FDI World Dental Federation releases sustainable dentistry toolkit

The FDI World Dental Federation, which serves as the principal representative body for some 200 national dental associations including the ADA, has released the Toolkit for Sustainable Dentistry (the Toolkit) which is designed to help practices understand what they need to do to ensure their work is environmentally sustainable.

The Toolkit, created as part of FDI’s Sustainability in Dentistry project, contains interactive tools and strategies which provide dentists and their teams with the ability to be both more sustainable in the way the operate and to chart their progress which FDI hopes will lessen the environmental footprint of the dental profession.

This important sustainability initiative is an outworking of the Consensus Statement on Environmentally Sustainable Oral Healthcare which was released earlier this year, and which FDI notes “recognises that the oral healthcare sector has a responsibility to provide environmentally sustainable care without compromising patient welfare.”

"Dentists and dental teams can play an active role in reducing the environmental impact of dentistry, while safeguarding optimal patient care. This online Toolkit for Sustainable Dentistry is a step towards helping dental practices adopt measures to reduce their carbon footprint." said Prof. Ihsane Ben Yahya, FDI President. She continued "I hope that our work today will have a positive impact on our future generations so that they can enjoy a healthy life and planet."

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. The Consensus Statement was developed through multi-stakeholder collaboration and has resulted in the development of the online Toolkit for Sustainable Dentistry to help dental practices reduce their environmental impact. Also being developed is a Pledge for Sustainable Dentistry, which will provide guidelines and objectives for achieving a sustainable procurement and supply procedure. Co-signatories across the supply chain are encouraged to sign the pledge.