Dentistry is a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.......Why not do it green?

Dentistry can be a dirty job, but not necessarily in a disgusting sense like you would see on that show with that Mike fella.  Contrary to popular opinion, given the saliva and organic compounds, dentistry is a pretty clean business, but it is pretty "dirty" when it comes to the environment.  There are many things that can be done to reverse, or at least improve, our dirty tendencies.

I had been working for years for a corporate run dental practice, where money concerns trump any attempts to reduce the environmental impact of a dental practice.  When I decided to open my own practice, I vowed that I would do all that I could to make that practice as "green" as possible.  It became a very creative endeavor, given I had a very strict budget that I needed to stick to.

I was never much of a "greenie" in the past, but when I met my wife, I began to learn more and more about earth friendly practices in our home lives.  I was still always very skeptical, but began to little things that made a minimal impact to "green" my life.  I was a typical American consumer, not really caring much about content, what's in it or where it comes from, and could truly care less about packaging and recycling.  Now as I learned more and more about how my behaviors affected the planet, and what we were leaving behind for future generations, I began to change my ways to attempt to live in harmony with the planet.  It wasn't until we became parents, that I really shifted my focus towards a total overhaul of my life and actions that would bring my life to have as small an impact on the planet as possible.  I started changing lightbulbs to CFL, changed the toilets to dual flush mechanisms, moved to fuel efficient vehicles, and had an energy audit of our home with all the necessary changes made.  We bought a composter, changed how we treated and watered our lawn, and even installed a whole home water purifier/softener.  Our changes were pretty drastic for the way we lived prior.  We noted improvements in energy efficiency, improved health of our home and family, and most importantly a decrease in our carbon footprint.  This shift in lifestyle has been the best thing we have ever done, and it gives us incredible pride to know that we are doing our best to leave our children a better planet than the way we found it.  If only more people would come to this realization.

Enough about us, now back to the dental office.  When I decided to build a practice from the ground up, I decided that I was going to do all I could to make a truly green and sustainable dental office.  Some of the things that I wanted to do would have to be planned and implemented later, but we "greened" the office as much as we could.  We started off by choosing a LEED certified General Contractor, Evergreen Construction Management, under Mark Starcher.  We explained to Mark our vision and he was able to maximize our wishes with our limited budget.  Along with Mark we worked with Patterson Dental to get the most efficient dental equipment available.

During construction, we stressed using the greenest techniques and materials.  The space that we purchased for the practice was a corner unit that had multiple large windows to maximize the use of natural light.  In the future we are planing on investing in SolaTubes for the interior portions of the practice, that are few given a very efficient design plan to maximize natural light effusing throughout the office.  We can actually work in the operatories without even turning on the lights on a sunny day, and that is with the blinds only slightly opened to conserve privacy to the patient.  All lighting in the office is controlled by motion sensors, that turn on the lights only when there is movement in the areas and turns off at a set time if no movement detected.  We installed a full ducted return HVAC system, to improve interior air quality, and installed fully programmable thermostats to allow full and efficient climate control.  When it comes to cabinetry, we installed fully FSC certified cabinetry to ensure the use of sustainable practices when harvesting raw materials to be placed in the office.  My vision was to place recycled glass countertops, but getting them would be difficult from a budget standpoint, although could have been done, but actually getting the product within our construction schedule was the reason for changing to quartz countertops.  Quartz is still a pretty green material.  To round off our green materials, we used cork for the flooring in the reception area, but had to use vinyl (from recycled sources) for the clinical portions of the office given the antimicrobial nature and ease of keeping clean.  When it came adding a bit of color to the space, we opted for no VOC paint, which was pretty cool because you could enter the space the day the painters were there, and never notice the fresh paint smell.  Now, regarding water conservation, all fixtures placed are low flow and water conservation techniques are stressed at all times.  All the above made for a great effort to make the construction, and bones of our office, as green as possible.  There are future plans to install solar panels and wind turrets in an effort to get the practice off the grid.  That would be a true dream.  Now it was up to me to use the most eco friendly dental techniques to truly make our practice green and sustainable.

Even before construction was under way, I stated to research green dental techniques that I could implement immediately.  I actually stated to use those at the office that I was working at the time.  I became a member of the Eco Dentistry Association (EDA), and stated to use their recommendations to make a dental practice green.  We will be applying for certification as a GreenDoc practice in the EDA in the near future.

As a profession we have become completely dependent upon a plethora of disposable materials and toxic agents to be able to perform our duties.  I started by attacking the rampant use of disposables.  The EDA talks about cloth sterilization techniques, and it is my plan to get to that level very soon.  We had a washer/dryer connection put in during construction to allow our transition to that sterilization technique in the near future.  To decrease the impact of our disposables, I was able to find many products, in the Patterson Dental Catalog or through our rep, that are made from recycled materials or that are fully biodegradable.  A great example of this are the high vacuum suction tips that are made from biodegradable paper vs. plastic, but even though these are great I have moved towards reusable, autoclavable products for all suction tips, or plan to in the future.  I have even found an autoclavable saliva ejector.  To lower disposables and decrease radiation exposure to our patients, we changed to digital radiography (xrays), and all charts are paperless, with all attempts at any correspondence with insurance companies or specialists to be by email or digital media.  The little paper that is used in the practice is from recycled sources, this being implemented for all paper products from office and sanitary, to changing the rinsing cups to biodegradable materials.  To decrease energy and water use, we installed a waterless vacuum system, with an amalgam separator, and an oil less air compressor .  Also to decrease use of water and impact of disinfection and cleaning materials, we are using waterless hand sanitation (unless visibly soiled),  disinfection materials that kill all pathogens of concern, but break down fully to water and peroxide, and green cleaning products (from different commercial companies).  Any waste that is produced in the practice that is recyclable and not a biohazard is disposed of by way of a recycling program that has been implemented, and any food scrap in the kitchen/lounge is collected and brought home to be placed in my composter, with plans to buy a composter for the practice.

To lower our effect on the environment in our practice we have plans of purchasing a Cerec machine, that allows all crowns to be made on sight without the need to ship our cases to and from dental labs.  For now we are only using local dental labs that are located within a 10 mile radius of our office, lowering the effect of the travel of our lab cases, and also contributing to local businesses.

We were also able to take a green approach to furnishing the practice.  Many of the articles of furniture in the office were either second hand purchases at a local store in Orlando, or purchased from Ikea utilizing their sustainable practices of construction and packaging.  We purchased our office artwork from a local artist that we met at the Lake Eola Farmer's Market, Gabbie Gosselin.  We try to support the local community in any way that we can.  We joined www.ourlando.org, a local business network.

Our last effort has been to partner with a company called Preserve Products, that makes toothbrushes (among other products) from #5 plastic (yogurt cups and other food grade plastics), that is normally not accepted in home recycling collection.  We have been trying to get a collection bin for #5 plastic for patients to bring in to our office, but have still not gotten that in place.  Those plastic products can be taken to Whole Foods Markets and placed in the Gimme 5 bins placed there by Preserve.

This practice has been a labor of love for myself and my family, and it makes us very proud that we are doing our part to minimize the impact of our practice on the planet.  We are in no way done, and promise to do all we can to champion the "Green" cause to the best of our power.  We only hope that other dental practices follow our lead, and not just to use it for marketing purposes, so that we can reverse the effect that we, as a profession, have over the planet that we will leave to our children and grandchildren.  It is best said on every package of Seventh Generation products:  "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generation" (from The Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy).

Charles R. Cuprill, DMD
www.orlandoteeth.com