Antoniadou, M. The ECODENT Model for Enhancing Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Dentists. Circular Economy and Sustainability 2023, doi:10.1007/s43615-023-00324-8.
Antoniadou, M. The ECODENT Model for Enhancing Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Dentists. Circular Economy and Sustainability 2023, doi:10.1007/s43615-023-00324-8.
Antoniadou, M. The ECODENT Model for Enhancing Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Dentists. Circular Economy and Sustainability 2023, doi:10.1007/s43615-023-00324-8.
Antoniadou, M. The ECODENT Model for Enhancing Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Dentists. Circular Economy and Sustainability 2023, doi:10.1007/s43615-023-00324-8.
Abstract
Climate changes challenges people’s life and sustainability. Environmental problems seem to derive from human behavior. Dentistry has a high environmental footprint that needs to be controlled worldwide. Thus, the change of behavior of dentists is a necessary condition to improve the environmental situation. In this study we use a system dynamics approach to analyze pro-environmental behavior in dentists. Systemic modelling in this case, allow us to make a clear prediction of how the population of non-eco dentists will change in the future if certain factors will be affected and how much time will be needed by the system of a group of dental professionals to become eco- dentists. The ECODENT model was designed with Vensim software. It was based on the influence of WOM (word of mouth) spread of information among colleagues and stakeholders (e.g. patients, auxiliary staff and community) and other factors such as dental income, state support, CaPex and OpEx, education hours, level of urbanization and time to react. By changing each one of them we can observe the changes in the groups of non-eco and eco dentists as well as the flow of the phenomenon. It is tested that by augmenting WOM parameter, state economic support or education hours, while diminishing CaPex and OpEx, changes in pro-environmental behaviors of dentist will be reported in a shorter time. The ECODENT model can be used to further study pro-environmentalism in different dental groups and associations and design relevant eco-friendly educational programs.
Keywords
eco-friendly behavior; sustainability; systems dynamic; systemic model; dental environmentalism; green dentistry; sustainable dentistry; holistic approach; pro-environmental behavior
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Public, Environmental and Occupational Health
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
