift set from 1963 that is alcohol-flavored toothpaste, including rum, martini and eggnog.
Kolpakov displays part of his collection in his Alpharetta office, which he opened in 2009.