Prophy Paste: An eco-friendly way to help your teeth?

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eco-friendly way to help your teeth

Innovation nowadays does not only include modern infrastructure and new machinery but scientific breakthroughs as well. For the past years, there have been new inventions that will help keep the body maintain equilibrium. From our head down to the foot, there will always be a new and effective invention that will keep the body to function well. The world is changing every day. In no time, there will be more advanced technologies that will benefit us all.

One of the scientific breakthroughs that we could consider is that many of the products nowadays are eco-friendly. Not only that it helps the earth to breathe, but it is also not harmful to the human body. These days, a lot of eco-friendly products are the ones that we put inside our mouth. Organic food, tubes of toothpaste, toothbrushes, and others are some examples. When we go to our local dentist to have our teeth scaled and polished, there will be an eco-friendly product that will be used in the form of a prophy paste. A prophy paste is a cleaning agent used to remove stains that regular toothpaste cannot. Its ingredients are usually made of baking soda and pumice; which makes it coarser than the normal toothpaste, purified water, and chemicals like Sodium Silicate, Glycerin, Titanium Dioxide, Methyl Salicylate, and flavoring. The chemicals are harmless and it is perfectly safe to use. It comes with different flavors such as mint, bubblegum, chocolate, strawberry and many more. It is used with a prophy angle to extensively clean the teeth. The difference of the prophy paste and toothpaste is that prophy paste does not contain fluoride. It will not fluoridate our teeth; whereas the toothpaste contains a percentage of fluoride to keep our teeth protected from the formation of dental caries. Not only are the prophy pastes eco-friendly nowadays. Bamboo toothbrushes, organic mouthwashes, and charcoal dental flosses are the trend too. Isn’t it nice to know that your local dental office is using eco-friendly products that are supporting the Earth? It would create such a wonderful dental experience. It does not only help the teeth, but it also helps our home – the Earth to be able to heal.

There is a marketing strategy called Eco-friendly dentistry. It aims to reduce the harmful effects of some of the products and services used in the field of dentistry. It promotes 4 R’s namely Reuse, Reduce, Recycle and Rethink. Instead of using single-use items, clinics should switch to reusable items like drapes as an alternative for disposable bibs. They encourage reducing by promoting the use of digital services, especially when taking the patient’s information instead of using papers to fill out forms. Going digital not only is “eco-friendly”, but it also saves a lot of time for example, in keeping the patients’ records. It is easier to store and is one-click away. Aside from reducing; green dentistry also tries to prompt dental clinics to recycle. Recycling papers, autoclave bags, autoclavable plastics and other metal items that are used are also helpful too. Clinics wouldn’t have to partake in producing more wastes if they start recycling. Dental offices should also rethink of long term plans about going green. They should rethink the steps that should be done in becoming environment-friendly. Before buying materials for the clinic, you should think of the environment. Think of what will make the nature and your patients ‘happy’. This is not only applicable to the materials that are used for the procedures but it applies to the whole clinic building as well. If you are well-abled, placing a couple of solar panels on your roof could not only help reduce energy costs, but it could help supply power everything in the clinic. The lights, water, air, and motor pump, compressors – basically everything! Another green move in the clinic is using linoleum for the flooring. It is made of solidified linseed oil, pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate. It is natural which makes it cheaper than any other flooring like tiles, wood, ceramics or stones. It is water-resistant and is very easy to maintain. For the air and ventilation, using air conditioning units with inverter is also eco-friendly. It does not emit harmful gases like HCFCs, HFCs, and CFCs (chlorofluorocarbon) which are harmful to the health and the environment. The lighting in the clinic could be replaced by LED lights instead of using bulbs and fluorescent lights. LEDs have a longer life span than bulbs and it uses lower energy usage and the maintenance cost is also lower. If your LED light is broken and have decided to throw it away, it will not emit harmful toxins that can harm the people around. These are only some of what the dental clinics could do in partaking in the advocacy of green dentistry. If the clinic owner fully decided to become part of the cause, there are many other ways of becoming eco-friendly. We should support it because not only it will benefit them, it will benefit us, common people, as well.

What is the real deal with using eco products nowadays? Why do we need to use it? Look around. Everything you see there is tall buildings, waste-producing companies, smoke-belching vehicles and many more elements that continuously harm our home. Wouldn’t you want to do something to help our dying home? If these continue, we won’t be able to breathe fresh air, drink clean water or even see the surroundings any more. This is why we should start supporting eco-friendly products as early as now. If you are a parent, make it a habit to buy eco products every time you go to the market. Start by buying organic food until you can buy eco-friendly wares one by one. Saving the planet should start within us. Throwing trash properly, avoiding harmful chemicals like hair sprays, using reusable bags instead of plastics, drinking from metal straws are small deeds but it could save our home. Let us encourage people especially children to support eco-friendly advocacies before it’s too late.