Environmental impacts from conventional and digital dental crown fabrication workflows: A comparative life cycle assessment

Objectives

The aim of this study is to undertake an environmental life cycle analysis to compare in detail the conventional and digital workflows for the fabrication of a ceramic dental crown (zirconia and lithium disilicate).

Methods

A comparative life cycle assessment was performed according to the ISO 14040:2006 guidelines. The scope of this LCA is cradle-to-grave, and the functional unit is one dental crown manufactured and ready to cement in a private dental practice in the UK. This study used SimaPro version 9.6.0.1 as a life cycle assessment software tool and the database ecoinvent version 3.10. Assumptions were made for the distances between dental surgery and technology laboratory, patient travel, the number of daily patient appointments for the provision of a ceramic crown and the lifespan of digital machinery, and proxies were used in instances where the specific raw materials could not be found in the ecoinvent database.

Results

The digital workflow with multiple appointments used for the fabrication of a single dental crown from a block of lithium disilicate and from a block of green state zirconia, had a global warming potential (GWP) of 10.8 kgCO2e for both waste scenarios (landfill and mixed treatment), and 13.1 kgCO2e for a zirconia disc of 460 g. The GWP for the digital workflow of one-time appointment was 5.2 kgCO2e, and for the conventional workflow 9.2 kgCO2e. From the overall GWP, patient transportation had the single greatest impact of all the included processes.

Conclusions

This investigation provides a valuable empirical assessment of the environmental impacts from conventional and digital workflows and their key high-impact hotspots. Within the scope and premises of this comparative LCA study, and with the exclusion of patient transport, the overall environmental impacts are assessed to be broadly equivalent for the two workflows. The single greatest environmental impact (represented as GWP impact) arises from patient travel for dental appointments. Zirconia discs possess the greatest single impact, followed by 3D-printed PMMA models. Strategies are identified to mitigate the environmental impact hotspots arising from the fabrication of a ceramic crown.