The hidden environmental footprint of digital dentistry
Originally at sciencedirect.com
Summary & scoring by The Bell Brief (Dr. Jennifer Bell) using the Drill-Down Protocol (Drill-Down Score) — not the original publisher.
Why it matters for dental
Dental practices adopting digital workflows (intraoral scanners, 3D printers, milling units) face new sustainability and cost pressures as JADA quantifies their carbon, energy, and waste footprints, with potential future regulatory or payer scrutiny.
Key points
- The study calculates lifecycle impacts for common digital workflows—scanning, printing, and milling—and compares them to traditional impression and casting methods.
- Energy consumption and disposable resin cartridges emerge as the largest contributors, with single-use build platforms and failed prints adding measurable landfill and hazardous-waste loads.
- Practice-level implications include higher utility bills, increased PPE/disposal costs, and the need to track Scope 3 emissions if insurers or state regulators adopt green-procurement rules.
- Owners and DSOs evaluating capital purchases should factor lifecycle costs (energy, resin, maintenance contracts) rather than sticker price alone when modeling ROI.
Who should care
Read the original on Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA)
Full reporting and any paywall content live on sciencedirect.com. We summarize and score; we do not republish.
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