Being a Part of Dentistry’s Green Future

Dentistry is, first and foremost, a healing profession. We’re in this to help people enjoy chewing and absorbing the nutrients in food, flash a winning smile and be at ease kissing a loved one. The practice of dentistry contributes significantly to the Earth’s heavy load. It doesn’t have to be this way.

We must accept that the waste that leaves our practices will not disappear. We all inhabit this little blue planet, and we must consider future generations when we choose our dental practice and our lives.

By embracing abundant high technology and good old common sense, we will be part of dentistry’s clean, green, and bio-conscious future. Here’s how:

REDUCE WASTE AND PREVENT POLLUTION

Reducing waste and pollution on the front end means less to deal with on the back end. Using digital imaging and X-rays, we don’t have to deal with the disposal of lead foils or toxic developer and fixer.

Installation of amalgam separators. All dentists must install this device to catch all the silver and mercury before entering our waste system.

Less use of single-use, disposable patient barriers, and sterilization methods. These might seem cheaper and safer in the short run, but the opposite is true in the long run. Reusable cloth methods have been used in this country’s best hospital operatory rooms for decades, cost-effectively protecting practitioners and patients while keeping millions of pounds of trash out of our overburdened landfills. The future dental office will utilize hospital-tested reusable methods combined with effective, planet-safe surface disinfectants, generating about 90% less trash.

SAVE ENERGY, WATER & MONEY

Conservation is a critical part of dentistry’s green future. It is essential to turn off electrical items when the office is closed.

Energy—and water-saving dental equipment is used, as well as LED technology and waterless vacuum systems, which can save between 350 and 500 gallons of water per day.

GREEN DENTISTRY IS HIGH-TECH DENTISTRY

The use of digital impression-taking eliminates the need for disposable impression materials and the freight and transportation impacts associated with sending restorations back and forth to a lab.

GREEN DENTISTRY IS WELLNESS-BASED DENTISTRY

Every branch of medicine is moving from a disease-based model to a wellness-based model—one that is centered upon prevention, early detection, and less invasive treatments. Dentistry’s green future embraces this wellness-based model because our profession is literally on the front lines of total body wellness. We now know that a healthy mouth is the cornerstone of a healthy person.