Volume 9 • 2022 • Issue 4

How Sustainable Are Toothbrushes? How do different kinds of toothbrushes compare when you consider their environmental impact from raw material extraction to manufacturing to distribution to disposal? Dr. Alexandra Lyne and her fellow researchers performed life cycle assessments of traditional manual plastic toothbrushes, electric toothbrushes, bamboo toothbrushes and toothbrushes with replaceable heads and published their results in a 2020 British Dental Journal ( BDJ ) article. 1 T here are two main methodologies for measuring sustainability to achieve accurate numbers and data. “The most common is carbon footprinting, which measures the greenhouse gases generated by a product. This is a good measure that pertains to climate change, but it is only one measure,” says Dr. Lyne. “The other is life cycle assessment, which is more research intensive and includes factors like water use, land use, toxicity and effects on biodiversity and human health in addition to greenhouse gas emission. This looks at the bigger picture and thus is more meaningful,” she says. The life cycle assessment in the BDJ article considered 16 categories of environmental impact over a period of five years. Dr. Alexandra Lyne works as a pediatric dentist at the National Health Service at the University College LondonHospitals,UK. 24 | 2022 | Issue 4