Facilitators and Barriers to Implementing Sustainability in Oral Health Care

Adult attitudes to sustainable dentistry in Trinidad and Tobago and their willingness to accept alternatives

INTRODUCTION

Attitudes towards and willingness to accept alternatives for sustainable dentistry in Trinidad and Tobago have never been assessed. Market research aids in the understanding of the behaviours of people. Since change can be enacted by public pressure, it is worth engaging the public through research to understand their attitudes and which changes they are willing to accept.

METHOD

A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to private and public dental clinics. The questionnaire assessed attitude towards and willingness to accept alternatives which decrease the effect of dental treatment on the environment.

RESULTS

The study consisted of 1267 participants. Participants were mostly female, older, employed and mainly of African descent. Participants reported a very positive attitude towards sustainable dentistry (Mean = 3.89, SD = 0.8). and were moderately willing to accept alternatives such as a longer appointment time (Mean 3.47, SD = 0.73) and pay more for their dental treatments (Mean=3.00, SD = 0.87). There was a strong positive correlation with attitudes to sustainable dentistry and participants willingness to accept alternatives such as a longer appointment time (r = 0.658, p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The adult population had an overall positive attitude towards sustainable dentistry and was willing to accept alternatives so that their dental treatment would have less impact on the environment.

Scoping review on the association between early childhood caries and responsible resource consumption and production: exploring Sustainable Development Goal 12

BACKGROUND

The Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12) promotes patterns that minimize waste and maximize resource utilization. It is therefore plausible that preventing Early Childhood Caries (ECC) and promoting oral health can contribute to sustainable consumption. In addition, sustainable consumption and production can contribute to the control of ECC. This scoping review aimed to explore the possible evidence on the link between ECC and the SDG12 targets.

METHODS

This scoping review identified articles on the link between resource consumption and production and caries according to the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Three electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus) were systematically searched in August 2023, using specific search terms. Studies written in English, with full text available, addressing dental caries and linked with waste minimization and resource utilization maximisation, with results that could be extrapolated to ECC in children less than 6 years of age) were included. Descriptive statistics were planned to summarize the categories of retrieved papers.

RESULTS

The initial search yielded 904 articles, with 863 screened for eligibility after the removal of duplicates. No studies were identified that reported data on an association between responsible consumption and production of resources factors and ECC.

CONCLUSION

This scoping review did not identify any articles published in English on evidence of the direct associations between ECC and SDG12 targets. However, there is a plausibility of such a link using minimum intervention dentistry for ECC management as a waste prevention and resource utilisation maximization strategy.