Dental supply costs: are you overpaying by 20%?

Your dental supply costs are 30-50% higher than necessary if you're not comparison shopping.

Most practices buy from one or two suppliers out of habit. They never get bids from others. They accept price increases without questioning them. That's $40K-80K annual waste depending on your size.

Consolidation in dental supply created pricing power for the big players. Benco, Patterson, Henry Schein know you won't switch suppliers easily. Switching means new ordering systems, new relationships, figuring out delivery logistics. So they raise prices slowly. You don't notice. But over three years, you've paid 20-30% premium.

Get actual bids quarterly. At minimum once per year. Request pricing for your top 50 items across three suppliers. Negotiate. The big suppliers will drop 8-12% immediately just to keep your business. Then use that concession with your current supplier.

Your supply costs should be 10-12% of total production revenue. If you're above 15%, you have a vendor problem. Invest 4 hours per quarter in supplier comparison. Save 30-50K annually. That's a 400-500 dollar hourly rate for your time. Do it.