Dental suppliers in Belgium: how to choose the right one

Belgian dental practices have plenty of choice. Large suppliers with tens of thousands of products, smaller webshops with sharp prices and specialized suppliers for orthodontics. But how do you choose the supplier that fits your practice? And do you have to choose at all? In this article we list the most important criteria.

What kinds of suppliers are there?

• Suppliers with a broad range sell almost everything a general practice needs, from consumables to instruments and parts for equipment. Think of suppliers like Henry Schein, Hofmeester and Denta.
• Webshops with a smaller range often focus on the consumables you order most, and compete on price and promotions.
• Specialized suppliers focus on one field, such as orthodontics. Examples are American Orthodontics, Orthotrends and OrthoDepot.

You will find an overview of the suppliers you can order from in Swyp on our page with all suppliers.

What to look for when you choose

The range

Does the supplier carry the products and brands your team works with? You don't just replace a trusted composite or a particular type of file. Also look at the packaging: one supplier sells per piece, another only per box or per set.

The price you pay

The price on the webshop is not always the price you pay. Many suppliers make arrangements with practices: a discount on the whole range, better prices on certain brands or a bonus at the end of the year. Ask about it, especially if you order regularly. Read how to compare prices fairly in our article on comparing dental supply prices.

Delivery and shipping costs

How fast do they deliver, and from what amount is delivery free? A low price per product loses its advantage if you pay shipping on every small order.

Availability

A supplier that often has products on backorder forces you to look elsewhere at the moment you need the product. Check whether the webshop clearly shows what is in stock.

Service

Do you have a fixed contact person or a sales rep who visits? How does a return work when something is wrong with a delivery? For some practices that weighs more than a few percent on the price.

One supplier or several?

With one supplier you keep things simple: one account, one invoice, one delivery. But you often pay for it. No supplier is the cheapest for every product, and if a product is out of stock at your supplier, you are left empty-handed.

That is why most practices work with two or more suppliers: a regular supplier for most of their orders, and one or more others for what is cheaper or faster to get elsewhere. The downside is the work: more accounts, more webshops to compare and more orders to follow up.

Several suppliers without the extra work

With Swyp you connect the accounts you already have with your suppliers. Then you search once and see the prices of all your suppliers side by side, at the prices of your own accounts and with your arrangements included. You order from one cart, and Swyp splits your order across your suppliers for the lowest total, shipping included.

That way you combine the simplicity of one supplier with the prices of all of them. See which suppliers you can connect or try Swyp free.