How DentistOpFlow estimates the cost of a procedure

The catalog: the products a practice buys

The starting point is a catalog of the supplies a general dental practice buys, organised by category: anesthetic, direct and indirect restorative materials, endodontic supplies, surgical items, impression and lab items, infection control, imaging, and more. Each item carries a unit of measure and a typical purchase pack, so a box, a syringe, or a cartridge can be read as a per-unit cost.

The catalog does two jobs. It recognises the line items on your supplier invoices and groups your spend into categories, and it provides the list of items that procedures draw on. Brand names in the catalog are examples that help match a real invoice line to the right item. They are not endorsements or recommendations.

The consumption model: what each procedure uses

For each core procedure, identified by its dental code, the catalog records which items the procedure consumes and how much of each, measured in the item's own unit. A posterior composite draws on local anesthetic, etch, bonding agent, composite, a matrix band and wedge, and a share of the bur used to prepare the tooth. A crown case adds impression material and a lab fee. These quantities are per-case estimates you can adjust to match how your practice works.

Not every supply is charged to a single procedure. Items used across the majority of visits, such as gloves, gauze, and bibs, are pooled as a per-visit overhead rather than assigned to one procedure. Items reused across many procedures, such as burs and ultrasonic inserts, are counted as a fraction of one item per use. Capital equipment is tracked separately for depreciation, and lab work is counted once per case. Handling each type in the way that fits it keeps a per-procedure number grounded instead of adding false precision.

The prices: your invoices, with reference estimates to start

A cost needs a price for every item. DentistOpFlow uses the prices your practice pays, taken from your supplier invoices. You can enter items by hand, import a supplier spend export as a spreadsheet, or upload a digital invoice, and the tool matches each line to the right catalog item.

Until you have entered an invoice for an item, the tool uses a reference price as a starting estimate, so a procedure shows a usable number from the first day. These reference prices are editable, and the moment you enter a real invoice for an item, your price replaces the estimate for that item. Your own numbers are more accurate than any starting estimate, so the figures improve as your invoices come in.

How it combines into a per-procedure cost

For each procedure, the tool multiplies the quantity of every item it consumes by that item's current price, then adds the results. Items in the per-visit pool are handled as shared overhead rather than charged to one procedure. The result is the material and lab cost of a single case.

That material and lab figure is one part of the full picture. Combined with chair time and a fair share of your practice overhead, it becomes the estimated cost you compare against your fee, which is the margin that guides a pricing decision.

Where the numbers come from, and what they are not

The catalog and the consumption quantities are general reference estimates for directional guidance. They are not a fee schedule, they are not recommended fees, and they are not clinical guidance. They are a management tool for seeing which of your fees earn a margin and which run below cost.

Your cost data stays in your own storage and is not sent to our servers, and no patient information is involved at any step. Replace the reference prices with your real invoices to see where your practice actually stands.

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