dental hygienist

dental assistant

dental receptionist

dentist

medical receptionist

Willamette Dental

Advise: good place to start for a new graduate, especially those without GPR/AEGD experience.

Location: depending on locations/regions, compensation will be adjusted. Comment: fair

Staff: friendly working envioronment. No competitions between and within staff groups. People will try hard and help you. Comment: good

Work flow: busy, average of 25-30 patients give or take. No pay for overworking.

Compensation: compensation based on patient satisfaction and time. Your pay is mostly dependent on how happy your patients are. You can’t really control your compensation as much because you don’t know what kind of patients there are.  Extra day is compensated with a different pay system. Is heavily based on time due to accumulation of patient pool. It means better reviews + more people = good pay. Comment: low to fair

Career advancement: pretty much no advancement. Specialty work is encouraged, but will need to go through certain processes, including training/internal CEs and proving yourself with some cases. I don’t see a point of this because every case is different. It’s much better having an experienced mentor than doing unfamiliar work alone. Without proper equipment, you pretty much can’t do much of specialty work. Comment: poor

Summary: people are friendly and helpful because no competitions. Work flow is manageable, you can control your own schedule to a certain extent. Autonomy is poor to fair. There will always someone above you telling you what you should do, but it’s a corporate. Referral is based on how a “more experienced” dentist “feels” than “objectively understands.”

Recommendation: great place for new grads especially those without GPR or with little experience from GPR. Great for those who want easy and no surprise work and slowly build up their income.

Opinion: cash is everything to me. For the amount of work and time you put in, it’s not worth working for the money you get paid. There are other offers that provide same busy schedules/same poor work ethics/same peer pressure environment with higher compensation. Benefits are pretty much all the same in corporates.

From what I was able to gather, work place is chaotic with minimum level compensation and routine dental assistant travel based on other practice needs. 
As an extern, achievements that are expected of individuals should be properly communicated to all staff. When interviewing, I would have not accepted this offer had I known the environmental circumstances. Staff was hot headed, highly critical and lacked proper training in understanding developmental process that externs should properly receive. Staff must be prepared and in the know of extern arriving date. Dentist and assistant routinely took leaves of absence during externship, which made time management nontransparent to extern. Because of this failed communication, extern time was rocky and unwilling to consider employment with company due to company culture bias, lack of newest level dental technology and procedure based workings. 
Had extern site been culturally up to date, morally responsible, less critical, extern dental assistant would have considered employment with Willamette Dental Group. 
One major unfortunate limitation was the lack of understanding that externs come in with a general understanding of how to handle x-rays, sterilization, tray set ups and so on. Had they understood this and not been overly critical, time would not have been wasted on "teachings." I regret choosing Northgate Willamette Dental Groups as a site for my externship. 
Overall, Oral Health Care Professionals should be responsible, communicative, understand global companionship and be open to change. In an increasingly growing and changing field, members of any Oral Health Care Environment should not be fixed, critical, or stubborn in nature.

Willamette has great ideas and aspirations for greatness. The business model makes so much sense you could wonder why other healthcare providers don't adopt it. The company is focused on being on the cutting edge of evidence based dentistry and being innovators of managed care. The problems lie with the fact that sr. Management and the Administrative offices start all these great initiatives and projects simultaneously expecting the branch offices who run very busy schedules to keep up, run the projects and still keep up with everything else. Dumping more and more and more on Managers and clinical staff. There is an abundance of plans with good intentions but no plans for sustainability and support. The owner of the company tends to surround himself with "yes men" which in my opinion hinders true growth of the company and achieving what I know it could. 

As a Practice Manager I support much of what they are trying to do but when they changed the job description and responsibilities a couple of years ago effectively doubling our scope and consistently ask more without increasing pay parameters it weighs on you heavily. They have also tripled the load on Directors of Operations in recent years which provides Practice Managers very little support even as you are required to attain approval on almost everything. 

I love the staff I manage and the variety of things I get to do every day. My office is a wonderful, supportive environment, however, beyond our walls it's very different. 

The company has solid benefits. I would say great but our dental plan isn't as good as some of our patients' which seems odd since we provide the service. 

Company isn't the worst I've ever worked with and like I said, they have good intentions but something is... broken or disconnected.

I was sad to have to leave after so many years but I loved every moment of it good or bad. Everywhere will have its turnover and problems but if you are truly a hard worker and love what you do, you'll find yourself working beside the best of people. The bad ones are usually the ones that turn over which is a good thing! The other turnover is only because people have moved somewhere else within the company. You are given opportunities to float within different offices to find your best match and work with a wide range of doctors. Hours are guaranteed whether patients show or not. Doctors are not paid on commission so no pushy treatment. You do want to promote products but it's not pushed. Benefits are reasonable with 401k. This company is progressive so be ready to learn new techniques and philosophy's as they change. The only real complaint I have would be that their equipment fails often and gets band-aid fixes which can put a strain on the job sometimes. Other than that, try it out and make your own opinion about the company. Don't listen to bad reviews because usually it's an isolated situation or patients misunderstanding their benefits. We get a lot of people coming from private practice wanting the same fast or unnecessary treatment. Private is different from Managed. We see thousands of people and have protocols to certain treatment plans that can take time but it's so we can see more people, so you may see a team of docs to complete your treatment. Private limits the amount of patients they want to see which gets your treatment done faster and utilizing the most of your insurance to get paid with some unnecessary treatment. Be prepared to explain this to patients. I've been there for 10 years and you just get used to it. Overall your gonna run into problems everywhere you go but you get through it and I loved my time there. Shout out Mill Plain!!! Love ya Miss ya!

I can only speak to my experience at the administrative headquarters.
•	Many departments appear to operate with lean staffing, and administrative support is limited. This contributes to delays and increased oversight, with existing teams expected to take on expanded responsibilities beyond their core functions.
•	Internal systems and workflows differ significantly from more conventional environments. This creates a steep learning curve and can make it difficult even for seasoned professionals to get up to speed efficiently.
•	Cross-department collaboration on process improvement is limited. Efforts to streamline workflows are often met with resistance, which can reinforce inefficiencies and place additional strain on already stretched teams.
•	Support for non-provider staff is minimal. Perks and recognition are limited, and the overall approach to employee appreciation is modest compared to similar organizations.
•	The number of paid holidays is lower than what is typical for comparable roles.
•	I observed an instance of unprofessional communication from a member of leadership toward staff in a public workspace, which raised concerns about workplace culture.
•	This environment may be a good fit for someone who is comfortable working in a fast-paced, reactive setting, can operate independently with limited structure, and is adaptable to evolving processes.

I worked for several years, at a small office in a small town, one of many owned by the company.  Absolutely loved my co-workers and patients.  My local practice manager was so kind and fair.   BUT, corporate management will decide to make changes that severely affect us little people without a second thought.  I saw several people in the company get fired without reason, including my wonderful practice manager.  They are very sneaky about the way they do things.  I believe they “clean house” by firing people who have reached the salary cap, or firing someone who has been diagnosed with a medical condition, so they won’t have to allow them time off and use of the short term disability insurance.  They will make up a bogus excuse to fire someone, rather than just downsizing or laying off, so they don’t have to provide severance pay.  This is typical of some large corporations....all about the money and no compassion for, or personal involvement with  the employees that work so hard for them.  I was terminated “due to poor quality of work” by someone who had only met me once and had never worked a single day with me.  This was so untrue, as I had continuously met all strategic goals set forth by the company, scored in the top 8% on patient satisfaction surveys, and was even awarded by the company a few months prior, for being the top small office.  Because I was meeting all of the goals, I was receiving all of the incentive bonuses and making too much money.  It really hurt my feelings to say I wasn’t providing satisfactory patient care, it would have been kinder and more compassionate to simply say they couldn’t keep me employed, or even allowing me the option of a pay cut.  I will say that several employees quit, and several patients left the practice when they heard I wasn’t going to be there anymore.

The pay and the benefits are great, but that's about it. The further you get from corporate, the more poorly the offices are run. This leads to an insane amount of gossip, nepotism, and favoritism. Problems are rarely handled in a professional manner, and their HR doesn't take control of situations. I have found that much of upper management in this organization is lazy. They relay too much on the Office Managers of an office to control the work environment, but they do not give them enough training and/or support to really control an office. Too much stress is given to people lower of rank without proper compensation. This leads to stress, and an overall unhappy work environment. 

If you are coming into this organization as upper management, you will be treated great. However; anyone below an Office Manager is rarely treated with respect. Pay attention to reviews on career websites, anyone below a management position often gives this organization an average or below average review. 

The lack of organization of this company is their worst quality. Everything from their intranet, to their training's, to the way you clock in and out is a disaster. The system used to do much of the work is constantly failing, and IT is a joke. Much of the organization seems to be run by people who have no idea about the expansion of technology. This makes it difficult for anyone with a basic grasp of computers skills to work well with such a disorganized company. 

Millennials, and beyond, stay clear! It's an old fashioned company, not ready for change.

Typical day at work involves a front office that is told to jam pack the schedule, assistants who do as little as possible and do it poorly, hygienists who are lazy, and dentists that are the only ones incentivized to see a bunch of patients (read: paid more for seeing more patients). I learned that the people there are two-faced. The workplace culture is fake, just like the advertised desire to be the "Employer of Choice." The hardest part of my job was showing up everyday. The most enjoyable part of the job was leaving at the end of the day AND having three days off. The scrubs are terrible. The instruments are OLD, never replaced, and never sharpened (when could you sharpen? A patient isn't a "no-show" until their appointment time has completely gone, so you're sitting there waiting the entire time!). All the cavitron tips are old and should be replaced. Corporate places like this can offer decent compensation packages because of volume discounts they receive (but then the coverage isn't good). The same way they undercut prices by only seeing patients once a year for cleanings. They talk about practicing "Preventive Dentistry," but what that really means is that they will PREVENT you from being seen by not having ANY way for you to contact the office directly to schedule an appointment. Patients complained about this ALL THE TIME. Go ahead, try to find a phone number that goes directly to a clinic. I'm STILL angry that I wasted any of my professional life there. That's why I'm writing this to warn others. 

For as much as management tries to preach that they are innovative, they shun anyone who stands out or make suggestions for improvement. I've never met an executive team who had so much history and drama with one another... that and it's still pretty much family run and operated no matter how big they've grown.  

Which would be fine except that the family doesn't get along with each other... fights in front of you, and aren't nice people.

The rules and expectations are terribly unclear. When you ask for clarification, you are hand held and managed like a child.

Their dental offices are terribly run down, and the pressure as a Dentist to keep up with generating the revenue requirements is enormously high. Dentists quit regularly and are met with a "That's too bad... he/she seemed so talented" approach.

In general, people are stressed, unseen, unappreciated and under payed. They also quit regularly, or if you are lucky, called into HR abruptly and escorted out of the building. That last part happens a lot, but they don't tell you that in the interview...

The administrative team was incredibly competitive to work with - catty to anyone who hadn't been with the company for a long time. Dysfunctional - my boss would regularly start crying to her boss about how much she had to do and how no one was helping her... 

I worked for this company less than 6 months before I realized that their model and practices go against anything I was taught, and any ethical decisions a decent provider naturally follows. They utilize a charting system that penalizes provider for planning the dentistry their patients need, because providing dental treatment that’s standard of care is a cost to them. It’s an HMO insurance selling company and their profit comes from insurance contracts; the hope is that they provide the least treatment possible as to cut any cost. In practice that means you have to explain to the patients why you can’t do a crown when they need one, why you can’t refer them for extraction of wisdoms (when they need it), and - at best - you provide subpar care because that’s what the company encourages and allows. 

Their salary is also overinflated, and based on patient reviews (which are hard to keep high if you’re seeing 30-40 patients a day), “access” (how many patients you’re assigned to and seeing - the more you see , the higher your pay theoretically), and reduced if you preform dentistry that’s beyond simple direct restorations. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Dental hygienist 35 salaries reported	$52.00 per hour
Dental assistant 5 salaries reported	$31.60 per hour
Dental receptionist 16 salaries reported	$20.13 per hour
Dentist 8 salaries reported	$173,125 per year
Medical receptionist 2 salaries reported	$18.91 per hour

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