In conjunction with four dental industry partners – Colgate, Dentsply-Sirona, GSK Consumer Healthcare, and TePe – the FDI World Dental Federation (FDI), of which the Australian Dental Association is a member organisation, is aiming to lead the charge in encouraging sustainable practices by dental professionals worldwide.
The collaborative initiative, which will involve extensive work with a range of groups, is intended to lead to a Consensus Statement outlining the environmental impacts of dentistry, and the publication of an FDI Sustainability Code of Practice that will provide “guidelines and objectives for achieving a sustainable procurement and supply procedure [and] which will be signed by co-signatories across the supply chain.”
The hope is that issues such as carbon dioxide emissions, plastic use, waste generation and other environmental impacts can be tackled in such a way “concerted and far-reaching solutions” are developed which will have a positive effect on all areas of the dental resource supply chain and delivery to care to patients.
“I am delighted to witness FDI’s Sustainability in Dentistry project evolve into this high-calibre, multi-partner initiative to achieve our sustainability goals for the dental profession,” said FDI President Dr Gerhard K. Seeberger. “The project’s humble beginnings as a way to encourage oral health professionals and dental practices to ‘think green’ is now moving into a phase of collaboration, action and real results.”
One key outcome of the project will be equipping dentists and their teams with a suite of tools and resources that it is hoped will improve sustainable practices in dental practices while at the same time helping the general public to make informed decisions about the way they manage their oral health.
