An Overview of Dental Solid Waste Management and Associated Environmental Impacts: A Materials Perspective

Rita Khanna (), Yuri Konyukhov, Nikita Maslennikov, Evgeny Kolesnikov and Igor Burmistrov
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Rita Khanna: School of Materials Science and Engineering (Ret.), The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Yuri Konyukhov: Department of Functional Nanosystems and High-Temperature Materials, National University of Science and Technology “MISIS”, Moscow 119049, Russia
Nikita Maslennikov: Department of Functional Nanosystems and High-Temperature Materials, National University of Science and Technology “MISIS”, Moscow 119049, Russia
Evgeny Kolesnikov: Department of Functional Nanosystems and High-Temperature Materials, National University of Science and Technology “MISIS”, Moscow 119049, Russia
Igor Burmistrov: Engineering Centre, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow 117997, Russia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-20

Abstract: Dental healthcare plays an important role in the overall health of individuals, and the sector is rapidly growing around the world due to increases in population, healthcare facilities, and improved access for economically weaker sections of society. Dental procedures and oral care generate a significant amount of biomedical waste that should be managed in an environmentally safe and sustainable manner. An overview is presented of the current status of dental solid waste management with a focus on waste composition from traditional and emerging dental treatments, new-generation dental materials, waste treatment procedures, and current options. Dental waste can be broadly divided into three categories: infectious waste, non-infectious waste, and domestic-type waste. Infectious waste contains materials contaminated with blood or other infectious mouth fluids, amalgam, and sharps, whereas non-infectious dental waste is devoid of human fluid contamination but can be potentially toxic due to the presence of amalgams, acids, metal dust, resins, etc. Suspended particulates in dental wastewater are another likely source of contamination. Appropriate segregation of this waste is essential for containing infections during waste processing. New-generation dental materials, such as nanomaterials, resin-based composites, and ceramics, are finding increasing applications in a variety of dental procedures as antimicrobial, restorative, and therapeutic agents. While incineration and landfilling have been used for processing traditional dental waste, the presence of novel materials in dental waste raises several additional concerns. Novel single/multistage recycling approaches need to be developed for dental waste towards resource recovery, thus minimizing incineration and landfilling to the extent possible.

Keywords: dental waste; management; nanomaterials; resin-based composites; biomedical; healthcare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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