If COP26 highlighted one thing, it’s the fact that it falls to all of us as individuals to combat climate change. And that includes what we do in each of our dental practices. In fact, just in England research into NHS primary dental care estimated that each year, the NHS dental service is responsible for 675 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). Imagine what this number would be if it included all dental practices around the world.
It’s clear that dental teams can do more. But beyond adorning the practice with a kaleidoscopic panoply of plastic bins for various materials and fastidiously classifying our cardboard, cans, and apple cores, what more can dental practices do to play their part?
There are a few key angles to consider as we start thinking about sustainability:
- Human factors and behavioural changes
- Sourcing and purchasing more sustainably
- End of life processes for materials and tools
- Evaluation and monitoring
We’ll look at five tangible ways that you can make a difference in these areas:
1. Change behaviours
Many of the changes that we can make are behavioural. These issues might be simple to fix, but old habits can die hard, and inertia around ‘the way we’ve always done things’ is not uncommon. But it’s worth examining because there are gains to be made for the practice as well as for the environment.
The study referenced above found, for example, that 64.5% of emissions from NHS dental services related to travel (staff and patient). Using digital dentistry and online dental services creatively to replace patient travel—or rewarding patients who take public transportation (or walk or cycle) to your dental clinic—are simple ways to switch things up. Even on a small scale, changes like these can accumulate over time to make a big difference.
The same information we no doubt had drilled into us as children still holds true too: turn lights off when we leave empty rooms, shut computers down when we clock-off for the evening, turn screens off when they’re not being used, conserve water where possible and yes—reduce, reuse, and recycle. You may also choose to remove TVs from patient waiting rooms—let’s be honest most are probably glued to their phones anyway. (All the more reason to think about your TikTok and Instagram presence!)
