The template
Two pages, letter size, print as many as you need. No email, no signup.
Download the dental inventory list and count sheet (PDF)
Page one is the inventory list and count sheet: twenty-four items every operatory tracks, already filled in, with columns for par level, reorder quantity, on hand, supplier, and a lot or expiration where one applies. Page two is the supplies received log: one line per delivery, with the lot and expiration for anything that carries them.
The list is prefilled on purpose. Most practices that try to build an inventory list from scratch stall at "what do we even track," and the honest answer is that the first two dozen items are the same in nearly every general practice. Start there, cross out what you do not stock, add what is yours.
The 24 items, and why these
| Group | Items | Why it is on the list |
|---|---|---|
| Barrier and PPE | Nitrile gloves in your sizes, face masks, patient bibs, barrier film | Consumed every appointment. The item most likely to run out on a Monday. |
| Isolation and suction | Saliva ejectors, HVE tips, cotton rolls, gauze 2x2 | Cheap, high-volume, and invisible until the drawer is empty mid-procedure. |
| Anesthetic | Lidocaine and articaine carpules, topical, needles | Carries a lot number and an expiration date. The one category a recall can name. |
| Restorative | Composite by shade, bonding agent, etchant | Expensive per unit, expires, and the shade you need is the one you are out of. |
| Hygiene | Prophy paste, prophy angles, fluoride varnish | Steady use, easy to forget, and varnish expires. |
| Impression | Alginate, impression trays | Alginate has a shelf life; trays run out by size. |
| Rotary | Burs, carbide and diamond | Ordered by the pack, used by the one; count the packs. |
| Sterilization | Sterilization pouches, ultrasonic solution, surface disinfectant wipes | Regulated use; running out stops the whole schedule, not one chair. |
The columns that make the list work
Par (alert at). The count at which you reorder. Not the count you want on the shelf; the count that means "order now or run out before it arrives." For gloves that might be four boxes; for a shade of composite, one syringe.
Reorder quantity. What you order to get back to full. Par and reorder quantity together are the whole reorder decision, written down once so nobody has to make it again under pressure.
On hand. The physical count, on the day of the count. The sheet is dated and initialed so a number always has a person and a day behind it.
Supplier. Who you buy it from. Most practices split between two or three vendors; the column is what lets a reorder become one order per supplier instead of one long list.
Lot and expiration. Only for the items that carry them: anesthetic, composite, bonding, varnish, alginate. A recall on a lot of anesthetic is answered by this column or by an afternoon of digging through boxes.
The receiving log
Page two exists for one reason: a delivery is the only moment the lot and expiration are easy to capture. The carpule box has it printed on the side; once the box is open and the carpules are in the drawer, the number is gone. The rule that makes the log work is the same one every pharmacy uses: nothing goes on the shelf until it is on the sheet. Check the packing slip against the box, write the lot and expiration, initial it, then shelve it.
How to count with it
Once a month, same day, same person if you can. Walk the operatories and the storage closet in the same order every time. Write the on-hand number next to par, and anything at or under par goes on the order that week. Keep the completed sheets in a binder; the twelve of them together are your usage history, and the item that shows up at or under par every month is the one whose par is set too low.
Where paper breaks
Every column above depends on a person writing at the moment something happens, in an operatory where the patient in the chair matters more than the sheet. Counts get done when someone has time, which is never. Lots get written at receiving for a month and then stop. The par level that was right in January is wrong by June because the practice grew, and nobody has revisited the sheet since. And the day a supplier calls about a recalled lot of articaine, the binder gets opened for the first time in a while.
The template gets a practice further than a shared spreadsheet or a sticky note on the supply closet. It will not get past the point where the writing has to happen.
What it looks like when the list keeps itself
The columns do not change. Who fills them does.
In MedRestock, the list is the same twenty-four items, imported from this sheet or built by scanning the boxes with a phone. Par and reorder quantity are set once per item, per operatory if they differ. Every use is a tap on the phone in the operatory, so on hand is always today's number, not last month's. When a count drops to par, the reorder is drafted automatically, one order per supplier, sent to Henry Schein or Patterson from the app. Receiving is a scan of the box: the lot and expiration are read from the barcode and recorded. The recall question is a search. The binder is a page you can export.
Print the template today. It costs nothing and it beats the sticky note. When the writing becomes the problem, MedRestock for dental practices is the same list with the pen removed, and the first 14 days are free.
For the full picture of running dental supplies, start with the dental inventory management guide. For the ordering side, read how dental supply ordering works when it runs itself.