Dentaltown March 2018 - 38

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cbusdds
Member Since: 03/17/11
Posts: 15 and 21 of 154

System I and II alginate for dentures instead of polyvinyl. Best denture impression material
in my hands.
For both the maxilla and mandible I use reusable silicone base formers. We block out the
tongue with wax or a paper towel on the mandible and I have taught my assistant to build the
models up absolutely huge in all respects. We can always trim them back, but it always gives my
lab every landmark and has made my life with dentures more tolerable. ■
10/13/2016

Extractor
Member Since: 10/29/02
Post: 26 & 27 of 154

The tip that will save a ton of money: Do not buy the disinfecting solutions that come in the
gallon jugs. Or on the wipes. Buy them in concentrate.
*

Bi-Arrest from ICT (as far as I can tell, it's the exact same thing as Birex). It sells for 60
bucks for a bottle of concentrate and it dilutes out to 16 gallons. That comes out to about 4
bucks a gallon instead of 30.
* Another one is HB Quat disinfection cleaner. This stuff costs about 70 bucks and I think
it dilutes to ... can't remember, but like 60 gallons. It's even cheaper.
They are both hard-surface disinfection for areas that don't have blood all over them. I put
barriers on places where blood might be found.
I changed from Impregum to PVS recently. It's generally worked well, but with a few hiccups
depending on which assistant uses it. That saved some big money.
I order most filling materials from Safco Dental. Everything else I get from a company
called Goetze. I do this for convenience and for sales tax reasons; Safco doesn't charge sales tax
on anything, Goetze charges the proper sales tax. In my state, I don't have to pay sales tax on
products that stay in the mouth. This keeps me out of sales tax problems.
One last tip, and I can't stress this one enough: Don't let the staff completely take over the
ordering. Your money will fly away. You need to see the order and approve of it every week. The
staff gives me the order and I order it myself. There are online tools to order my supplies and the
process takes me 10 minutes a week.
I saved thousands of dollars a year, removing spend-happy assistants and spend-happy company reps from the ordering process. ■
10/13/2016

dds262
Member Since: 09/04/14
Post: 32 of 154

Temporary matrix buttons for crown temp impressions-accurate and inexpensive. I think
Advantage Dental makes them. ■
10/13/2016

jes1cajes
Member Since: 01/03/14
Post: 46 of 154

Not a material, but I buy patient sunglasses, kid toys, alcohol, hand soap and sanitizer at the
dollar store. Amazing what you find there-bandages, denture cases, floss picks, etc.
Paper products/stuffers/office supplies at Costco. ■
10/14/2016

tomdds
Member Since: 03/16/03
Post: 47 of 154

I think that if you can find a product that you like as much which costs less, then that is a
win. But I will say it again: Use a buying group/GPO like Synergy.
You will pay less for the products that you already use so that you don't have to find a cheaper
alternative. But if you have found a cheaper alternative that you like, that product will be less
through Synergy as well. I use Komet burs from them and they cost $3.75-that is about what
disposable diamonds cost.
I have said it many times. Synergy is run by dentists who work in mouths every day. They
get the deal. We individual docs can't negotiate the same deals that they can because they have

MARCH 2018 // dentaltown.com

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