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Guide to Dental Consumables, Supplies and Products
When a dentist goes into practice, he or she must treat their profession like any other business, carefully balancing income against expenses and also making plans for future growth. Dentistry is a profitable job. There were some 150,000 dentists of all stripes in the US alone in 2004 according to Bureau of Labor statistics. About a third of these were self-employed and almost all in private practice. Most privately practicing dentists are sole owners.
According to the American Dental Association, for solo dentists expenses related to their practice take up the largest chunk of gross billings, followed by wages, lab payments, and dental supplies.
Expenses and Income
When a person sits down in a dentist’s chair, he or she represents expenses as well as income. These expenses are in the form of electricity for the lights and to power the various dental instruments and furniture such as the chair, the pump which drives the aspirator, the evacuator, the air turbine drill, the amalgamator, the composite curing apparatus, water for rinsing and cleaning, and so on. As such, this demand for dental supplies has to be fed, and many businesses worldwide have sprung up to fill this need.
Competition for business in dental equipment and supplies is keen. More than 600 manufacturers in the US service the 4-billion-dollar market, last year earning almost 2 billion in profit. Top traders with the US in the dental equipment and supplies market in 2006 were Germany, accounting for 21.42%; Canada, 12.88%; Japan, 10.23%; Switzerland, 9.49%; and Italy with 3.23%. These five countries account for more than half the imports and exports of dental equipment and supplies to the US.
Dental Supplies
Dental supplies include such consumables as medical gases such as oxygen. Other dental supplies are as follows - napkins, paper towels, cotton balls to absorb fluid; Lidocaine, Novocain and other anesthetics for anesthesia purposes; tongue depressors; tie-on and ear-loop masks; composite and amalgam compounds as well as compounds to create bridges; curing equipment; goggles, face shields, gloves, and aprons; mouthwash; antiseptics such as alcohol and iodine and antibiotics (some countries allow dentists to stock and dispense medication while other countries others don’t); dental hygiene products such as toothpastes, toothbrushes, toothpicks, floss, dental dams, scrapers, and dental mirrors; materials to make impressions and casts such as calcined gypsum; bonding agents and related materials like denture paste; tooth whitening supplies; and x-ray film and developing chemicals.
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