To all crossing guards: Thanks for keeping our kids safe!!!

As a thank you for the dedication and effort to keep children safe, New Leaf Dental Care presented umbrellas to school crossing guards in Vancouver, WA. The over-sized, windproof golf umbrellas are big enough for an adult and several little walkers. The hope is that the umbrellas will provide a little warmth and shelter and get the attention of drivers so they will slow down and be safer upon entering and exiting local schools.

With all the challenges the schools are facing today, New Leaf Dental Care showed support and appreciation for the important work crossing guards do for the children in our community. It is tough to be out there in the elements every morning and afternoon – rain or shine. School crossing guards are often the first person greeting the kids and starting their day off on the right foot. Too many times there are distracted drivers who would cause harm and injury if it were not for these educators protecting the students.

Dr. Richard Sipes, Dr. Stephen Wu and everyone at New Leaf Dental Care hope this new school year is a successful one for both students and staff in all our schools.

Having a no patient charts means that we are also able to have a smaller space as we do not require as much storage as other non-digital dental offices and therefore do not have to heat/cool as much office space. This too helps to reduce our energy cost and usage and strain on the power grid. Having Digital x-rays is another part of our being green. Because the sensors we use to take x-rays are so sensitive, we are able to use significantly less energy and radiation to capture our images. So a twofold benefit; the patient receives less radiation, and we are able to use much less energy. A significant part of being green with the digital x-ray system is that there is no developing of traditional film. Therefore, we do not use any harmful chemicals in developing our x-ray images, and in such a way, we prevent producing harmful waste by-products, such as the lead/silver shields used in all x-ray packages. In addition, by using digital imaging, we avoid producing chemically contaminated waste-water that would normally go down the drain and pollute the waterways.

All our suction lines have traps that capture removed debris, which in many cases involve old mercury type filings. By having the traps, the toxic metals are not flushed into the water system thereby avoiding contaminating our waterways with mercury and other such debris.

By scheduling our patients for slightly longer procedures, means that we are able to accomplish more for the patients. This equates to less number of appointments, which means less driving back and forth for the patients, and therefore less gasoline consumption and pollutants put out by patients vehicles. For our patients, it means less dental appointments and they get to more optimum health faster.

These are some of the steps we have been using at New Leaf Dental Care to do our part in helping our environment and being “Green”.