Sustainable Oral Healthcare: A Joint Stakeholder Approach

Exploring environmental sustainability in dentistry among students and educators in the United Arab Emirates: a cross-sectional survey

OBJECTIVES

Creating environmentally sustainable healthcare culture within the dental field requires embedding the content in the dental curriculum at the undergraduate level. This study aimed to explore the current awareness and drivers among dental students and educators regarding environmentally sustainable dentistry (ESD) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and identify barriers and enablers to embrace it.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey using online questionnaires was carried out in six undergraduate dental education institutes within the UAE. Data analysis included descriptive statistics.

RESULTS

In total 153 students and 53 educators participated in the survey. Most students and educators were not aware of any ESD content in their curricula. However, the majority of educators were familiar with the concept of ESD, while students were mostly unfamiliar or slightly familiar. Nonetheless, students largely agreed on its importance and their interest in learning it, as they viewed it relevant to their future practice. Educators agreed that the dental profession has a responsibility to be environmentally friendly and expressed their desire in introducing ESD content into the curricula. Several barriers were reported such as lack of knowledge, curricula space, educational resources, and time. Meanwhile, enablers included providing ESD capacity building, training and resources.

CONCLUSIONS

There was no explicit presence of ESD content in the dental curricula in the UAE. Despite the lack of adequate awareness on this topic among educators and more so among students, they both had positive views towards incorporating ESD into dental curricula. Overall, this study highlighted the importance of promoting ESD in dental programs.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE

ESD is gradually becoming a critical aspect of modern oral healthcare system. It has been mandated in the dental curricula in several regions globally. Embedding ESD in the UAE dental curricula would have several benefits for the environment as well as the future of the dental profession in the region. The clinical significance includes, but not limited to, improved treatment outcomes; patients, students and staff health and well-being; reduced health risks, and cost savings.

Sustainability as part of a quality framework for the organisation of oral healthcare

This paper aims to highlight to the reader that the organisation of dentistry at a system level lags behind other healthcare professions in regulation, policy, education and research. It argues that seeing sustainability as being as important as safety in oral healthcare quality would begin to rectify this. For the practitioner, it also identifies existing guidance on practising sustainably and reinforces that it does not require radical change but evidence-based care.