Reducing single use plastics in dental practice: a quality improvement project

Introduction. Climate change is a major issue facing the global population. Healthcare services, including dentistry, have an obligation to examine current practice and reduce the carbon footprint of their services. Single-use plastics, for example those used to cover dental equipment, are not necessarily essential for cross infection purposes. Materials and Methods. This quality improvement project was carried out in 2023 across 12 dental practices in the North London Dental Foundation Training (DFT) Scheme. Baseline financial and environmental costs were estimated for the weekly single-use barrier plastics used in each practice. This was communicated to each practice. Practices using single-use plastics were contacted 3 months later to see if they had made any changes. Results. 10 out of 12 practices were using one or more of the single-use plastics at baseline, with an estimated carbon footprint ranging from 0.07 to 27.02 kg CO2e per week. 3 practices reduced or eliminated their single-use plastics as a result of this quality improvement project, which resulted in an equivalent saving of 46.87 kg CO2e per week. Discussion. The removal of non-essential single use plastics in the dental practice is an economically and environmentally sustainable change, that should be considered in all dental settings.