Sustainability at Tower Dental

Dentistry is one of the most resource-intensive areas of healthcare. Here is what Tower Dental Blackpool is doing about it — measured, honest, and ongoing.

Why dentistry has a footprint

Modern dentistry uses single-use plastics (gloves, masks, suction tips, cup liners, sterilisation pouches), water and electricity for equipment sterilisation, and produces clinical waste that must be incinerated. Around 85% of NHS dental practice carbon emissions come from patient travel, energy use, and procurement. Private practices like ours have similar profiles. We can't eliminate the impact, but we can be honest about it and reduce what we can.

What we have changed

Digital workflow

We are a fully digital practice. That means:

• No paper patient records, treatment plans or referrals — all digital, GDPR-compliant
• No X-ray film — digital sensors with up to 90% lower radiation and zero film/chemistry waste
• No putty impressions — iTero digital scans replace approximately 600 sets of putty impressions per year (each set produces around 200g of single-use waste)
• Email-based treatment plans, prescriptions, and follow-up correspondence

Estimated annual waste avoidance from digital workflow: 25-30 kg of paper, film, plastic and impression material.

Mercury reduction

We have not placed a new mercury-amalgam filling at Tower Dental since 2019. All new fillings use composite (white) materials. We continue to repair and maintain existing amalgam fillings where clinically appropriate (premature replacement of a sound amalgam is rarely in the patient's interest), but anything new is amalgam-free. This aligns with the EU's Minamata Regulation phase-out. Our amalgam separator (which captures any amalgam particles when removing old fillings) meets the ISO 11143 standard.

Energy

The practice runs on a 100% renewable-source electricity tariff through Octopus Energy. LED lighting throughout (we replaced the last of the fluorescent surgery lights in 2023). Heating is a modern condensing combi-boiler with a programmable thermostat — not the most efficient option (a heat pump would be), but a significant upgrade from the previous boiler.

Waste segregation

UK dental practices must segregate clinical waste, sharps, amalgam, and general waste under the Hazardous Waste Regulations 2011. We exceed the minimum by also segregating:

• Recyclable plastics (uncontaminated bottles, sterilisation pouch outer wraps where possible)
• Cardboard packaging (most dental supplies arrive in cardboard)
• Paper (the small amount we still use — patient consent forms remain paper for legal reasons)
• Toner cartridges and IT consumables (manufacturer take-back schemes)

Local supply chain

The single biggest hidden carbon cost in private dentistry is laboratory work — crowns, veneers, dentures, and implant restorations made by external dental technicians. Some UK practices use overseas labs (typically Eastern Europe or East Asia) to reduce cost. We use UK-based laboratories for the vast majority of our restorative work — primarily Lancashire and Yorkshire. The clinical quality is at least equivalent, and the shipping footprint is dramatically lower.

What we have not changed (yet)

We're not pretending. Several large categories of waste are inherent to safe dentistry:

• Single-use clinical items — gloves, masks, suction tips, polishing brushes, sterilisation pouches. These are required for cross-infection control and there is no medically-acceptable reusable alternative.
• Patient travel — by far our largest indirect carbon source. We can't change this without compromising clinical care.
• Heating — our boiler is condensing-class, not a heat pump. Replacement is a significant capital cost.
• Refrigerated dental materials — many composite materials and impression chemicals require refrigerated storage and shipping, which has an energy cost we can't avoid.

What we're working on next

• Carbon footprint measurement — we're scoping a baseline assessment with the British Dental Association's sustainability resources, with the goal of publishing a measured annual figure (kg CO₂e per patient visit) by 2027
• Heat pump assessment — likely a 2027/2028 capital project
• Electric/EV infrastructure — we are exploring an EV charge point at the practice for staff and patients
• Plastic-free routine items — switching to bamboo cup liners, paper sterilisation pouches where clinically equivalent, and reduced-plastic packaging from our suppliers

This page will be updated annually. If you have a question about any of the above, or a suggestion for what we should change next, please email info@towerdental.uk.