Video – oral health and environment connection

The educational video is aimed at the general public to help them understand that good oral health has a positive impact on the environment and poor oral health is related to increased carbon emissions.

The video provides dentists with an opportunity to start conversations with their patients and remind them that by taking action to prevent oral diseases they can reduce their carbon emissions, through a reduced need for interventions, which has a positive impact on the environment. They should be encouraged to manage their risk by eating healthy low-sugar diets, avoiding tobacco, and limiting alcohol consumption; adopting good oral hygiene habits; and having regular dental check-ups.

An additional resource to aid such dialogues with patients is the Maintaining good oral health infographic. 

High-quality preventive dentistry results in the lowest carbon emissions which is why good oral health is good for the patient and good for the environment.

“Show the video in your dental practices to spark conversations on how good oral health and preventing oral diseases can have a positive impact on the environment”.

Infographic – The carbon footprint of oral health

This infographic is aimed at dentists and dental teams to help raise awareness of the carbon emissions created by interventions within dental practices and the strategies that can be implemented to reduce them.

We encourage you to view, use and share the resources broadly so that we all work together to reduce the carbon footprint of dentistry.

About the Sustainability in Dentistry project

FDI’s Sustainability in Dentistry project was established to motivate and inspire commitment to reduce the collective CO2 footprint of dentistry, targeting practitioners, patients, and the supply chain itself. The project will produce a suite of tools and resources for dental practices and patients to be more environmentally sustainable.

Through multi-stakeholder collaboration, the project will develop a Consensus Statement outlining the environmental impacts of dentistry. This will form the basis of the Consensus Summit and resulting Code of Good Practice, which provides guidelines and objectives for achieving a sustainable procurement and supply procedure. This will be signed by co-signatories across the supply chain. New signatories will be encouraged to sign the document and commit to a more sustainable future.

The five founding partners of the Sustainability in Dentistry project are Colgate, GlaxoSmithKline, Consumer Healthcare, Dentsply Sirona, Procter & Gamble and TePe.