When it comes to those industries that you think of being the most culpable for negative impacts on the environment you most likely would include the car industry, petrochemical plants, and power stations which burn fossil fuels. Whilst these may near the top, you might be surprised to learn that in this age of everyone seeking to enhance their green credentials, dentists have a huge role to play.
Now a dental practice might not seem the first place you would point the finger at for the harm that is done to the environment, however, there are many aspects of their activities that are most certainly not considered to be green. In fact, several practices and procedures, such as braces, which occur within dental clinics are extremely harmful to the environment.
If you are a dentist or run a dental practice this may or may not be news to you, but either way, we would hope that you are nevertheless keen to improve your green credentials. That being the case here are some positive ways your dental practice can operate in a more environmentally manner.
Reduce Patient Visits
Whenever a patient visits, they will have already contributed to greenhouse gases when they travelled to your office. So, to reduce this pollution you could look at changing your appointment system to accommodate, longer, but less frequent visits, whereby you combine treatments and consultations whenever possible.