Choosing the best quality dental products for your practice

Growing a business and running a successful practice are two things that can seem like they oppose one another.

When you want to cut costs, searching for lower-cost materials and supplies is often the first port of call, but will the quality of your services suffer as a result?

If you want your practice to be successful then it needs to meet the needs of its patients without delay, but is that possible if you are constantly economising?

To shine some light on this subject and finally get to the bottom of things, we’re going to take a closer look at the key details. Let’s start with what constitutes a successful practice.

What is a successful dental practice?

Ask a businessman and they will tell you that it’s the net profit that matters above everything else — the dental practice is a business after all.

The problem with thinking about things purely from a business point of view is that it becomes all too easy to overlook the importance of patient satisfaction.

While many of us will accept poor levels of service when shopping in a supermarket as we simply want to pay less for our groceries, dentistry is a different industry.

Patients want to know that they are in the best possible hands from day one, they want to see the results of their treatments speak for themselves, and they want as few follow-up appointments as possible.

A successful dental practice is therefore one that:

• Treats patients quickly and effectively as soon as they get in contact for help and assistance
• Finds proven solutions to recurring problems and alleviates pain and discomfort
• Takes the time to get the job done right the first time so that the number of urgent followups is greatly reduced

What helps a dental practice achieve these three key things?

The importance of quality dental products

Any practice manager who shops online for dental products will find that they are inundated with dozens of different suppliers. Many appear to be new entrants to the market that are looking to undercut one another in the hope of making a sale.

While it may be tempting to go to the lowest bidder with the intention of reducing overheads and increasing margins, is this really just a false economy?

Many practice managers and dentists have found that the very cheapest supplies on the market have an unfortunate habit of offering lower levels of quality.

When the supplies are not up to the job, even the most skilled dental professional will struggle to do their best work. When this becomes the norm, the effectiveness of treatments is reduced, patient satisfaction falls, and patient turnover increases.

The key point is that all of this can be avoided by partnering with a trusted national supplier who has been in the industry for years and years. Let’s take a look at how you can identify such a supplier.

Finding a trusted national supplier

You need to be able to sleep easy knowing that you have entered into business with the right people, and that’s certainly the case when onboarding a new supplier.

The first thing you need to look for is a reputation for quality and reliability in the industry, and that is something that easily be found online via reviews and endorsements.

Secondly, you want to also look at any accreditations the supplier has so that you can see if they truly understand the stringent nature of the industry’s rules and regulations.

On top of these two key things, you also need to know that the supply chain is robust, reliable, and far-reaching. No matter where your practice is based in the UK, the ideal situation is to be able to get everything you need from a single supplier.

Once you find a team who have been handling practices just like yours for years, you will be able to place recurring orders with nothing more than a quick call or the click of a button.

Ideal when you want to be able to set the tone for a practice that really does run like clockwork.

There is a fundamental tension between cost and quality, and nowhere does this matter more than in the world of dentistry and oral hygiene.

Taking the time to partner with an established national supplier will ensure that you can cover all of the key things your practice needs.

Having a single point of contact you can rely on to provide quality supplies in a timely and affordable way is always the best approach to take.

By Nick Norton
Advertising feature with Kent Express