WHAT CAN A DENTAL OFFICE DO TO HELP SUPPORT A HEALTHY, CLEAN ENVIRONMENT?

We would like you to know how we are very different from many dental practices today. In all that we do, we all really need to take the health of our environment into serious consideration. Not only do we care for the health of our patients, we are also very much concerned for our environment.  During the past ten years, our dental practice has made many advances to reduce the negative impact of the manner in which most dentists used to provide dental care. It is not possible to have a healthy human population on a seriously polluted planet.  The truth is that the polluting dental practices were a symptom of outdated methodologies and a false perception of "convenience." How have things changed?

DIGITAL VS. CONVENTIONAL X-RAYS

Believe it or not, 28 million liters of toxic x-ray fixer and 4.8 million lead foils are generated every year by some dental offices in the United states alone.  While dentists are responsible for the safe disposal of these dangerous materials, they still have to go somewhere, right?  We know that they can produce target-organ tissue damage including adverse reproductive and respiratory effects.  For that rason, our office utilizes the newer digital x-ray technology which eliminates all of this while reducing x-ray exposures by 90%!

DIGITAL RECORDS

The volume of paper being consumed today by health care providers using conventional records is astounding.  The use of paperless, digital computerized records has diminished this immensely.  In our office today, the use of paper is limited to information that we must manually collect or personally hand to our patients in the office.  All of our signed patient records are then scanned, encrypted and stored into the computer.  All of the confidential patient-signed forms are then shredded and recycled.  All of our insurance billing procedures are submitted electronically.  Digital imaging, digital patient charting, digital impressions and digital diagnostics are the future of the dental industry - all environmentally friendly.

INFECTION CONTROL AND STERILIZATION PROCESSES

Infection control processes have historically contributed noxious chemicals to the dental office environment.  More recently, there are improved alternatives to the use of these agents that contained eye irritants, liver toxins and respiratory irritants.  Today, some of the best-performing hospital disinfectants, ones with the quickest kill times, are very eco-friendly.  Our office uses steam sterilzation equipment that eliminate the need for these problematic chemical agents.  There is no longer the need to use the out-dated wipe-down cleaning procedures using chemical agents that can cause harm to our patients and our staff.