dental assistant

dental hygienist

healthcare coordinator

dentist

associate dentist

St. Marys Health Care System

1. Hours- Every office is different. It will depend on managers, clients and doctors. It was nice for paychecks but not for work/life balance. My first week I worked over 50 hours. I went home a cried after that week because I felt misled. 
2. Management (Office Manager and Regional Manager)- Again every office is different. Had a few office managers (Hint hint). One manager left early almost every day and would come in late every other day. Me and coworkers were left high and dry. We would speak up to the OM and RM but nothing was ever done. We even spoke to owner doctor but still nothing was done. Others OM managed by intimidation and lying. They didn’t even know their head from their bottom. If we had questions they would make up something in the moment and then later on (when they realized it was the wrong answer) they blamed us. If there was an issue in the office our managers would act like they were on our side but after they talked to doctors and RM separately they would come back and say we were wrong. It was miserable. We always got blamed for seriously everything. We were threatened about our overtime and getting work done. After a long time went on the RM finally realized it wasn’t all our fault and made some changes. They claimed they had no idea all of the stuff in our office was going on. Which is either bs or it just goes to show you our OMs never supported us and lied to the RMs. 
4. Providers (Doctors and hygienists)- This truly depends on what providers you have. We had a quite a few doctors. One was soooo incredibly nice, helpful and understanding. The other doctor.....holy terror. Very money hungry and micromanaged like you wouldn’t believe. We (BCs and DAs) would tell our managers what was going on but again nothing was done and we were blamed. Our specialty doctors were fine. They didn’t really cause any issues. Hygienists were awesome. No complaints. 
5. Workload- WAAAAAAYYYY too much. There was NEVER a moment where I wasn’t doing something. Our nice doctor would even acknowledge how overloaded we were. A lot of the time I had so much that I didn’t get a lunch. You wear like 5 hats- or at least we BCs did. I had a few mental breakdowns (that I kept in until my 30 min lunch). Me and the other BCs were ALWAYS being told we weren’t doing enough but would be threaten about overtime. Our RM and Managers were always changing/restructuring how we did things to “help” so that we could get work done. It would literally change every month and never worked. Took a loooooonnng and very honest conversation with OM and RM to have them realize how overloaded we were. I have friends that work in the dental world and when I told them how much I did they were appalled. 
6. Work environment- multiple factors go into this. First it depends on where your office is located and what clientele you have. We had literally every type of person you can think of. Our sister offices in town would even say we had all the crazy clients. Secondly depends coworker’s age and personalities (obviously). All of or DAs were very young so maturity was lacking a lot of the time. There was a lot of bickering between them and laziness. Always on their phones and not helping with any administrative work when asked or told. The lead DA was awesome. She was the peacekeeper between them and would get ish done and done right. She was overworked and spread thin. I would feel bad for her a lot. And lastly again doctors and managers are a big factor. Managers and doctors set the tone for the office which they forget. 
6. Training- I mean you do go away to get training but it’s overwhelming or at least it was for me because of the timeline. Your kind of thrown in to the office and then after a while you go off for a few days to get sit down structured training. It just gets overwhelming. It’s awesome but it needs to be improved a little. 


This company is based on wonderful Christian beliefs so it’s sad to see when offices don’t follow it. We understand that money is important to keep the business running but work ethics are just as important. Managers and doctors need to remember that. The BCs/receptionists and DAs keep the offices running and they are getting extremely burnt out. You know the turnover rate is high so ask THEM what’s going on and LISTEN to them when they tell you.

I quit after 2 months. I started job hunting after the first 2 weeks.

Associate Dentists (ADs) here at PDS are not treated fairly; ADs are the "lowest of the low." We have had very little autonomy with treatment planning, we're constantly forced to adhere to what they call the "Perfect Patient Experience" (PPE) by speaking in such dialect that for all purposes, coerces patients into same-day treatment; PDS is very thirsty for same-day crowns/inlays/onlays utilizing CEREC. I am not against same-day treatment, I am against basically forcing pts into treatment they were not prepared for on the same day they come in. The scope of your care is mainly cleanings, fillings, indirects, and extractions.

PDS does a good job gaslighting doctors, forcing them to doubt everything we have learned in dental school to such a degree where one would feel like their ethics and licensure are constantly being put in jeopardy.

They do offer PDS University, which is a system implemented to help with procuring CE hours. But overall, it still feels like further indoctrination into the PDS culture and removing much of what makes you you.

Management is poor at best. I started in one location in Federal Way, WA. I was booted after 2 weeks because I was told our personalities didn't match, whatever that means. I spent the remainder of the 2 months in an office in West Seattle, which was overall better, but it still had some problems. Commute was 45 minutes on a good day, and the OD there still did not want me doing the treatment I know I am capable of doing, like root canals. And my schedule has always been either too busy or not busy enough; on the busiest of days I did not get a lunch, a problem more regular with the first office than the second. To me, this was a demonstration of how little PDS values basic job stability.

The specialist system is not great. Specialists are usually only in the office once a month and the company emphasizes filling the schedule of the rotating specialists. Here's a hypothetical scenario: What if a pt comes in the day after the endodontist in tooth pain. All evidence suggests the pt needs root canal and crown. PDS tells you that rather than doing it all yourself or referring to the nearest outside endodontist, you're supposed to prep and temp the tooth. Pt pays for the crown that they'll get on the day of root canal and... oh, wait, they're still in pain. I am aware there are more nuances within this hypothetical scenario, but my point still stands that the pt's needs of addressing the pain are not being met until the next time the endodontist comes back. I want anyone reading this review to be aware of how palpable the potential failure to address the pt's needs is.

The actual final day of work: I had already received a new job offer. I informed management of this and promptly put in a 3 week notice, so that my job transition would be seamless. Rather than honoring it, management decided to make that same day my final day; I was still on base pay salary/guaranteed daily minimum. Their reasoning was that because my schedule wasn't busy enough for the next three weeks, it didn't make sense to keep me around. In doing so, they took treatment away from me. This is the loophole within the termination clause of an at-will employment contract. 

Dentistry is a very rewarding profession. We should wake up every (or rather, most) days inspired to go to work, not afraid or dreadful of it. But hey, you can do same-day crowns, so... yay? Know your worth. If you value your individuality, your autonomy, and job stability... run from this company. You deserve better.

Operations Manager-San Diego-(no longer employed by PDS).  

Absolutely Brutal.

I have been in the dental profession over 25 years both as an EFDA and as management.  Never in all  my days would I have ever told a dentist how to diagnose a patient and/or what treatment to recommend.  THAT is not my place.  Never has been. Never will be. I did not let the office team know I knew dentistry, just to get a feel for how dentistry was practiced.  It was cringe-worthy.  Sell, sell, sell is the name of the game.   The Benefit Coordinators knew nothing about dentistry and their training was abysmal.  Insurance pre-auths were the worst I've seen.  Billing the patients was emotional, to say the least.  I felt like a shyster.    As the OM, I was responsible for everyone's mistakes.  That is nothing new to me, but honestly, I'm not the clinician and I can't make clinical calls.  Nor did  I want to "coach' the doctor(s) on how to sell dentistry, even though I was instructed by the Regional to do so.  
PDS emotionally flogs their OMs for production.  Public embarrassment and humiliation is the norm and not the exception.  It was an exhausting place to work.  I hated the morning huddles because I had to amp up the team to sell a 10-12k day or whatever the goal was for the day and add on the difference of what wasn't made the day before.  It was nauseating.  
Training is non-existent.  Even if you received some, the  Regionals didn't know dentistry and the training was weighted on $$$$$$.  Basically, the OM is thrown into the deep end of the pool and expected to swim while trying to learn an antiquated management system (think DOS).

My first monthly OM meeting was a blood bath.  I was appalled at how the Regional threw an OMT (Ops Mgr. in Training) under the bus in front of the rest of the OMs and facilitated an all out decimation of the poor guy.  His crime? temping in an office when the manager was gone for a couple of weeks and SHE had not done her job.  I should  have run then, but honestly, I needed the paycheck.  I told myself the Regional was just hormonal that month.  Ummm, No.

The Owner-Doctor I worked with, cherry picked all the new patients and gave the Capitated/$0 patients to the Associate Doctor(s) who are working for production.  The lack of ethics in treatment planning patients was horrendous.  I could not in good faith sell the patient a hugely expensive treatment plan.  I was told "You care too much and have too big a heart for this company".  Spot on.  As I was planning my exit strategy, I was summarily fired along with a couple of other OMs on the same day.  As I walked out of the building for the last time, I looked at my phone for the time, checked out the sunny day and decided to go have a manicure and a margarita.  Best thing that ever happened to me and it was the first time in 6 months I had a spontaneous smile.

If you value your ethics, moral character and over all health, please avoid this company.  I learned a great deal about people who are willing to sell their souls for a pay check and/or who are unable to perform anywhere else.  Fortunately, I'm not one of them and I went to work immediately with a dentist who appreciated me, my ethics,  and my talent.

I worked for PacDen for less than a year, began looking for new position within 6 weeks. As "seasoned" dentist of 15 yrs experience, I was looking to move to new state, following economic growth, leaving state where I practiced/owned, a rather successful practice, seeing the local economy in decline. My interview, in office appeared promising, full waiting room, 13 ops full. What was not disclosed,was 4 ops were one day a week ortho, 3 general dentist, sharing 5 ops, endodontist in 2 ops, and hygiene in 2 ops. Once work started, i was paid half rate first day"training" then for 4 months $500 dollars a day, Hours were 8-5 M-TH, F 7-3, except on days when endo is there, it's not uncommon to work over 2-3 hours. I left one Friday at 7:30, with no extra pay. Scheduling is so messed up, your can expect to do hygiene  25%  of your time, yet they keep metrics on your production. The "holy" metrics. If your proportion of fillings is too high, vs crowns, The regional manager "coaches" you to do more crowns. IE, over diagnose, to up production. If you are under "Average Daily Production" you are paid 26%, over ADP, 31%. Remember, you may be doing a lot of hygiene, the hygienist have their own schedule, and may not be able to do recare hygiene, or new pt prophy. Then you get to go to their "indoctrination" in Irvine CA. In my group, the founder, not dentists, told us what he expected. 8 minute crown preps. No problem here, but, when do you get that proficiency? 1,2,3, yrs out? 5 or 6? Every one is different. Now i've mention 2 times non dentists are telling you how to practice. They only want high volume. They want endodontist to do rct, my office had poor endo setup. I know, because I did/now do 275-300 rct a year, until working at PacDen. Once you get to production pay, and do not "Drink the kool-aid" and want out, they will write off your production to get you under ADP.  They even wrote off "turned over to collection" I was paid on PRODUCTION. I submitted credentialling 4 times, but got write off "provider not contracted" Front desk/Admin error, I did procedure, pt was given expected benefit estimate prior to treatment, but somehow, I'm not "contracted provider. Question is, if procedure was done, by me, yet they claim I'm not "contracted provider" did office receive payment, and who assumed payment,while I was denied production credit? This deduction was list 17 times on report that I requested, itemized writeoffs. My opinion, I wouldn't want my parents to see any PacDen affiliated office.One of the owners listed on door has multiple practices under his purview in Dallas/San Antonio/ Houston triangle, probably beyond that. Business model is for owner dentist to bring in Associate, find new office oppurtunity, get associate to become secondary owner , who is expected themselves to open more practices. Pacden always retains 51% ownership of office. Once I changed jobs AWAY from PacDen, I now am earning, by last calculation, 118% more, working fewer hours, enjoying dentistry again.  I hated going to work, every day, for Pacden

Recently, I had the honor of celebrating my 15th year at PDS Health. I am still here due to the strong ethics and values this company holds. During COVID, I saw our CEO express vulnerability, compassion, and honesty, make hard, difficult decisions, but led us through a tough time, still prioritizing patients.  Through my many years at PDS Health, I have held roles of Healthcare Coordinator, worked my way up to Operations Manager, then promoted to Regional Trainer.  Most recently, I was promoted to Career Specialist (Recruiter) and have held this role for the past three years.  As I stepped into my 15th year, I was honored with a Tenure gift – a weekend stay, plus flight, at a PDS Health company property. This happened to fall on Valentine's Day and my wedding anniversary this year.  I am honored to work with a Team that does not hold achievements such as Tenure lightly and celebrates and honors achievements.
Last year, my Team had a phenomenal year. We hold the value that “we fail and succeed together”. The Region grew, and the new doctor hires that our Owner brought into their private practices gave cause for celebration!  My role as Career Specialist focuses on the sourcing and initial assessment – the candidate “quarterback”.  I could not have been more surprised when my team nominated me for an “Extraordinary Performance” award, specifically as Regional Support to our Owners, Regional Managers, Directors, and Partners. We have now grown to over 15,000+ employees, so being nominated for these awards is rare, and winning is even more shocking!  As a winner, PDS Health sent my sister and me to Las Vegas for another all-expense-paid trip to celebrate.  Additionally, as a winner/nominee in this category, I also received an additional all-expense-paid trip to “Pinnacle Club” in the Bahamas! My husband and I just returned from this amazing trip, and I am still in shock and awe of what a blessing and honor it was.  
         Having been in these rooms –XP Awards & Pinnacle Club - I took a step back to view the room, surrounded by top-tier talent, where the number one goal was to create healthier, happier patients. I could not be more thankful to be in a Company who regards values and ethics, patient care and satisfaction, and that truly leads vs. manages others. Recently, we changed our name from Pacific Dental Services to PDS Health, as we now have offices that are both medical and dental, fully integrated, caring for patients’ whole-body health.  It is amazing to see patients’ lives transformed and lives saved by our compassionate, amazing Providers who are educating patients on the link between the mouth and how it affects the body. 



What is the best part of working at the company?
The only good thing this company has to offer is the benefits, but given how awful this company is to work for, it doesn’t make staying worth it. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Production is their number one priority but they try so hard to cover that up by acting like everything they do is for the patients wellbeing. You are trained to “sell” treatment to patients even if they decline it. You are told to basically do whatever it takes to get them to start and not back down till you find a “solution” for the patient. If they don’t start you are questioned on why and asked how you could’ve done it differently so that they start. Dentistry car salesman vibes. Cash prices are OUTRAGEOUS and instead of making them somewhat realistic they make a “discount plan” that patients are basically forced to purchase because without it treatment would be impossible. You are told to put people on payment arrangements even if you know they can’t afford them or won’t make payments because at least they are “still getting the insurance money and thats better than nothing”. Theres a goal for EVERY SINGLE THING you do and if it isn’t met you will be blamed and “coached” on how to preform better and reach goals. Their fully staffed is understaffed which is why everyone is stressed and overwhelmed all the time but they don’t care as long as they can pay as little people as possible. No matter what position you work you will be doing the job of at least 3 people constantly. The way they push these “We Believes” feels extremely cult like and if you give any pushback to this mind set, management will start to single you out and nit pick everything you do. They will literally drive you insane to the point your only option is to leave. Working in front office you are forced to learn and understand a ton of clinical terminology for multiple reasons but its mainly to help you present treatment to patients and get them to sign off on it. They pay third parties in other countries to deal with the bulk of billing and insurance stuff probably because its cheaper labor but they would constantly make mistakes so you would have to go behind them and fix stuff DAILY. I could literally go on and on about this company but i’m sure you get the idea. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I was extremely lucky to work with a great team which made the environment significantly better than it could’ve been. Unfortunately management was terrible and made every day there suffocating.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
9 plus hours of constant go, go, go. You’re lucky if you get a full lunch or get to leave at a decent time. You can kiss a work/life balance goodbye because you definitely aren’t getting that here.

First few months they do a great job overworking you like a mule for a few cents per gallon. Mileage reimbursement doesnt always cover the cost of driving to some god for saken places; you have to deal with traffic, construction or accident related; paying almost 100$ in gas (which is about a weeks worth) and coming back with half a tank for a few dollars. They firmly believe this reconciles the horrible torture one has to go through working with them. As you can see horrible management is a common trend through out this corporation. The regional is the most incompetent person ive ever met. Many of my colleagues had children and she would become furious if they needed to pickup their kids. No matter how many times you tell her you are unavailable on a certain date she plays stupid and puts you on the schedule leading to chaos amongst the teams. Unless you are part of her circle of money makers forget you are in her mind. They work you until late night sometimes, and being a young person i committed to certain hours in the day not working all night for a few hundred bucks. Its despicable to mention  the scheduling is handled by a person no one knows (it used to be the regional but shes always on vacation) and places people anywhere even if they have teams. They dont seem to honor your hiring title and put you everywhere thats not your specialty. Working for this company will destroy your passion for dentistry; especially if you are not into selling patients treatments like a refrigerator a sells man. Once you begin to notice the abuses and you try to calmly talk to the monster regional, she will blow everything in your direction. She'll make sure to bring up things from when you first started and blame things that were out if your hands (such as emergencies or illness) saying Everything is your fault. She'll start to ignore your texts messages or emails, and request to get you scheduled less and less. Last month was only a few days, this month is empty. Everyone leaves and they hire more fresh out of school kids to take your place, its a vicious cycle. They are always desperate to keep hiring and keep everyones hours minimum if you dont have a team. They just sent out an email today asking people to bring a friend and get paid. Theyre so desperate to hire new people to replace those who dont take their b.s. Work here and youll regret your life. Stressful and degrading is not equal to the pennies they want to pay; after they tax you for everything under the sun including your bonus. Everyone hates it but cant always leave.

I worked for PDS for 8 months in Las Vegas.  I was promised at least 4 months of training since I had no dental background.  I did not get that at all but placed into the office as an Operations Manager after 1 month and accepted to bring a failing office up to par. 

No help from my Regional Manager at all, she even acknowledged to myself and on of the Dentist in the office she has ignored our office. Nov 2014 my RM gave one of the Dentist off without consulting me and forgot the other Dentist was on vacation.  This hurt our numbers since we had no production for 4 days from the one Dentist and two from the other.  The staff lost hours and the best friend of the RM who is in charge of specialty switched our Endo day that we had a full schedule telling myself and the staff the Doctor was going to be on vacation that is why we got switched.  Come to find out that was a lie and another office sent an email blast for the day that we had a full schedule asking for patients for the Doctor we were told was on vacation.

Dec I get written up for the office doing so bad in Nov, I feel the RM did this to protect her own butt so to speak since it was her fault the office did so bad due her allowing the other Dentist to take off.

I was given no support by this RM, even after my write up you think she would come to my office to show me how to correct things she claims I was doing wrong, NOPE.   One of my staff members who is the sister of this Specialty RM again who is friends with my RM was not doing her job at all for months, I expressed this to my RM in writing via emails and she would never answer back but verbally tell me I was not to write her up period.  So in this company if your truly not doing your job correct but have family or good friends you wont be fired.  Mind you all this person had to do is basic front office since what she was hired for was too overwhelming and my RM down graded her position to a receptionist and she still was not doing everything required.

I read so many negative reviews about this office and wish I took the other job I was offered at the same time I was offered this one.  I took this job to expend my knowledge and saw opportunity to grow.  But after my short time with PDS I saw nothing but unorganized management and staff who where not trained properly either but expected by my RM to improve our production.

I worked on the children's side of the office and found the environment supportive and lively.  Each specialty, however, has it's own clique that seems to lead to a bit more gossip and passive aggressiveness than I would prefer.  The waiting room is busy, loud, and at most times, distracting.  You are required to answer phones, check in patients, have them sign forms, bring back charts, process payments, coordinate fees, check out patients, and make appointments...all while trying to manage accounts, eligibility, calling insurances.  

It's a lot of work, and can be very difficult at times.  My training was alright but I was told early on that I would not fully understand the job for months (which caused a lot of anxiety for myself, and probably my coworkers).  I trained for 8 weeks at another office before working in my office.  I do not believe that I was prepared, but I did have the support of my office manager and front office coworkers.  Many questions that I had were met with advice to reach out to other offices for support; something that I was not 100% comfortable doing as a new hire.  The did offer training classes at their regional support center in Rancho Cordova.  All in all, I felt very insecure in my position for over a year.

The adult side was very disconnected from the kids side in terms of support and I failed to ever feel comfortable being on that side over the course of my time with the company.  My training office was not like this at all, so I am assuming it was this specific office's culture.

The doctors are supportive and try to help in any way that they can.  This can be a positive and negative thing as changes were made constantly to help fix problems, but problems would tend to remain masked with no true solution.  I appreciated all of their help, but still struggled for a bit.

Once I understood my role, I loved my job.  I was distracted, stressed, and exhausted, but I loved working there; even the 1 Saturday a month that I was required to work.  I would recommend this job to anyone, as the environment is fun and the team is very close.  You will eventually understand your job and will find great pleasure and satisfaction once you get there.  The doctors are supportive and treat their team like family.  There is no lack of genuine care and support.

I've worked for this company for some time now and while I can't lie and say everything is perfect, I will say that most of the reviews here are pretty harsh compared to what I've seen and been a part of, both in the National Support office as well as working in a couple of the PDS affiliated offices.

First of all I will say this can be a fast-paced enviornment. The offices work hard to keep the schedules full and everyone working full time, but the emphasis was always on the patient's well being. I've worked in private practices before and there were a lot of days where it was dead or there were giant holes in the doctor's schedule and we stood around or cleaned things over and over. While working in the PDS office, we hustled, but the days flew by and I slept well at night knowing that I had a full time job with job security.

I loved the team that I got to work with and our manager was great about trying to send us to courses to improve our skills (some of them offered free of charge by PDS). After starting in a local office I worked my way up through a couple of positions until I landed my current position at National Support. There's no way I would have had that kind of opportunity if I had stayed at the private office I was in before. I've had countless experiences with patients that have been so greatful to our office for helping them or patients that have told me their entire perception of the dentist has been changed because of visits to our office. And thanks to PDS I've had the opportunity to help give back to communities by building playgrounds and homes and improve schools for those not as fortunate as I am while many dentists worked alongside us providing hours of free dentistry to those communities, some of who could never have afforded the treatment that they received FOR FREE!

The reviews I've read here are just not an accurate picture of everyone's experience working at PDS. I work with a lot of people who share my experiences and perception of this company. I just wish more people of them would post reviews.

PDS is not perfect, but its far from the evil money-hungry corporate devil some are saying it is. I can't speak for everyone else's experience, but for me I've never been happier coming to work everyday!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Dental assistant 6580 salaries reported	$23.88 per hour
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Dentist 1390 salaries reported	$278,341 per year
Associate dentist 56 salaries reported	$275,000 per year

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