Dentistry: Our Sustainable Future

The climate crisis is caused by rising atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases, in particular carbon dioxide, methane and nitric oxide. While major industries and agriculture are the largest contributors to global climate change, ostensibly benign professions such as dentistry also play a role. The articles in this special collection of the CDA Journal explore the impact of climate change on dentistry and offer insights into how dental professionals can reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining safe high-quality care.

Like other healthcare delivery settings, dental practices rely on a range of materials, resources and methods that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, emissions from the healthcare sector account for 8.5% of national emissions and continue to increase.^1,2 Dentistry, like other healthcare professions, is thus faced with the challenge of balancing patient care and safety with increasing environmental responsibility.

In the article “Impacts of Climate Change on Oral Health and Dentistry,” author N Hu addresses this challenge and explains why dentists should care about the climate. Author JK Fields further explores the dentist’s role in the fight to preserve natural resources in “Climate Change and Health: The Opportunity for Oral Health Professionals to be Champions of Sustainability.”

Other articles explain changes dentists can make that will have a positive impact on the environment. For example, many pediatric dental practices use nitrous oxide to manage pain and anxiety in young patients. While nitrous oxide is beneficial for patient comfort and essential for certain procedures, it is a potent greenhouse gas. The challenge is to balance patient care needs with the necessity to reduce emissions.

Another example is reducing the amount of waste produced by a practice. Dental clinics use a variety of resources that contribute to environmental degradation, including paper products. Paper use not only leads to deforestation, which contributes to climate change, but also increases waste production in clinics.

Dentists can also make a difference by reducing patient travel. Every trip to a dental clinic involves energy consumption, often in the form of greenhouse gas emissions. Many dental procedures, particularly routine ones, can potentially be completed in a single visit, minimizing both patient inconvenience and environmental impact.

Dental school faculty, students and staff who drive to school also contribute to energy consumption. By choosing to instead bike, walk or use public transportation, they can decrease their greenhouse gas emissions. Y Guo et al. discuss the impact of a U.S. dental school’s travel in the article “Assessing the Travel Carbon Footprint of Faculty, Students, and Staff at a U.S. Dental School.”

Dental clinics use large quantities of single-use items, often more than 30 different types for a given procedure. These items, ranging from gloves and masks to disposable instruments, generate waste that is rarely recyclable due to the risk of contamination and biological hazards. DM Hackley and J Luca explore the importance of finding alternatives to single-use items and other ways to reduce waste in the dental practice in “Sustainability in Dentistry: An Overview for Oral Healthcare Team Members.”

The road to sustainable dentistry requires a commitment to environmental responsibility from every professional in the field. Luckily for our future, according to N Tadha et al. in “Advancing Sustainable Dentistry: A Comprehensive Survey and Analysis at the UCLA School of Dentistry,” younger dental care practitioners show higher adherence to sustainable practices than older practitioners.

All dentists have a unique opportunity to lead by example by reducing their clinic’s carbon footprint through thoughtful decision-making for materials, technology and patient education. By reevaluating procedures, reducing waste and advocating sustainable practices, the dental profession can make a meaningful contribution to the global fight against climate change.

Biographies

Nader A. Nadershahi, DDS, MBA, EdD, is dean of the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry and vice provost of the San Francisco campus. He is the first Iranian American dean of a dental school in the U.S. Dr. Nadershahi serves on the boards of the Bay Area Council, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and was appointed by the governor to the California Health Workforce Education and Training Council. He has been a leader at the California Dental Association and American Dental Association and is a member of the Santa Fe Group.

David M. Ojcius, PhD, is professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. He was a standing member of a study section of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, has published highly cited articles on host-pathogen interactions or the association between oral health and systemic health, and is an editor or editor-in-chief of various academic journals, including Current Research in Microbial Sciences.