Eco-Dentistry Association Encourages Dental Professionals to Green Their Practices with Earth Day Resolutions
Organization Provides Checklist of Standards for Green Dental Offices with Waste-Reducing, Pollution-Preventing Initiatives
BERKELEY, California (April 6, 2010) The Eco-Dentistry Association£ (EDA), an international association promoting environmentally sound practices in dentistry, encourages dental professionals to make an Earth Day resolution to reduce waste and pollution in their offices. The organization, which recently launched a certification program for eco-friendly dental practices, offers dental professionals a Checklist of Standards for Green Dental Offices that helps them incorporate planet-friendly initiatives. In honor of Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary, The EDA recommends dental professionals make these Earth Day Resolutions to reduce waste and pollution in their practice this year:
1) Separate It. Even if you don’t place amalgams, you still need an amalgam separator. In a typical one-dentist office that only removes amalgam fillings; the amalgam separator captured 3 pounds of mercury-containing waste material in one year. Every restorative practice should have this important piece of equipment.
2) Practice litter-free infection control. It is estimated that 1.7 billion plastic-paper sterilization pouches and 680 million barriers from U.S. dental offices will end up in landfill this year. The EDA offers Best Practices for Waste-Reducing Sterilization and Infection Control to help dental professionals to go litter-free while maintaining the highest infection control standards. Cloth sterilization wraps and pouches and re-usable cloth patient bibs and barriers, popular in high-tech and spa practices, help dentists to significantly reduce their environmental footprint. When a paper-plastic pouch is the best solution, separate the paper from the plastic, and recycle each appropriately.
3) Detoxify your infection control processes. Using the right non-toxic, biodegradable cleaner and disinfectant is an important component of pollution-preventing infection control. Line cleaners and cold sterile solutions such as glutaraldahyde are a significant source of pollution from the dental industry, and contribute to poor indoor air quality. Modern dentistry has eliminated the need for cold sterilization, and there are several earth-safe line cleaners on the market. Making a switch to the non-toxic option will keep your office in compliance with hospital infection control standards while eliminating the “dental office smell” patients hate.
4) Go Digital. Dental radiographs are an important part of preventive dentistry, but traditional dental x-rays will contribute as much as 4.8 million lead foils and 28 million liters of toxic x-ray fixer to our local ecosystems this year. Conserve resources and help cool the planet by switching to digital patient charting. Your patients will appreciate the significant reduction in radiation digital imaging provides, and will benefit from your up-to-date approach to their healthcare records, while saving you more than $8500 a year.
5) Promote your practice “paperlessly.” Dental practitioners are always looking for ways to build rapport with patients. You may not realize how much your patients will appreciate your office’s eco-friendly initiatives, especially when they are delivered paper-free. Use a digital marketing and communications provider that offers web optimization and appointment confirmation by email or text message. Provide your patients with regular updates about your eco-friendly initiatives in electronic newsletters and e-mail blasts. Once or twice a year send a special newsletter using earth-friendly papers, inks and printing processes. Join the EDA to connect with other eco-friendly dental professionals or to become an EDA Certified office.
For products and services to help you achieve your office’s Earth Day Resolutions, check out the EDA’s GreenDOC£ Product Guide, available on the EDA website at www.ecodentistry.org/GreenDOC.
About the Eco-Dentistry Association
The EDA offers dental professionals’ practical tips on incorporating eco-friendly dental methods and practices, and offers the public access to dental professionals that share their values of wellness and environmental stewardship. The EDA’s members are located in 42 U.S. States and 11 countries. The organization was co-founded by Dr. Fred Pockrass, a dentist, and his entrepreneur wife, Ina Pockrass, who together created the model for eco-friendly dentistry, and operate their own award winning dental practice in Berkeley, California, the first in the country to be certified as a green business. They formed the organization to stimulate a movement in the dental industry to employ environmentally-sound practices, like reducing waste and pollution, saving energy, water and money, incorporating wellness-based methods and the best technological advances in dentistry.
More information can be found at www.ecodentistry.org