Introduction
Evidence concerning the interactions between human health and planetary health has grown extensively in recent years. In turn, the perceived importance of environmental sustainability within higher education is growing at a rapid rate. This paper provides a summary of key elements as they apply to dentistry, and provides an introduction to the reader of an early consensus of how sustainability could be included as part of the dental curriculum.
Methods
The consensus opinion within this paper largely centres around discussion at the ADEE sustainability workshop at the annual conference in Berlin (August 2019). In order to help inform discussions at the workshop, a brief scoping questionnaire was circulated to potential participants regarding their understanding and current teaching practices in sustainability. An infographic was designed to help delegates remember the important elements of sustainable dentistry. Delegates discussed the concept of sustainability alongside the infographic, and how they could link these with the Graduating European Dentist (GED) curriculum.
Results
The discussions within the workshop largely centred around 4 main themes: Disease prevention and health promotion, Patient education and empowerment, Lean service delivery and Preferential use of strategies with lower environmental impact.
Discussion
It is apparent that there is a widespread need for teaching materials relating to environmental sustainability; this includes specific learning outcomes relating to the 4 educational domains of the Graduating European Dentist curriculum, and methods for teaching and assessing these outcomes.
Conclusion
This paper reports consensus on the first phase of a pan‐European working group on Sustainability in dental education.
Biodiversity is decreasing sharply. Human well-being depends on the interacting web of living species: if health providers are truly concerned about human health they also need to concern themselves with the health of the planet.Awareness of the relationship between global health and human health is improving and the dental team can contribute to environmental health and, in doing so, to the overall health of the people they care for.Many dental practices have backyards that can perhaps be used more effectively to encourage biodiversity and provide food and shelter for many species. The frequency of lawn cutting could be reduced to improve biodiversity. Practices should consider creating areas of water or left-aside areas in their gardens or to store fallen leaves, dry wood and branches for composting, such areas will provide a natural habitat for a range of species. The dental practice could also include flora-and fauna-friendly structures in their building structure or surrounds.Dental practices might also give thought to the type of ground covering they have. Traditional coverings do not provide potential for plants or wildlife to live, but a natural surface with some vegetation provides greater potential for small plants and insects to exist.
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