In case you haven’t heard, our San Antonio dental office has gone green!

In an effort to be more environmentally conscious, we’ve ceased using traditional x-rays (in fact, we did that back in 2006), and have incorporated digital imaging into our office. By going digital, we have lowered the total amount of harmful lead foils and x-ray fixers that are required to develop old films, from being dumped into the environment.
We’ve also decreased the amount of mercury draining into the sewage system contaminating earth’s atmosphere by discontinuing the use of amalgam as fillings for cavities since 1990.
We’re also a proponent of using reusable instruments that can be sterilized more than once, instead of disposable ones that generate a lot waste. In addition, we have established an efficient inventory system to eliminate discarding excess products that have expired.  The sterilization process and controlling our inventory is a little bit more work for our staff in the office, but the benefit of having an eco-friendly office that reduces waste is important to us as a whole. We pride ourselves on being one of the few eco-friendly San Antonio general dentists.
To decrease paper consumption, our printers and copier settings are always double-sided and the ones that aren’t used on both sides are used for scrap paper.  We’ve also started to move our dental records into digital files and we plan to be paperless in the near future.
For a lot of offices, going green is a new trend, but we’ve been green for a long time and we will continue to make changes to ensure that Cosmetic Dental Associates is not only patient friendly, but also eco-friendly.