Pacific Dental Services Employee Reviews about "dentists"

Pros

Volunteer Time. It’s one day where you can make difference.

Cons

There isn’t a good work life balance unfortunately for most teams at the National Support Center. People are expected to be reading their emails until they go to sleep and some people are responding when you should be asleep. The place often feels like it’s on fire due to poor planning. The poor planning leads to insane and unrealistic deadlines so there goes your weekend. Job descriptions can be misleading or kept intentionally vague so you can basically be forced to take on all types of responsibilities. Managers aren’t trained to be managers so you likely won’t have someone who really knows how to mentor and grow your career. A lot of good people ended up leaving upon massive layoffs due to the pandemic. There aren’t really promotion opportunities, the company tends to hire from the outside rather than promote from within. HR is also pretty worthless and very short staffed so forget turning to them if you have some kind of issue. There is a lot of turnover in some teams at NSC because HR doesn’t fix the issues with the managers who don’t know how to supervise. It’s the same bad managers who stay for years and years. Also many in upper management are resistant to change. The company culture is also very old school, they have a dress code and want people in every day (pre-pandemic). They tried to make the office modern by turning it into an open area, but the timing is bad with the pandemic. Some people are still going in despite the pandemic, but that seems to be based on the particular team culture. That’s something to ask about if you have someone elderly at home or have a condition. The parking also runs out (pre pandemic anyway). Those other older reviews are very true about that and it’s a long walk if you aren’t parked by 9am. I joined this company initially because of the Christian values the organization claims to have, but these values are rarely mentioned except during your initial onboarding. There is a lot of throwing people to the wolves at this company unfortunately and people blaming others instead of taking responsibility. The founding principles seem very far away and a relic of a faraway time. Unless you are interested in health care or the dental industry, the work isn’t very interesting. Few people have heard of the company. It used to be a stable company, but the pandemic has hurt the business as fewer people are going to the dentist. Thousands were laid off due to the pandemic. The benefits aren’t very good. You have to use one of their dentists and you’re basically forced to pay for PPO medical insurance. There is also not enough time off, you are given the minimum holidays that I believe the federal government requires. The vacation day package is also pretty weak compared to other companies in the area. In general, this is a pretty weak employer and I recommend trying to find another one that has a more solid business and better benefits. The founder has lost touch with his company’s core values.

Pros

I unfortunately can't think of any positives about working for this company except you are given a paycheck. Even that is only some what of a pro because the pay is low in comparison to other companies in the area.

Cons

There is no work life balance with the company. You will be given a huge workload and no time to unwind from it. There are only 6 paid holidays and not enough time off. They only give government required holidays such as 4th of July, Christmas and Thanksgiving. You don't get MLK, President's Day, Day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, etc because "employees need to be around at all times to support the offices." There are vacation days, but these are limited, especially limited if you are a non-exempt employee. This company claims to follow Christian values, but how they treat their employees isn't how Christ would teach employees. This to me is the most disappointing thing about this company as I am a Christian and thought I would be around others who followed Christ's values. Instead it feels like I'm in hell. If you ask some about Christ's values they list as company values, they look at you like you are crazy. After laying off thousands, the attitude of those left were to live in fear of another layoff and then managers adopted an attitude of be thankful you have a job during the pandemic a.k.a let's treat you badly because we can. When you join, they will try to sell you on how you will make such a huge impact for dentists and the pay is lower to support the office development. After you join, you discover the company's business model is built on selling dental services people don't need such as crowns. I don't think Christ would be thrilled with them selling services people don't truly need. Before COVID, the office environment had some major downsides. The parking lot fills up and then you're stuck parking at a hotel and walking half a mile to the office. The office also requires a dress code and professional attire at all times. You are allowed to wear jeans on Fridays, but ONLY if you wear a Pacific Dental Services T-shirt.

Pros

Great front desk folks, great dental assistants, awesome office manager, all working under bad circumstances.

Cons

Understaffed, overworked, underpaid, underappreciated. I can't speak for every PDS office, but the one that I worked at (Orchard Dental) was perhaps the worst dental office I've worked at in my time as a dental assistant. The fact that my office was able to operate the way it operates makes me have little faith in the company as a whole. This company stands behind the Bible in their mission statement, but it practices like something from Hell. As a dental assistant for PDS, you'll spend your days running around trying to keep set up/break down rooms, seat patients, take x rays, apply restorations, miss lunch, and APOLOGIZE to patients when their treatment is taking two hours longer than promised as a result of the office being overbooked and the dentists offering more same day treatment than the staff/the equipment can handle. Absolutely disgusting.

Pros

Executive team is caring and communicative

Cons

The regional leadership is awful. They don’t lead they bark orders and forget they are in healthcare . Dentists doing work that doesn’t need to be done for a buck.

Pros

PDS offers benefits. The quality of dentistry provided varies widely depending on the dentist.

Cons

They occasionally realize that they are bleeding out staff and try to start a new initiative for staff retention. But the reality is that employees and contracting doctors don't feel like the corporation really cares about them. Employees are numbers--a means to profit. The company is actually starting a new push to force all employees, hygienists, doctors, everyone to pay the company for work they do on their own family. A hygienist will have to pay the company when she cleans her own child's teeth. A dentist has to pay the company when she performs an exam on her own son.

Pros

Work Experience, Dentist, Modern Equipment, Locations

Cons

Profit before patients care or employee welfare!!

Pros

PDS participates in many charitable contributions

Cons

It honestly comes down to upper Management. May Regional Managers are hired from outside companies and have no knowledge of dentistry. Couple this with being an Operations Manager with no dental background and it's a mess. They hire those without dental experience which is a plus, but expect them to run million dollar practices with little training. If the RM is not supportive good luck. The hours expected to work are ridiculous and not conducive to a healthy family life. There is so much turnover in management and associate dentists and false promises from the beginning. Many times Operations Managers with little experience are put into an office and forced to "sink or swim". While they also offer training it is almost impossible to attend because there is no one to fill in for you in office.