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 come to grips with the fact that the waste that leaves our practices doesn’t go away. We all inhabit this one little blue planet, and we must consider future generations when we make choices for 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

By reducing waste and pollution on the front end, there is 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 have this device installed to catch all the silver and mercury before it enters 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 dental office of the future 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. Turning off electrical items every time the office is closed is essential.

Use of energy- and water-saving dental equipment. Using 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 know now that a healthy mouth is the cornerstone of a healthy person.

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