It’s important that your dental practice saves money where you can. Here are some tips on how you can save time and money.
Saving money is important for all businesses, but especially for dental practices.
Dentistry is a vital part of healthcare. Dental practices provide essential services that help keep people healthy and maintain their oral health. However, running a dental practice can be expensive. With costs for supplies, equipment, staffing and overhead, it’s essential for dental practices to save money wherever they can.
Fixed expenses, like rent, insurance and utilities, typically account for around 4 to 9% of production. Variable costs, such as payroll, lab fees, dental supplies and office supplies, usually run at around 45 to 65%.
Let’s explore some ways you can save your dental practice money.
Use cost-effective dental supplies
One way to save money is to use cost-effective dental supplies. Find less expensive alternatives for products like dental floss, toothbrushes, mouthwash and other non-clinically sensitive products. Also look for purchasing options that offer discounts.
If you partner with a dental group purchasing organisation (GPO), you can save thousands of pounds on the supplies you already know and trust.
Dentstock is a UK dental GPO built to give practices access to better pricing without the usual admin burden of managing multiple supplier accounts. By bringing your ordering together in one place, Dentstock helps deliver competitive prices, whatever the size of your practice.
Keeping the cost of supplies down helps you maintain affordable services for your patients. Dental care can be expensive, and patients are often left paying out of pocket for treatment that isn’t covered by the NHS. When you save money on supplies, equipment and overhead costs, you can reduce the overall cost of services and make them more accessible to your patients. The more accessible your services are, the more patients you’ll gain. The more patients you gain, the more profitable you become.
Manage inventory efficiently
Keep a close eye on inventory and order only what is needed to prevent waste and unnecessary expense. Implementing an inventory management system can help you monitor supply levels, track usage and identify areas where money can be saved.
Dentstock helps practices consolidate their formularies and work out which products are clinically sensitive versus non-clinically sensitive. There’s no need to keep ordering several different types of bibs when you can consolidate down to one type. Centralising your purchasing through a single platform saves you time as well as money.
Saving money this way improves the bottom line for your practice. When you reduce costs by managing inventory properly, your practice can increase profitability and reinvest those savings into the business. This leads to growth and expansion, and ultimately, better patient care.
Implement energy-saving practices
You may remember being told to turn off the lights when you leave a room. Turns out that advice holds up. Implementing energy-saving practices in the dental practice can help reduce utility bills. Turn off lights and equipment when not in use, replace old equipment with energy-efficient models, adjust the thermostat at the end of each day, and make sure the practice is properly insulated.
You may not see a huge return on this one straight away, but small savings add up over time.
Consider outsourcing services
Outsourcing services such as accounting, marketing and IT can save money compared with hiring in-house staff. It’s often more cost-effective, and the service provider brings specialist expertise to the practice.
Many dental GPOs offer additional services such as procurement tools, continued education, group insurance and practice management. They act as a single point of contact for the things your practice needs to run efficiently, and to stay competitive in the industry.
By saving money through outsourcing, you can set funds aside for unforeseen expenses. Emergencies, equipment breakdowns and other unexpected events can be costly, and having money set aside helps you manage these challenges without disrupting patient care.
Use technology to streamline processes
Investing in technology that automates manual tasks can help streamline processes such as appointment scheduling, patient communication, ordering and billing. This improves efficiency, reduces errors, and saves time and money in the long run.
Some GPOs, including Dentstock, offer practices tools and technology to support these day-to-day tasks.
Saving money helps dental practices stay competitive in a crowded market. By keeping costs low with these methods, you can offer more competitive pricing and attract more patients. This helps you grow your patient base and build a stronger reputation in your community.
