The pandemic has disrupted the dental supply chain, and it may be the new normal.
Tim Quirt, DDS, senior vice president of clinical operations with Heartland Dental, spoke with "Becker's Dental + DSO Review Podcast" to weigh in on supply chain issues in dental.
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full podcast episode here. This episode was sponsored by Heartland Dental.
Question: How are supply chain issues and other related shortages affecting dentists and the patients they serve?
Dr. Tim Quirt: Because the supply chain has been so disrupted, we're starting to see the increase in pricing as well. So inflation is connected with those supply issues. You know, I'd like to be optimistic, but once somebody increases prices on things, it's very difficult in the future for them to pull those prices back. So we really think a lot of these disruptions that we're seeing — we're not immune to them either, so I don't want to say that there's some type of magic wand that we have. We all noticed it through COVID with [personal protective equipment]. We noticed it even during the holidays here [with] toys and Christmas lights, and it was hard to get stuff. The difference between now and when we first started seeing, for example, the PPE issues, is I don't know if it's too hard to get stuff right now; it's just, how much are you willing to pay for that stuff is the issue.
I think the data point is usually the [federal government] wants to get the inflation target to be around 2 percent, which is kind of how it's been for a long time. I think the recent data said it's about 7 percent annualized. So we're going to see, unfortunately, an increase in pricing most likely throughout the rest of this year and unfortunately as well, probably a stickiness to that higher pricing.