Green is the new black

Going green has never been easier for a dental practice. There are many incentives and benefits to doing so. A sustainable approach to going green can help a dental practice reduce waste, save energy and water, and can be very cost effective. Going green is inherently innovative, as it saves time on day-to-day operations and can help streamline your processes.

Ways to go green

Going green takes time, you can start small and aim for bigger goals but where are places you can start?

Starting a very simple recycling and waste control management program is one place to start. This is a very simple implementation. Begin with some of the easiest things - recycling printed paper, food waste, eliminate the use of cans and bottles etc. This can quickly move onto more ways of waste management, such as buying biodegradable cleaning products.

When it comes to other waste, you can remove some of that too. Moving onto digital X-ray is a cost effective solution. No more foils, solution and other chemicals to get rid of and your digital x-ray will integrate with your dental software of choice. It's a great way of starting your move to the cloud too!

Moving to an eco-friendly sterilisation program is slightly more difficult and can incur a large amount of initial cost but can quickly return its investment. Using non-toxic infection controls and eco-friendly sterilisation rather than chemical heavy processes can help improve working conditions.

Reducing single use items, such as autoclave wraps, patient bibs can help save you money to. These items are a significant amount of waste in any practice and you can eliminate a lot of waste by switching to reusable pouches, wraps and cloth based bibs.

Of course, you could also go paperless...

Going Paperless

A dental practice going paperless involves eliminating the use of paper. Modern dental software helps make it easier for you to do this, where you are able to communicate with your patients, invoice them electronically, chart from the cloud etc.

Dentally is helping you to close the gap between your practice reducing paper in your practice and truly embracing paperless. With the release of Dentally for iPad. Dentally for iPad helps you to reduce paper massively, in your practice. Our dental software already significantly decreases the need for paper in your practice but this is a giant leap forward.

With Dentally for iPad you can now hand the tablet to your customer and have them fill out and sign their medical histories, and also sign invoices. These digital signatures remove the need for more paper in your practice.

Going paperless also helps with the atmosphere within your practice. Patients walking into a practice without a huge footprint of paperwork to fill in instantly feel more welcomed, it can also make them feel safer and trust you more as they know you are a dental practice which employs the best that modern dentistry has to offer.

Have a look at Dentally for iPad yourself on our video below...

Green Audit

Making small steps towards going green can make it easier for dental practices to make the switch, especially if they are an established practice.

In order to help you go green you could use an environmental audit to help. Doing an annual checklist can really show you how far you have come year-on-year, and it will help you notice the little things - low energy lightbulbs etc.

Doing this can also be a great team building exercise for your dental practice staff.