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There are currently 78 accredited dental schools in the U.S., and enrollment is trending up according to the American Dental Association (ADA). In fact, the number of students in degree programs has increased by 10% compared to 2021 levels. For allied fields, like dental hygienists, dental assistants, and dental lab techs, the number is even higher, with enrollment growing by 15% from 2021 to 2025.
We’ll need all of these students. While there are more than 202,000 active dentists in the country, there’s a critical shortage. And more than 15% of dentists are already 65 or older.
So, supporting dental education is crucial, yet operating them efficiently is a challenge. Colleges and universities must navigate academic rules, public procurement regulations, and complex healthcare compliance. If that wasn’t enough, nearly every academic institution is dealing with shifting finances. State budgets aren’t always keeping pace, and there are billions of dollars of proposed cuts to federal allocations under consideration for the upcoming school year.
Even with funding in place, there’s continued pressure to control costs, despite continued inflation. Rising costs continue to be a challenge for college and universities, so every procurement activity is under the microscope. As such, many educational institutions are reevaluating how they source goods and services, including dental supplies and dental equipment.
Modern dental schools manage much more than classrooms and simulation labs. Many institutions oversee:
This requires a coordinated dental procurement workflow, managing purchasing across multiple departments and clinical functions. Procurement teams must balance recurring consumable purchases with long-term capital investments while maintaining operational continuity throughout the academic year.
The ADA Health Policy Institute’s State of the U.S. Dental Economy for Q1 2026 shows costs are rising.
“For the 12 months ending with February 2026, prices for dental equipment and supplies increased by 6%.” — ADA Survey
In total, supplies have risen by more 21% since 2021. As one dentist told the ADA: “Supplies and dental materials are either unavailable or much more expensive.”
Tariffs have also increased costs. For example, dental implants have risen by 18% in the past year. Nearly 90% of titanium and 67% of carbide burs come from overseas.
These rising costs are forcing institutions to place greater emphasis on:
For many colleges and universities, procurement has shifted from a largely administrative function to a strategic operational priority.
Many dental schools historically operated with decentralized purchasing structures. Individual clinics or departments often ordered their own supplies. Many times, this means using a mix of dental supply companies and inventory. This made dental procurement more difficult, often preventing the purchase of bulk dental supplies to achieve volume discounts.
This model becomes increasingly challenging to manage as institutions grow, which is why dental procurement leaders now prioritize centralized visibility into:
Standardizing dental equipment and dental supplies makes purchasing easier. Consolidating the number of dental supply dealers also reduces the administrative burden for procurement teams and finance teams.
While price is always an important factor in any procurement activity, decisions must consider more than just the bottom line. Leading procurement teams must also analyze:
Saving money upfront may help you meet budget goals, but often creates higher operational costs or faster replacement cycles. Downtime causes significant problems, especially when it comes to critical functions like autoclaves and sterilization supplies or practice management software.
Many dental schools are expanding their digital dentistry initiatives involving:
As institutions modernize facilities, procurement teams need to evaluate integration compatibility and support along with dental equipment specifications.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) infection prevention guidelines apply to dental schools and academic clinics, and training dental students and support staff on the importance and process for sterilization is critical. This includes:
Deploying a few key strategies can improve your dental procurement process.
Replacing aging equipment and staying on top of cutting-edge dental technology is a continuing challenge for academic institutions. Without the most current technology, students may struggle to land jobs or require additional training to meet modern practice needs.
The costs to do so can be considerable, so most dental schools wind up with a mix of aging equipment and modern systems. Yet, older imaging systems, sterilizers, and operatories can create:
Delayed equipment replacement can affect student instruction and patient care, which makes long-term planning and budgeting critical. Leading dental schools develop replacement roadmaps for dental equipment and technology, focusing on phased modernization strategies.
Recurring consumables drive a significant portion of dental procurement activity inside higher education environments. Campus clinics continuously purchase products such as:
Inventory visibility becomes essential to avoid stockouts on critical products and establish reliable replenishment cycles. Consumables pose a specific challenge. You can often lower costs by buying in bulk, but you also have to balance expiration dates, storage capacity, and student schedule fluctuations.
Standardizing purchases helps reduce complexity, especially in dental schools that operate multiple clinics or operatories. Reducing SKU sprawl cuts down on the number of items purchased. It also lets you consolidate purchasing with fewer dental supply companies, reducing the administrative burden and developing deeper relationships.
Standardization can simplify:
Cooperative purchasing agreements help many institutions simplify procurement while supporting compliance and cost control.
Cooperative contracts:
On top of that, cooperative agreements can produce significant volume discounts. It’s not uncommon for educational institutions to reduce purchasing costs by 10% or more by utilizing cooperative agreements while also reducing the workload for procurement and finance teams.
Cooperative procurement strategies can help institutions manage rising costs and growing clinical demands without adding unnecessary administrative burden. Here are just a few of the key benefits.
Traditional sourcing processes for dental supplies, equipment, and software systems can require significant administrative time and coordination. This typically means drafting RFPs, encouraging suppliers to submit bid, answering questions and reviewing submissions, and then going through compliance reviews. Then, contracts must be negotiated and submitted through approval workflows. This happens over and over again, across hundreds or even thousands of categories and suppliers in higher education.
Even for those procurement teams operating at peak efficiency, it can months to manage the process and it still not produce the best products and pricing.
Cooperative contracts help reduce much of that workload by providing access to competitively solicited agreements that already meet procurement compliance requirements. This allows institutions to move more quickly when sourcing dental supplies, imaging systems, sterilization equipment, consumables, and practice management technologies.
Cooperative procurement agreements also help institutions centralize supplier relationships and standardize purchasing workflows across clinical environments. This often improves inventory consistency, simplifies recurring ordering processes, and reduces unnecessary SKU sprawl.
At the same time, clinical and procurement teams gain better visibility into purchasing activity.
Reliable supplier relationships have become increasingly important, especially as costs continue to rise and supply chain disruptions continue. In fact, one of the reasons why cooperative contracts are so attractive for healthcare providers is that these contracts represent significant business for dental supply dealers. Because contracts cover several institutions, dental supply companies are highly encouraged to protect participating academic institutions in case of disruptions. These supplier relationships help support operational continuity in high-volume campus clinic environments.
Dental education environments continue evolving as institutions expand enrollment, modernize operatories, adopt digital dentistry technologies, and invest in new clinical workflows. Procurement leaders increasingly need scalable sourcing strategies that support long-term operational planning without dramatically increasing procurement complexity.
Cooperative agreements help institutions align procurement with larger modernization initiatives by supporting centralized supplier coordination and standardized purchasing strategies. As campus clinics continue growing and becoming more technology-driven, scalable procurement infrastructure becomes increasingly important for maintaining operational efficiency and financial stability.
Patterson Dental supplies college and university dental programs across the country. With more than 75 branches as part of a nationwide fulfillment network, Patterson Dental delivers a wide range of dental products.
Offering a catalog of more than 25,000 products for the dental industry, procurement teams can source:
Because many dental schools operate high-volume clinics, institutions often prefer to work with dental supply companies that can support multiple categories. As one of the nation’s leading dental supply dealers, Patterson Dental offers service and support to keep dental programs running smoothly. Through the Patterson Dental cooperative contract with E&I Cooperative Services, academic institutions qualify for in-office technical support and live technology support.
Patterson Dental Supply also ships orders within 1-2 business days to participating members, so you can replenish your supplies or purchase bulk dental supplies and get them quickly.
E&I is the only nonprofit, member-owned cooperative focused solely on education, helping institutions navigate procurement challenges, maximize resources, and achieve strategic goals. Combining the purchasing power of more than 6,500 member institutions, E&I achieves significant volume discounts.
Team members at E&I are procurement professionals. Many came directly from higher education procurement teams and have deep category expertise across a broad portfolio of contracts. Every contract includes the E&I Economic Benefit ModelTM, which demonstrates the total economic benefit captured in the agreement, including
E&I contracts typically deliver 5-12% or more in total economic benefit, making the full financial impact of your procurement activities visible. With E&I, you can:
What types of dental supplies do universities purchase most frequently?
Many dental schools regularly purchase consumables such as gloves, sterilization pouches, prophy paste, dental bibs, PPE, and instrument processing products.
How do colleges source dental equipment for campus clinics?
Institutions often use cooperative purchasing agreements, centralized procurement systems, and approved supplier contracts to source dental equipment and technology.
What is Patterson Dental used for in higher education?
Patterson Dental supplies dental equipment, consumables, imaging systems, sterilization products, and software platforms for dental schools and campus clinics.
Why are bulk dental supplies important for dental schools?
Bulk dental supplies help institutions manage recurring demand and reduce emergency purchasing disruptions.
How do cooperative contracts support dental procurement?
Cooperative contracts help simplify sourcing, compliance, and administrative workload. E&I’s cooperative agreements are competitively solicited and leverage combined pricing power from member institutions to achieve significant volume discounts.
View more than 260 cooperative agreements available through E&I Cooperative Services, including Patterson Dental supplies and services.