By World Health Care Network Huaxin the FDI World Dental Federation (FDI) today launched the Sustainable Dentistry Toolkit to help the dental profession understand what actions they can take to ensure that their work is environmentally sustainable. By providing dentists and dental teams with tools and strategies to implement greener practices and track progress, the FDI hopes to contribute to reducing the environmental impact of practices in a practical way.
The toolkit was developed following the release of the Consensus Statement on Environmentally Sustainable Oral Health Care earlier this year, which outlined challenges and solutions for improving dental sustainability. The Consortium also believes that the oral health care sector has a responsibility to provide environmentally sustainable care without jeopardising the welfare of patients.
"Dentists and dental teams can play an active role in reducing the environmental impact of dentistry, while safeguarding optimal patient care. This online sustainable dentistry toolkit is an important step towards helping the dental industry take steps to reduce its carbon footprint." Professor Ihsane Ben Yahya, President of FDI, said. She continued, "I hope that the work we do today will have a positive impact on our children and grandchildren, enabling them to enjoy a healthy life and planet."
The toolkit was developed as part of the FDI Dental Sustainability Project and contains an interactive platform to guide users towards more sustainable practices by providing them with practical solutions to drive their activities. Dentists and their teams can take on different challenges and receive a bronze, silver or gold award for doing so. The interactive challenges will provide dental teams with the tools to raise awareness, implement change and make the environment more sustainable. Dental organisations and practitioners around the world are encouraged to register as teams and make environmental choices to demonstrate their commitment to our planet.
