going to the dentist and being zero waste...
And we bring you back to another episode that is written (a blog) about living your life and being zero waste. Here I will face challenges from being environmentally friendly and get nervous, scared, excited and thankful all in one blog post (who knew?). Oh and if you have not read my stuff before please scroll back, relax and look at my other blog posts that I have done ( they are educationally fun (I put educational and fun in the same sentence, woah).
Now going to the Dentist for most people can be scary but not for the reasons that I was scared of going… You might have a cavity, be afraid of the tools they use or worried that you will be broke when you walk out because so many things are wrong with your mouth. If these are all the feelings you have had towards dentistry you may have
What I'm worried about is how much plastic I will be producing! It may seem silly but I was really scared. I was going to a new dentist, I had not had a cleaning in a year (your suppose to get one every 6 months) and this was my first time going to a dentist being zero waste. I decided to bring my amazing electric toothbrush in a little silicone bag. We filled out all of the paperwork online (I guess it’s not paperwork) so we saved a bit of paper. We asked the lady at the desk if we could have them use my electric toothbrush (because I was zero waste) to show me how to brush (because they did that at my last dentist) and she said that we couldn’t so this and that the toothbrush would get flouride on it and stuff. But she did say that she stopped buying paper towels, paper napkins and uses towels but her in laws think she's weird. And that Dr. Josh (the dentist) made them take out the fax machine to save paper and they have not had one for 18 months, that's progress if you ask me. So I had my mom put my toothbrush in her purse and we went into the waiting room. They had Lunch at Bobby’s playing with Bobby Flay and I thought it should have been Breakfast at Bobby’s since he likes having the double be thing such as Beat Bobby Flay. Can you imagine if your last name was Flay? Hello, Mr Flay your car is ready. I couldn't say that with a straight face but I don’t know about you. After a couple minutes of waiting, I got my x-rays taken (since it’s been a year) and then I went into the chair. I got a bib, sunglasses the whole shebang. Then she brought over the packaged toothbrush, tools and plastic floss that is recyclable but I like pre-cycling soo… this was my reaction
She picked out all of the food from my teeth first and then did the whole dentistry thing. Then she flossed my teeth. The lady was an aggressive flosser and she actually had to get a cloth to wipe my gums and mouth because I was bleeding so much. Then she opened the toothbrush and showed me how to brush. This was the thing that really irritated me. She showed me how to brush my teeth and had me feel what it was like and how to move the toothbrush in small circles. The problem was, I don't use that type I use an electric oral b one that does the circles 10 times as fast and for 2 minutes straight. The fact that she was showing me how to brush my teeth with a toothbrush that I don’t use made me blaghejrf, I can’t put into words is what I’m trying to say.
Then after she was done I declined the stickers and plastic bag. I had to take the tooth brush and floss with me because they had opened it and used it on me. When the lady asked if I wanted a sticker, there was a lady working looking at my file on the computer that yelled “don’t offer her stickers she’s zero waste!”. It was so funny, apparently the lady at the desk had put that I was zero waste in my bio and said not give me any plastic that was not necessary for the cleaning. I thought that was pretty cool. Then Dr. Josh came over and looked at my mouth and we were all set. They had some prizes by the cashier desk thingie and I was so tempted. But they were all packaged in plastico, I restricted myself from ALL the unicorn stuff and that was really hard. Then we went back home. Fast forward a couple hours later… Dr. Josh called and said that he was sorry that he couldn’t spend more time consulting us. And then he asked if there was anything that the office could do to help and support my zero waste life. Dang, that is so cool! No ones ever done that before. I said no, but recommended that he not use crest plastic bags for putting the stuff in and think about looking into bamboo tooth brushes for the gift bags. Cause I feel that is like: hey, we are going to give you all this; the patient: thanks! dentist: would you like a plastic bag for all your free plastic? See where I’m going here?
I think that this dentists office is great and I will definitely be coming here again, not because we kinda booked an appointment in 6 months, that I don't have dental insurance that only covers pediatric dentists, or that it is the only place that is relatively close to us. But because it's a good place!
Now going to the Dentist for most people can be scary but not for the reasons that I was scared of going… You might have a cavity, be afraid of the tools they use or worried that you will be broke when you walk out because so many things are wrong with your mouth. If these are all the feelings you have had towards dentistry you may have
What I'm worried about is how much plastic I will be producing! It may seem silly but I was really scared. I was going to a new dentist, I had not had a cleaning in a year (your suppose to get one every 6 months) and this was my first time going to a dentist being zero waste. I decided to bring my amazing electric toothbrush in a little silicone bag. We filled out all of the paperwork online (I guess it’s not paperwork) so we saved a bit of paper. We asked the lady at the desk if we could have them use my electric toothbrush (because I was zero waste) to show me how to brush (because they did that at my last dentist) and she said that we couldn’t so this and that the toothbrush would get flouride on it and stuff. But she did say that she stopped buying paper towels, paper napkins and uses towels but her in laws think she's weird. And that Dr. Josh (the dentist) made them take out the fax machine to save paper and they have not had one for 18 months, that's progress if you ask me. So I had my mom put my toothbrush in her purse and we went into the waiting room. They had Lunch at Bobby’s playing with Bobby Flay and I thought it should have been Breakfast at Bobby’s since he likes having the double be thing such as Beat Bobby Flay. Can you imagine if your last name was Flay? Hello, Mr Flay your car is ready. I couldn't say that with a straight face but I don’t know about you. After a couple minutes of waiting, I got my x-rays taken (since it’s been a year) and then I went into the chair. I got a bib, sunglasses the whole shebang. Then she brought over the packaged toothbrush, tools and plastic floss that is recyclable but I like pre-cycling soo… this was my reaction
She picked out all of the food from my teeth first and then did the whole dentistry thing. Then she flossed my teeth. The lady was an aggressive flosser and she actually had to get a cloth to wipe my gums and mouth because I was bleeding so much. Then she opened the toothbrush and showed me how to brush. This was the thing that really irritated me. She showed me how to brush my teeth and had me feel what it was like and how to move the toothbrush in small circles. The problem was, I don't use that type I use an electric oral b one that does the circles 10 times as fast and for 2 minutes straight. The fact that she was showing me how to brush my teeth with a toothbrush that I don’t use made me blaghejrf, I can’t put into words is what I’m trying to say.
Then after she was done I declined the stickers and plastic bag. I had to take the tooth brush and floss with me because they had opened it and used it on me. When the lady asked if I wanted a sticker, there was a lady working looking at my file on the computer that yelled “don’t offer her stickers she’s zero waste!”. It was so funny, apparently the lady at the desk had put that I was zero waste in my bio and said not give me any plastic that was not necessary for the cleaning. I thought that was pretty cool. Then Dr. Josh came over and looked at my mouth and we were all set. They had some prizes by the cashier desk thingie and I was so tempted. But they were all packaged in plastico, I restricted myself from ALL the unicorn stuff and that was really hard. Then we went back home. Fast forward a couple hours later… Dr. Josh called and said that he was sorry that he couldn’t spend more time consulting us. And then he asked if there was anything that the office could do to help and support my zero waste life. Dang, that is so cool! No ones ever done that before. I said no, but recommended that he not use crest plastic bags for putting the stuff in and think about looking into bamboo tooth brushes for the gift bags. Cause I feel that is like: hey, we are going to give you all this; the patient: thanks! dentist: would you like a plastic bag for all your free plastic? See where I’m going here?
I think that this dentists office is great and I will definitely be coming here again, not because we kinda booked an appointment in 6 months, that I don't have dental insurance that only covers pediatric dentists, or that it is the only place that is relatively close to us. But because it's a good place!
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