That plastic gets ground into microplastics during adjustments and ends up in municipal water, where its tiny size makes it impossible to filter out.<\/p>\n
Canepa, who calls this \u201cthe plastic era\u201d of dentistry, estimated that each dental office flushes about a shot-glass worth of microplastics and nanoplastics \u2014 smaller than micro \u2014 down the drain per day, a practice he worries is adding to the region\u2019s plastic pollution problem.<\/p>\n
Plastic already makes up an estimated 83%<\/a> of South Florida\u2019s waste pollution, numbers from TrashBlitz \u2014 crowdsourced environmental data collected during cleanup events \u2014 show.<\/p>\n Grinding down old fillings and crowns is only part of the picture.<\/p>\n Dental offices are also heavy consumers of single-use plastics for infection control \u2014 gloves, suction tips, disposable cups and protective barriers. The Eco-Dentistry Association estimates U.S. dental offices go through 1.7 billion plastic sterilization packets and more than 680 million plastic chair and equipment barriers every year.<\/p>\n A single operatory room can generate up to\u00a0384 grams<\/a> of plastic waste a day \u2014 roughly the weight of nine golf balls \u2014 broken down into items like aprons and bibs, gloves, impression materials, face masks and suction tips,\u00a0 and a clinician seeing 10 patients a day can generate 400 to 800 grams of plastic waste a month from saliva ejectors alone. Every routine dental procedure utilizes an average of 21 single-use plastic items<\/a>, resulting in approximately 354 grams of plastic waste per appointment.<\/p>\n Some see this as part of a pattern.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of different materials that we might once have used \u2014 something traditionally made of wood or stone \u2014 are now made of plastic,\u201d said Erica Cirino, communications manager for Plastic Pollution Coalition and author of Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis. \u201cIt\u2019s really all around us.\u201d<\/p>\n She said it starts with significantly limiting plastic production.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more plastic we produce, the more microplastics will be produced,\u201d she said. \u201cPlastics never break down \u2014 they only break into smaller pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n Dental waste is regulated, but only for an outdated material, Canepa said.<\/p>\n Offices are required to have filters that catch the silver\u2011mercury dust from amalgam fillings, the material dentists used before switching to plastic. The filters rely on the weight of the debris. Metal is heavy, so it sinks to the bottom, while plastic doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re required to have a filter that all our pipes drain into that captures the silver mercury dust from a dental office, even though only about 4% of all fillings are that anymore, and these filters rely on gravity sedimentation because metal is heavy, so it sinks down,\u201d Canepa said. \u201cThese little plastic particles float right through it.\u201d<\/p>\n Dentistry moved away from amalgam fillings after public concern grew that mercury exposure from the material could pose health risks. Patients began favoring resin composites, which are tooth-colored, mercury-free and cheaper to make.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of putting silver fillings in people\u2019s teeth in this day and age, some 90% to 96% of all fillings that go in a person\u2019s teeth are resin-based composites, the tooth-colored stuff,\u201d Canepa said.<\/p>\n A handful of practices still offer amalgam fillings, he said, but \u201cmost dentists are losing their training in it, and it\u2019s so difficult to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Patient preference plays a role too.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to see silver in their teeth, and very reasonably so. As a result, even if those things are made of plastic, people are still going to pick them,\u201d Canepa said.<\/p>\n Dental schools are part of the plastics pipeline as well. Nova Southeastern University\u2019s College of Dental Medicine, South Florida\u2019s most prominent dental school, sees heavy daily use of these materials, but did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Other dental schools in the area, however, are so small they don\u2019t generate much waste \u2014 in fact, Miami Dade College\u2019s Dental Hygiene Program\u2019s recycling container has been in service for about a decade and still isn\u2019t full.<\/p>\n Amalgam waste is separated and kept for recycling, according to LaKisha Moss, a dental hygiene associate of science program coordinator.<\/p>\n And while the University of Florida\u2019s dental school uses the same materials dental offices use, they don\u2019t regulate or measure their plastic waste, a media spokesperson told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.<\/p>\n \u201cNinety to 120 students, every single night, probably shave down five plastic teeth practicing for their exams \u2014 every single night, for four years straight, right down the drain,\u201d Canepa said.<\/p>\n Plastic isn\u2019t the only material available. Ceramic dental appliances are also tooth-colored, but they typically cost about $400 more than resin composites.<\/p>\n \u201cNot many people have that kind of money, so they just go, \u2018give me what you\u2019ve got,\u2019\u201d Canepa said.<\/p>\n Canepa\u2019s ideal fix would be a filtration system built specifically to catch ground plastic \u2014 similar to the systems already used at dental laboratories, which manufacture crowns and dentures. Those labs run special filtered vacuums in their workspaces to capture the nanoplastic dust produced during grinding.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have anybody that actually comes in and inspects us for how we\u2019re disposing of this waste,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Florida Board of Dentistry has regulation authority over the issue but did not respond to a request for comment. \u00a0<\/p>\n The Florida Department of Environmental Protection told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that while the state has wastewater requirements aimed at keeping dental amalgam waste out of sewer systems, there are no state wastewater regulations specifically addressing microplastics.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m choosing not to eat with a plastic fork or a plastic straw because I don\u2019t want to have plastic in my body,\u201d said Cirino, of the Plastic Pollution Coalition. \u201cBut we may not think about our dental appliances or fillings because it\u2019s just a part of our healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n Tracy Mincer, an associate professor of biology and biogeochemistry and chair of the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Florida Atlantic University\u2019s Honors College, has spent years researching microplastics recovery from wastewater. He said one of the biggest obstacles is that these particles are difficult to measure in the first place.<\/p>\n Mincer is working with researchers at the University of Connecticut on a system that uses mussels to naturally filter microplastics out of wastewater, testing early versions at UConn\u2019s wastewater treatment plant to see whether the approach could scale up.<\/p>\n \u201cMeasuring really small plastics is difficult,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can speculate, but it\u2019s really hard to make policy or tell people where the dangers are if we can\u2019t measure them right.\u201d<\/p>\n In simple terms, tiny plastic particles get washed down the drain and travel with wastewater to a treatment plant. Some get caught in the solid waste there and are removed, eventually heading to a landfill or, in some cases, being used in fertilizer. But the smallest particles can stay suspended in the water, potentially breaking into even smaller pieces during treatment, before leaving the plant with the treated water and eventually reaching rivers, coastal waters or the ocean.<\/p>\n Once microplastics reach the ocean, they can get caught up in what he calls \u201cmarine snow\u201d \u2014 clumps of organic material that small marine animals feed on. Those animals absorb the plastic into their bodies, and it moves up the food chain as they\u2019re eaten by larger organisms.<\/p>\n Coral can be among those small marine animals. As they feed on marine snow, they take in the microplastics \u2014 adding another layer of stress to the already ailing<\/a> reefs spanning roughly 360 miles from the Dry Tortugas through the Florida Keys and up the southeast coast to Martin County \u2014 reefs also contending with heat, disease and bleaching.<\/p>\n \u201cCorals can ingest microplastics, and after they\u2019re ingested, they can interfere with feeding behavior, how corals clean themselves, and other normal physiological processes,\u201d said Dorothy-Ellen Renegar, a research scientist at Nova Southeastern University\u2019s National Coral Reef Institute.<\/p>\n![\"Colt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TFL-L-DENTISTRY-MICROPLASTICS6_266236665.jpg\")
Dr. Colt Canepa of Canepa Dentistry in Jensen Beach shaves off a plastic temporary dental bridge. (Carline Jean\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nDental waste rules haven\u2019t kept up<\/p>\n![\"Colt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TFL-L-DENTISTRY-MICROPLASTICS4_266236311.jpg\")
Dr. Colt Canepa shows his HEPA vacuum that sucks microplastics at Canepa Dentistry in Jensen Beach. Microplastics generated in dentistry practices can end up in waterways at a rate some dentists call alarming. (Carline Jean\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TFL-L-DENTISTRY-MICROPLASTICS2_266236207.jpg\")
Dr. Colt Canepa works at his office, Canepa Dentistry in Jensen Beach. (Carline Jean\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nPlastic\u2019s path to the reefs<\/p>\n![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TFL-L-DENTISTRY-MICROPLASTICS3_266236247.jpg\")
Dr. Colt Canepa of Canepa Dentistry in Jensen Beach shaves down a plastic temporary dental bridge. (Carline Jean\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n