REDUCING the number of patients unnecessarily gassed during dental surgery has slashed carbon emissions at the Eastman Dental Hospital, consultants say.

The hospital, which is now part of UCLH in Euston, has set up the new programme aimed at reducing use of nitrous oxide following a review of its overall carbon footprint.

Dentists and dental nurses have been trained in how to use more “minimally invasive dentistry” that does not require the sedative – also known as laughing gas – and in alternative techniques to anxiety-triggering drilling and injections.

Patients are also being “weaned off” the gas in a move that has reduced the carbon footprint by more than 20 per cent within just a few months.

Paediatric dentistry consultant Lexy Lyne said: “We found that most patients that started dental treatment using nitrous oxide continued it for all their treatment visits, even if it was not always clinically necessary.

“So part of our training for the dentists and nurses in the dental hospital has been to really consider when it is clinically useful for patients, and when patients can be ‘weaned off’.

“We also looked at delivering different treatment options. For example, when inserting a crown on a baby tooth, you would normally do an injection to numb the tooth, drill the tooth to prepare it, and then fit the crown on top. As an alternative, we can offer a ‘Hall crown’, which is a successful technique where the crown is placed over the tooth without the need for injections or drilling. This is less anxiety provoking for the children and doesn’t require sedation with nitrous oxide.”

She added that patients did not really notice the reduction in the “volume of gas” used, while it was “impacting our carbon footprint significantly”.

UCLH has introduced new guidance on the use of nitrous oxide following the changes that have been monitored by postgraduate student Sarah Ahmad.

The team is working with the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) to see if the techniques can be used across the country.

“My hope is that all this work will ultimately feed into the next set of national guidance about nitrous oxide,” said consultant Lyne.