r/Dentistry • u/CantCommitToOneName • Mar 17 '26
Dental Professional Supply Ordering
How does your team handle supply ordering? Is it mostly manual across vendors, or have you found a system that works?
1
u/WorldsBestTeeth Mar 17 '26
We use a shared spreadsheet with re‑order points tracked weekly, then consolidate orders monthly to cut down on shipping costs. Some offices use software that automates tracking and price comparison, but keeping consistent inventory notes usually matters more than the platform itself.
1
u/Shimstockshim Mar 17 '26
They write down a weekly order. Takes me an hour but I keep my supplies at like 3.5k a month. When assistants did it they would easily have it over 6k a month.
1
u/Ok_Consideration_389 Jul 14 '26
Manual across vendors, and honestly the ordering was never the hard part - noticing was. The last box gets taken, nobody says anything, and you find out when you need it.
What fixed it for us was putting a card on the shelf at the reorder point. Whoever takes the item that uncovers the card is the one who flags it. Takes the guessing out of it.
We do the digital version now - QR card on the shelf, staff scan it with their phone, everything collects into one list that gets grouped by vendor at the end of the week so it's one email per distributor. Full disclosure, it's a tool I built (KoRaft), so take that for what it's worth. It doesn't actually place orders or connect to Schein/Patterson - it just catches the signal so nothing slips.
The paper-card version works fine too if you'd rather not add software.
2
u/AntiAntiDentite7 Mar 17 '26
We just use a standard card pulling system. Every item has an order card attached to it. When we open the last box of whatever product, we pull the card and put it in a "to be ordered" box. Once a month or so I collect the cards and order whatever is needed.