Running a profitable dental practice means more than just providing excellent patient care — it requires smart operational management behind the scenes. Yet most dental practices and DSOs still manage purchasing with outdated, manual methods that quietly drain profits and waste valuable staff time.

The right procurement software transforms this critical function from a pain point into a competitive advantage. This guide explores the unique challenges dental practices face and how modern procurement platforms can help them cut costs, streamline operations, and focus more energy on patient care.

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Why is effective procurement a strategic imperative for dental practices?

Effective procurement is a strategic imperative because it directly governs a dental practice's financial health, operational capacity, and ability to deliver consistent patient care. The process of buying supplies is a core business function that, when poorly managed, quietly drains profits and creates friction. Optimized purchasing, however, unlocks significant savings and frees up staff to focus on revenue-generating and patient-facing activities.

A primary concern is the rising cost of supplies. To maintain healthy margins, the  American Dental Association advises that practices should aim to keep supply spend between 5-6% of total collections. Without disciplined management, this figure can easily exceed 8% and erode profitability. 

Common pain points compound the problem:

• Last-minute emergency supply runs that disrupt workflows
• Managing dozens of different supplier logins and accounts
• Zero visibility into actual spending patterns across locations

These issues not only waste money but also divert valuable staff time.

Ebook

Choose the Right Procurement Technology With This Decision Matrix

Find 15 must-ask questions to narrow down your software search and make your research process MUCH easier.

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How dental practices can significantly reduce supply costs and consolidate vendors

When a practice allows staff to buy from various suppliers independently, it fragments purchasing power and leads to inconsistent pricing for identical items across different locations. This decentralized approach creates hidden administrative overhead from managing countless relationships, invoices, and payments.

But centralizing every vendor — from major distributors like Henry Schein to local, offline suppliers — into a single, unified digital catalog gives your staff one intuitive place to order everything they need. For multi-location DSOs, this consolidation is transformative. 

Just take  EPIC4 as an example. By leveraging Order.co, they centralized purchasing across 55 orthodontic offices and cut time spent on procurement by 50%. “Everything is there that you need,” said Sam Jenio, Director of Procurement & Business Development at EPIC4. “Every order that you place through the platform flies through seamlessly.” This efficiency allowed the central operations team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than tactical order management.

How intelligent inventory management prevents waste and stockouts in dental offices

Dental offices manage a complex range of consumables, many with strict expiration dates. Without a system in place to track purchasing patterns, ordering supplies often relies on guesswork. 

This guesswork leads to: 

• Overstocking that ties up cash and risks expired products
• Understocking that causes delays in patient procedures
• Weekly emergency supply runs
• Surprise discoveries of expired supplies

While some practice management systems offer inventory management, they often lack the integrated purchasing data needed for true optimization. By capturing all historical order data in one place, a procurement platform like Order.co provides the insights needed to establish data-driven par levels. This automated workflow reduces manual tasks and decreases the likelihood of mismanaged inventory or accidental duplicate orders. 

How to safeguard dental practices against supplier concentration risk

The dental supply market has historically been dominated by a few large distributors. This concentration of power led the Federal Trade Commission to allege in a  2018 complaint that the three largest U.S. dental supply distributors had conspired to withhold discounts from independent buying groups, limiting the choices and negotiating power of dental practices. 

Relying on a single source for all purchasing can expose a practice to this type of market risk and potential supply chain disruptions.

Relying on one distributor exposes your practice to market risk and potential supply chain disruptions. While solutions from major distributors like Henry Schein One can reinforce this vendor dependency, multi-vendor platforms take a different approach.

Benefits of marketplace-based procurement:

• Access to a broad, competitive marketplace
• Freedom from lock-in to a single supplier's ecosystem and pricing
• Ability to find the same product from different suppliers at lower prices
• Healthy competition that drives better pricing
• Resilience against backorders or disruptions from any single vendor

This strategy of supplier diversification allows practices to reduce dependency on a handful of dominant vendors, ensuring greater operational resilience and cost control.

Ebook

Choose the Right Procurement Technology With This Decision Matrix

Find 15 must-ask questions to narrow down your software search and make your research process MUCH easier.

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How dental practices can simplify accounts payable and reduce invoice complexity

Many practices suffer from AP teams buried in invoices from hundreds of vendors. This administrative bottleneck slows payment cycles and increases the risk of costly errors. But automating invoice processing and eliminating discrepancies before they happen transforms the accounts payable process for dental practices.

The most advanced procurement platforms, like Order.co, pay vendors directly and then send your practice one single, consolidated invoice for all purchases each week or month. Here’s why this matters:

• Immediately eliminates invoice discrepancies (what you ordered is always what you're billed for)
• Makes traditional three-way matching obsolete
• Every order is pre-approved with line-item data captured digitally

This level of accounts payable automation streamlines the entire workflow. A platform like Order.co automatically syncs clean, consolidated invoice data directly into your accounting system or ERP (like NetSuite or QuickBooks). This integration automates manual data entry, dramatically reducing the workload for your finance team and accelerating your month-end close.

Unlock efficiency and savings at your dental practice with Order.co 

Order.co is the definitive procurement solution for dental practices, offering unparalleled control, efficiency, and cost savings to support operational excellence and sustainable growth. By centralizing spend, automating purchase-to-pay workflows, and providing complete financial visibility, Order.co directly addresses the most pressing operational challenges in the dental industry.

What Order.co delivers:

• Centralized spend management across all suppliers
• Automated workflows that eliminate manual tasks
• 100% real-time financial visibility
• Direct solutions to the most pressing operational challenges in the dental industry

Whether you’re a solo practitioner struggling with supply costs or a rapidly expanding DSO trying to standardize processes, Order.co provides the tools to transform chaotic, manual purchasing into a streamlined, intelligent engine for growth.

Ready to transform your dental practice's procurement?  Schedule a demo with Order.co today and discover how to achieve unparalleled spend control, efficiency, and savings.

Frequently asked questions about procurement for dental practices

This section answers common questions dental practice owners have about cost control, inventory management, and operational efficiency. Here are answers to what practice owners, office managers, and DSO leaders need to know.