Orthodontic practices are increasingly turning to buying groups and procurement platforms to simplify purchasing, reduce costs, and eliminate the chaos caused by fragmented vendor management.
By Greg Thompson
Rising supply costs and an ever-growing list of vendors have pushed purchasing to the top of the orthodontic to-do list. What used to be a manageable task has become a weekly—sometimes daily—exercise in price hunting, tracking orders, and keeping multiple logins and lists straight. For many practices, the process starts to break down the moment a key staff member steps away. That reality has more orthodontists looking for organized orthodontic purchasing solutions to simplify and standardize how they buy. Some are turning to buying groups for collective savings and guidance; others are adopting procurement platforms to bring all their ordering under one roof.
The Role of Buying Groups in Cost Control
Orthodontists started to discover the power of collective bargaining via buying groups right around the early 2000s, particularly among independents trying to compete with large corporate entities. At their core, buying groups help doctors reduce supply costs by negotiating low prices. A buying group such as Mari’s List works with more than 180 vendors to find low prices, while also helping orthodontists grow their practices with marketing products and wholesale branded giveaways.
How Mari’s List Supports Orthodontic Practices
“We have an active Facebook group where our doctors communicate daily and share things they like, discuss products and services, and ask and answer questions,” says Mari Sawtelle Dunn, founder of Mari’s List. “Our experienced doctors help our startups and younger doctors as well. Our team follows up when needed, and if a doctor has an issue they can’t get resolved immediately we will help out.”
Mari’s List vets each company, adding an additional layer of confidence. “Customer service is something we stress with all our vendor partners,” says Sawtelle Dunn. “We are constantly negotiating manufacturer’s discounts that go out in our Monday newsletter, and our members have a portal to login to for tutorials, and all the details to order. Many of them continually monitor pricing on the net, to ensure our pricing overall is the best. When new members join, they receive coupons that more than cover the first year’s dues.”
Doctor Involvement Leads to Better Decision-Making
The decision to use a buying group usually comes down to time and/or motivation. Some orthodontists relish admin/purchasing duties while others delegate—a tactic that can lead to misunderstandings. Sawtelle Dunn contends that doctor involvement from the beginning leads to better purchasing decisions.
For docs who are unsure, Sawtelle Dunn says, “We have trainers with more than 200 years of orthodontic experience to offer advice and coaching, and our companies offer us their best dedicated Mari’s List reps to help cross reference the practice’s lists, so they don’t have to try to figure it all out by themselves. If doctors have an outside rep, that does not change.”
Orthodontists who do not relish the process of ordering supplies tend to hand off the task to clinical staff members at the first possible chance. If the practice is fairly slow, it’s not a problem. However, it’s safe to say that most orthodontists do not want staff members sitting at a computer; they want them chairside.
How Mari’s List Streamlines Ordering and Costs
Most offices that come to Mari’s List are ordering several times a month. Efficiency and better organization can hone that down to one order per month. “We have many that are now ordering quarterly as it saves them on eight ordering cycles,” Sawtelle Dunn says. “These doctors can save the most, especially with companies who give free product with purchases, as they all charge shipping.”
In business since 2012, Mari’s List encompasses brackets, archwires, adhesives, burs, equipment, consumables, software, web design, office supplies, architectural consultants, and more. The fundamental business model dictates that all negotiated savings go to its members.
“We do not take a percentage of orders as most other platforms do,” Sawtelle Dunn confirms. Those buying groups or platforms, she says, take an average of 8% to 18% of sales. That translates to less savings for the orthodontist. What’s more, she adds, because they don’t have the negotiating power of a group like Mari’s List that has over 3,000 orthodontists as members, nor access to the best pricing, many of those marketplaces can lead doctors to gray market sources to stay competitive.
When Ordering Efficiency Becomes the Priority
As buying groups continue to emphasize negotiated savings and vendor transparency, some orthodontists are still looking for ways to simplify the day-to-day mechanics of ordering itself. Even with strong pricing in place, the administrative work of managing multiple vendors, logins, and lists can remain a persistent pain point—especially in busy or multi-location practices. That reality has given rise to a different category of solution, one focused less on pricing power and more on the infrastructure that keeps purchasing organized.
Indiana-based Orthodontic Details is technically a “procurement platform” that gives orthodontists one place to order all of their supplies. According to Nick Wangler, president and co-founder, it does not matter who orthodontists order from—or what buying group in which they may participate.
Orthodontic Details: Centralizing the Ordering Process
“Orthodontists can order everything from coffee to clinical supplies, from all of their current suppliers, on the Details platform,” he confirms. “The challenge with Buying Groups is that you still have to order everything separately. They give you special pricing, but then it’s up to you to hunt down the actual supplies, and ensure the correct pricing is applied.
“If you’re using an online marketplace, you’re browsing a small collection of suppliers, and rarely your exact supplier mix,” Wangler continues. “An average practice is typically ordering regularly from at least ten suppliers. If they go to an online marketplace, they are only going to find maybe two or three of their typical suppliers.”
With online marketplaces, Wangler also contends that doctors might be wary of ordering gray market products—so they often stay away. Still other orthodontists think they can negotiate better than buying groups and Wangler muses that it is occasionally true that, “Really savvy doctors often can negotiate buying group pricing if they’ve been loyal to the company.”
When Purchasing Breakdowns Trigger Change
If the goal is to avoid purchasing headaches, many orthodontists are ultimately happy to pay for outside help—mainly to focus more on patients or occasionally to pick up the pieces when a key member of the office leaves. “We’ve worked with countless practices who had a staff member in charge of ordering,” Wangler shares. “When that staff member leaves the practice, the doctor and team are left to pick up the pieces. That often means login credentials left on post-it notes and ordering lists buried in binders. This creates headaches for doctors, leading to the desire to modernize their purchasing.”
The Push for Efficiency and Peace of Mind
Jeff Biggs, DDS, MS, who practices out of Biggs-Hansen Orthodontics in Indianapolis, agrees that orthodontists often let ordering concerns fester before seeking outside help. “Orthodontists are often unaware of just how unorganized their ordering process is—until they run into problems,” says Biggs, who also serves as co-founder and CEO of Details. “Their ordering staff leaves, gets sick, or gets distracted—and now doctors are spending their evenings solving supply problems.
“With Details, we act like a partner for the practice, helping them achieve their supply goals,” he continues. “Sometimes that means consolidating to fewer suppliers, sometimes that means finding ways to save money, and other times it is inventory management training. We’re here to bring them peace of mind about supplies.”
“Clinicians need to be working on patients in the clinic,” adds Tracy Martin at Straight Consulting. “They do not need to be ordering supplies. It tends to be such a time suck for all of the practices. By partnering with Orthodontic Details, we are able to free up the clinicians to do what they do best—and see more patients.” OP
Photo: ID 134531493 © Andrii Yalanskyi | Dreamstime.com
Greg Thompson is a contributing writer for Orthodontic Products.
