This Mint goes green

Dentist’s office hopes to mix pearly whites with platinum LEED rating

By Eric Gold

Pamplin Media Group, Mar 11, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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They also have a waterless evacuation system, to vacuum a patient’s mouth without using the gallon of water per minute required to turn the propeller of the typical water-driven system. These practices save 220,000 gallons of water each year, Rebecca McMillan says.

A digital X-ray machine uses 40 percent less radiation than the older film radiography. (About a third of dentists now use digital radiography.)

The health risks of radiation, Jason McMillan says, are “a concern that comes up regularly with my patients.” Digital radiography also doesn’t need any toxic film-developing chemicals, which can get into the groundwater or municipal water supply.

The digital model has other benefits, too, he says, such as the ease of sharing images with specialists via the Internet. He also is able to manipulate the image to bring out certain aspects of hard and soft tissues in the mouth, to examine questionable or suspicious areas.

For fillings, Jason McMillan substitutes a resin for the standard dental amalgam, which contains mercury and other metals. He says this is more due to concerns about the environment than about any direct health threat posed by amalgam.

Any mercury from patient’s existing fillings that gets into his evacuation system is caught by a sedimentation canister and kept out of the water supply.

Software specifically designed for dental practices allows the office to use less paper. Jason McMillan says he hopes to take the practice fully paperless in the summer, when the software developer rolls out an update that will have more advanced health record-keeping features.

“The idea was that we would build a space that functions like a dental office, but doesn’t feel like one,” McMillan says. “We’re providing health care. We should do it in the healthiest environment possible.”