What is Eco-Dentistry?

There is constantly a lot of attention being put on the sustainability of earth and how much damage is being done to the atmosphere. Because of these aspects being in the media so much a large number of industries are making changes to the way they operate to cut down on the waste they produce and the energy they use. Dentistry is no exception to these changes and the introduction of Eco-Dentistry will soon see the industry doing all it can for our planet.

The first thing which Eco-Dentistry will do is to cut down on the waste which is produced by dentistry at the moment. A high percentage of dentistry apparatus are only used once and are also supplied in packaging which must be thrown away. Eco-Dentistry will see the implementation of more multi-use dentistry items but the way they are supplied will also change. To cut down on packaging and carbon emissions these things will also be ordered in bulk where possible.

Eco-Dentistry is also encouraging the use of digital x-rays instead of conventional ones which create millions of lead foils each year. Switching to digital x-rays would not only cut out the need for this but it would also reduce the radiation released into the atmosphere from the many x-rays which take place around the world.

Although technology is very affordable today an amazingly high number of dentists still use traditional methods such as patient cards for keeping records. This means that more trees have to be cut down creating more pollution and more waste. Eco-Dentistry will see this changed to computer records so that regardless of how many records are needed a single computer will suffice.

Dentistry as an industry uses quite a high amount of energy and not just directly either. After waste has been produced by dentistry fuel is required for it to be recycled but Eco-Dentistry will significantly lower the amount needed. Those methods mentioned above and numerous others are how Eco-Dentistry will help dentists do their bit to preserve earth's resources and protect its atmosphere.