Dentsply Sirona’s Tony Johnson shares his insights on sustainability in the dental industry including the role connected dentistry plays in the company’s products and innovations.
Q: As we enter 2026, sustainability continues to gain momentum across the dental industry. What do you see as the most defining trends shaping the dental sector this year?
A: We see 3 major sustainability trends that will shape this year: sustainable packaging, the rise of connected dentistry, and a growing focus on sustainable oral healthcare. All 3 are advancing quickly and bring the potential to truly transform how practices operate and deliver care.
Q: In what way do you see connected dentistry further sustainability in dentistry?
A: Connected dentistry has a big sustainability impact as it makes dental care more resource-efficient at every step from diagnosis through to treatment—and customers are looking to manufacturers like us to foster connected dentistry with our products and innovations.And rightly so! Seamless digital workflows can replace material-intensive processes, helping reduce waste, avoid unnecessary steps and lower emissions across the dental value chain. Digital impressions eliminate the need for traditional impression materials, and cloud-based collaboration reduces shipping and packaging waste. In many cases, better diagnostics and certain digital workflows are proven to reduce the number of patient visits, sometimes even down to single visits, thereby saving time, travel, and, ultimately, reducing environmentally harmful emissions.
At Dentsply Sirona, we champion connected dentistry because we believe it is key to delivering more personalized, patient‑centric care in a smarter, faster, and more resource‑conscious way. Our cloud platform DS Core, for instance, is powered by 100% renewable energy and integrates individual components into a connected system that supports more consistent and efficient care. More accurate diagnostics, reliable digital impressions, and AI‑supported insights make treatments more predictable from the start. That leads to fewer revisions, fewer follow‑up appointments, and less waste, resulting in a better patient experience.
We invite dental professionals to explore our range of courses covering solutions for connected dentistry that are designed to help you learn how digital technologies and services can improve the most common workflows.
Q: Another trend you see gaining momentum in 2026 is sustainable packaging. Evolving regulation—such as EPR (extended producer responsibility) laws in several US states or the EU’s new packaging directive—has put this topic front and center. What impact do you see?
A: The impact will be significant. Expanding regulation is pushing manufacturers in every industry, including the healthcare sector, to rethink packaging. Luckily, Dentsply Sirona is already making this move toward sustainable packaging—not only to ensure compliance, but because we care about our environmental impact and, above all, our customers.
We made sustainable packaging a priority as we listened to customers and realized what a pain point packaging can be: Our research showed that dental teams, especially assistants handling most unpacking and disposal, are asking the same things legislation, especially the EU directive, mandates: smaller, simpler packaging that reduces waste, is easier to recycle, fits better into busy workflows, saves space, and often reduces disposal costs.
Consequently, we have already introduced more sustainable packaging across several product lines by reducing packaging volume, replacing plastic bubble wrap and foam with paper-based solutions as well as shifting to more recyclable mono-material designs. At the same time, product protection and hygiene remain non-negotiable. The approach we take is to make packaging smarter and more efficient without compromising safety in any way.
Q: Let’s talk about sustainable oral healthcare. What does this mean and why is it important?
A: Sustainable oral healthcare is about delivering equitable, ethical, high-quality, inclusive, and safe care while using resources efficiently and minimizing negative environmental impacts. In other words, it’s about respecting the healthcare opportunities of current and future generations.
Healthcare systems account for around 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and oral health is an important contributor to that footprint. This means our industry has a responsibility—and an opportunity—to act. By reducing and limiting our environmental impact, we can help ensure a healthy future for everyone.
What’s exciting is that sustainable oral healthcare doesn’t just reduce emissions. It also brings added benefits: enhanced patient care, improved staff satisfaction, and cost savings. For example, patient and staff travel can account for a significant portion of a practice’s carbon footprint—reaching as high as 65% in some countries. That’s why education and early prevention are so important—they reduce the need for multiple visits and help avoid resource-intensive treatments later.
Dental professionals are increasingly keen to address this challenge, and manufacturers like Dentsply Sirona play a key role in supporting them. From designing products and workflows that minimize waste and emissions to promoting digital solutions that reduce travel and material use, we are committed to helping practices deliver care that is better for patients and better for the planet. As part of this commitment, we partner with NGOs to provide oral health education to children, helping prevent disease early and limit resource-intensive treatments later in life.
Q: If you had to summarize the biggest opportunity for sustainability in 2026, what would it be?
A: It’s the mindset shift. Sustainability used to be about checklists. Now more and more people are realizing that it’s about designing smarter systems, be it packaging, digital workflows, or prevention-focused care, that deliver real, measurable benefits. At Dentsply Sirona, this is exactly what our BEYOND sustainability strategy is about: driving innovation, efficiency, and responsible resource use—while supporting education and prevention—in a way that builds trust and delivers better outcomes for patients, practices and the planet. For more information, visit dentsplysirona.com.
