Willamette Dental Group

I was told I needed a crown and had the crown fitted. There was no pain at all before the crown procedure was started. After the crown was fitted I started having tremendous pain, most likely a root canal. The problem with Willamette is that they could not even schedule me for a consult with the orthodontist for over three weeks, despite the chronic pain. This is completely unacceptable. I will be moving onto a new provider as soon as the open enrollment season comes around.
If you want to wait a month for emergency dental procedures then Willamette is for you. Otherwise, just go somewhere else.

I had such a positive experience at the Willamette Dental on Dexter. I was able to make an appointment for a cleaning/​exam the next day! Everyone there was super friendly and helpful, and the dentist took plenty of time to answer all my questions. These folks are pros, and they’re awesome… highly recommended.

Short version: Willamette is amazing, very solid, and one of the best dentists I’ve ever had.
Long version: I went to Willamette — Seattle for a few years. Everything was solid. The hygienists were great, the dentists were great. No slippery business where you wonder if you’re being overtreated. No cosmetic/​whitening upselling, no trying to get you to buy into the latest fad or treatment. No painful cleanings. No surprise costs. In other words, none of the pitfalls I’ve seen happen to friends and to my fiancée. Just good, old-​fashioned, solid dentistry. They’re the real deal. My new job doesn’t offer Willamette, and it’s a big loss for me.
I would also add that the multi-​office group practice thing they have going on is really advantageous for patients. Scheduling, requesting records, and all sorts of other logistics are really fast and seamless because they have more infrastructure (and systems, and resources) beyond the three people you see when you walk into an office. It helps, and you feel it as a patient.

I had been with Willamette dental for the past 5 years or so. I have had a full implant, a couple of root canals and many, many cleanings. I have never had anything but good experiences at Willamette. The Lynnwood office is my main office. I have been to the Northgate Specialty office many times, and also to the Seattle office. I have yet to meet anyone at Willamette that was not very pleasant and very helpful. My insurance just changed and I now have to use Bright Now Dental as my DMO. After reading the reviews for Bright Now Dental, I am even more convinced of how good I had it at Willamette Dental. I have a tooth that did not respond to a root and may need to have the gum cut open to fix it. I am so comfortable with everyone at Willamette Dental who has ever worked on my teeth that I am considering having Willamette do the work on this tooth and paying for it 100% out of pocket. Anyway, just wanted to get down how much I appreciate the awesome work over the past 5 years. Next year, I will definitely be paying for the higher price plan so that I can get back to Willamette!

Went in for an exam and cleaning. Hands down one of the best Dentist visits in my life. Everyone was friendly, and the Hygienist was down right awesome — super funny, informative, and really easy to talk to.
I rarely leave reviews but wanted to after such a great experience. Five stars.

I have read the reviews of unhappy patients and am sorry about their experience. I have nothing but good things to say about my experience with the staff at the Puyallup office. They are kind, helpful and always inform me of the cost of treatment. They always greet me with a smile and remember me. Yes the waiting room is plain and not very inviting but I’m not there to sit in a luxurious waiting room. I’ve not had to wait longer than 10 minutes. I am very anxious about having dental work because of a horrible pediatric dentist but my dentist understands and is very gentle. I had zinging pain with cold and was given an appointment very quickly. The dentist confirmed that it was an abscessed nerve and was ready to do a root canal right away. I couldn’t because I have to take a very large dose of antibiotics prior to dental work. He put me on a lower dose of antibiotics and pain medication and I was given another appt within a few days. I can’t say enough good things about my dentist. The only negative thing is that the first visit I felt pressured to buy their products for dental care. Since then there has been no pressure though. Overall I am very satisfied with my experience with Willamette.

Awesome preventative dental care! Everyone was super nice and friendly, and the dentist throughly explained why I’ve been having sensitive teeth and suggested a treatment plan that didn’t involve drilling. LOVE THIS DENTIST!

Willamette Dental came with our health insurance plan at work. The plan is really, really great and most services are covered almost in full. This is the closest location to me, so I made an appointment finally. I’m not a fan of the dentist and hadn’t been in several years because I hate going. The Dr. is very nice, as well as his staff. They are gentle, which is important to me. The Dr. had a consultation for a few minutes to talk about what I did or didn’t like about the dentist.
After my exam and cleaning they went over treatment options for long term. I’m happy to report I was cavity free! They suggested a couple of sealants on a few teeth (covered! yay!) and a high fluoride toothpaste. The staff was moderately pushy about electric toothbrushes, but maybe I’m the last person on the planet to have a manual brush.
They were a little behind schedule, even though I was early and there weren’t any other patients in the waiting room.
I am really impressed with my experience and am much less anxious about any future visits for cleanings.

Needed a new dentist after moving here. The staff was really nice and the office is was clean. Scheduling an appointment was easy for the most part and only had to wait a week for a time that worked with, well, work. They took care of my insurance without a hassle. There is a little bit of trying to upsell you stuff so no 5 Stars but they don’t do it very hard. But I will be going back.

You have to think of Willamette as a maintenance plan for dental care. You cannot buy a Cadillac with a Chevy budget. I like this plan for a few reasons. It is cheaper and you get more services covered when selecting this plan over WDS, at least where I work (State of Washington).
The place is very clean and organized. Who cares if you call Portland to make an appointment?! At least my appointment occurs when they say it does. I have never had a problem with that. I go to the Northgate clinic.
The staff is friendly and professional. When I had a problem with an implant not being exactly fitted (not by Willamette) they did not hesitate to send me to the specialty clinic and a doctor there took care of it and had me come back for a follow up. I do not feel neglected one bit.
Best of all, they are not constantly trying to up-​sell you a bunch of crap you do not need like many dentists these days. They only do what is necessary for your dental health, not their own personal financial health. I like that! This is capitation insurance. They are paid by the patient and adding in more services does not make them more money.
If your mouth is a mess and you need your dentist to be a shrink in addition to being a dentist, sure OK, go elsewhere. If you want to pay less for your dental care and actually get more things covered but have to stay within a few limits of a maintenance program, then Willamette will work just fine for you.

OK, just for those that wondered if what I experienced the first time was true about Willamette Dental in Richland, here’s the scoop.
I just had my third visit yesterday and if there were more than 5 stars I would have given the maximum available to give.
Now I’m no easy case and yet each and every member of Willamette’s staff treats me with a friendly professional approach while the assistants are the best I have ever been around. They know their job and that expertise allows them to work WITH you not ON you if you know what I mean… Georgia you are the bomb!
Dr. Ballard is a true professional and puts you at ease. His approach is not stuffy nor is it condescending or judgmental. He is there to help and you know that you are in good hands.
During my visit I had a question about a problem tooth that I had had for years. In some dental offices that question would have been met with a «you’ll have to make another appointment» but Dr. Ballard did not hesitate and changed what he was doing to address my question and explore some options for me.
Come on you’re saying this is a dental office. I can’t say I have ever wanted to go to the dentist before and I’m not saying I am going to spend my free time there but what I can say is this; if you are looking for excellent care, good treatment, a level of expertise that will put you at ease with your dental needs, and staff that do not make you feel like you are just an insurance number, this is the place for you.

I’m so surprised the reviews are so lame for Willamette Dental in Seattle. I’ve been a client of Willamette’s for 11 years: the first several years in Tri-​Cities and one year in Bellingham, then the last couple years in Seattle.
I always had poor experiences in Tri-​Cities and Bellingham, but I can honestly say I always get a superior experience from both the dental assistant (Francie most recently) and the dentist. The dentist that typically helps me is Dr. Johnson, and she is amazing. She’s always so nice and courteous and pleasant to work with.
Willamette promotes preventative dentistry, aka not drilling into your mouth unless absolutely necessary. Their tactics are honest, and here in Seattle they’re wickedly on point. The front desk attendant was courteous and helpful, and my wait time (granted I had a 7am appointment on a Saturday) was minimal.
While I wouldn’t recommend Willamette Dental in Tri-​Cities or Bellingham, I strongly recommend the Seattle branch on Dexter. They have a complimentary parking lot next to the building on Dexter, so don’t worry about having to pay for parking.
My partner has had one visit here so far, and he had another dentist, Dr. Wong I believe, and he wasn’t as enthused with his service. I suggested he schedule with Dr. Johnson.

Pros:
–I do have to say that the hygienist was very friendly and easy to talk to.
–The cleaning itself was not painful, like other Unilocalers have mentioned.
Cons:
–This place is not great — not even good. It’s not comfortable or pleasant, not even slightly calming.
–The receptionist barely seemed awake. Not sure she knew where she was.
–It felt like a warehouse, or someplace that you definitely would not go for health purposes, ever.
–You will definitely spend more money than you expect to. The mute receptionist will make sure of it.
Basically, avoid this place. If you’re like me and you were waiting for your insurance to kick in at work, avoid this place. If your tooth hurts or you just need a cleaning, avoid this place.

Things seem to have changed a lot since the previous reviews. My new dental insurance is through Willamette and the Dexter office was the only one that could get me in with my limited schedule. After reading these reviews I expected the worst but they were actually really great.
The lobby is modern and clean. There are some older looking decorations on the walls, but they don’t detract from the overall look. The treatment areas were modern with modern instruments.
Everyone from the front desk to the dental assistants were patient and very kind, and this comes from someone with extreme dental anxiety. The dentist explained everything as he was doing it, which put me at ease. After my extraction the dentist was able to give me pain medication to take home at the office so I didn’t have to make another stop in my condition.
I wish they could have got me in more quickly and I wish they had more Saturday availability, but I am very pleased overall.

Short version: This place is horrendous
Long version: I have had the absolutely worst dental experiences of my life all at Willamette. (1) I had to wait months to get an appointment for a filling. I was brought back, numbed up and then the dentist apologized because I had already had the filling and they forgot to add it to my chart (yes, honestly). (2) They told me that getting your teeth cleaned every six months was some sort of hype started by the toothpaste industry decades ago. So I only needed annual cleanings. (3) After waiting months for an appointment to see the Periodontist, the time finally came for my appointment. I was waiting in the lobby and the girl called me back to see the doctor. The doctor comes in and asks why I was there. He told me he did general surgery and didn’t know why they would make an appointment to see him. To his credit he reviewed my charts, called my referring dentist and examined me. He was thorough and very apologetic for the confusion. I stopped by the front desk to check with the receptionist to see if I had a copay on my way out. At that point she realized that my chart was put into the wrong slot, so I was taken back to the general surgeon and not the periodontist. By the time they figured out what was going on the periodontist assumed I was a no show and started with his next appointment. He also didn’t have time to do the scaling at that point, and I had to reschedule!!! (4) Last but not least, when I finally went back he performed the scaling on the wrong tooth! I understand people make mistakes, sometimes there are mishaps even at the best dental clinics. But this place is horrendous. The reason it is a cheaper plan to go with is that it takes months to get an appointment, they will do as little as possible and provide horrible service in hopes that you won’t even want to go back. and that ladies and gentlemen is how they make a profit.

The dental assistant who cleaned my teeth is the only reason this place can get three-​stars. She was friendly, she was very knowledgeable, and she seemed to really enjoy her job. I cannot say the same for the actually dentist because she came in and out in a matter of seconds. In fact, I can’t even remember the color of her hair! It wasn’t that she was unkind, just distant.
I didn’t have any cavities so I didn’t have very much poking done. However, the time the assistant spent in my mouth was average — not painful but certainly not comfortable.
The waiting room was like a storage locker for waiting room chairs from the early 90’s. It was so full it was almost difficult to navigate around them. The actual dental chair area where my teeth were cleaned seemed a bit more modernized and clean enough. The entire building seemed to be poorly lit and I am curious to know what effect that may have on the inspection of teeth.
I’ll keep going back because it’s the cheapest option of my dental plans.

Disclaimer: I have no cavities and have always really liked getting my teeth cleaned.
Like some others, I’m puzzled by the low rating Willamette has received. I recently began paying out of pocket for health care coverage through Regence Blue Shield. Seeing that the Willamette plan was the only dental plan jointly offered and reading previous reviews on Unilocal,I almost decided to opt out and pay to continue seeing my private dentist, whom I really liked. Luckily, I decided to at least give this a shot.
Being routed to a call center to take an appointment is definitely strange. But on the other hand it frees up receptionists to be more available to patients physically in the office (first time I’ve heard «sorry, we’re about five minutes off schedule, can I get you some water or anything?»)
I was disappointed to learn that intake appointments don’t generally entail a cleaning. Until I realized how thorough of a job they do reconstructing prior dental history. They do regular x-​rays and panogram x-​rays but then they also take the time to go through each patient’s mouth and see what’s in there. Because that went fairly quickly for me, they also did a great cleaning.
My mouth is fairly boring, but I heard two dental hygienists consulting each other to determine the composition and age of each filling in a fellow patient’s mouth. My hygienist took the time to explain exactly what she was looking for. She documented the state of my gum and enamel for every tooth for future monitoring. This makes a ton of sense to me – they now have a nice baseline to compare against next time I come in. She showed me how I was missing a couple of teeth when brushing and explained why my gum seemed a little damaged in some spots. It sounds crazy, but I now feel more involved in my brushing since I’ve been coached on what to look out for. No other dentist has done that before.
All in all, I was there for an hour and fifteen minutes and shelled out a grand total of $ 65. That’s about half the cost of a cleaning at a private dentist and I got a bunch of x-​rays on top of that. As I was leaving, they even had me sign a sheet describing what they’d done, what my risks were for dental problems, when they were expecting to see me next and what they were expecting me to follow up on. I was also told that I could get an appointment within 12 hours for any emergency before my next scheduled appointment.
If you’re looking for routine preventative care, I feel very confident in recommending Willamette.
I also think there are a lot of interesting business management lessons to learn from them, but that’s a whole different story!

I already reviewed this place once, but thought I would update my progress. The «dentist» says I need a root canal, but they are all booked up 3 months out and can’t even schedule an appointment yet. So the answer is that I just have to deal with pain for the foreseeable future. Yea!
In the meantime, I scheduled an appointment to get my teeth cleaned, and when I showed up I was surprised to find out that they had moved my appointment without telling me to a time that I could not make. They were nice enough to offer a new appointment 10 weeks away instead. When I complained, I was told «I don’t work in this office, so I don’t know what happened,» which is probably the laziest excuse in customer service.
Again, stay far, FAR, away from this place. Like anonymous p, I wish there was an option for negative stars.

I think I should send my insurance company a bill for the Bloody Mary’s I am sitting at B&O drinking, since it is their fault this is all I can eat. Sure, I totally understand that it makes business sense to hook up with a certain dental company — but perhaps it won’t once they realize they’re turning normal drinkers into full blown alcoholics.
About 3 hours ago I had the roughest cleaning I’ve ever had. Just a cleaning — no cavities, no nothing. Just a fricking cleaning. I can’t eat except for soup and the aforementioned Bloody Mary’s, and I woke up at 7am to be tortured. My gums are purple and my husband says they look «roughed up». My mouth got gang-​banged by a white haired lady with a metal pick.
The thought has occurred to me that I am getting an early preview into my life as a senior citizen when all I can eat is soup… except I’m only 26. Thus I think I will order another Bloody Mary and be that drunk senior who does water aerobics in a retirement center in Florida.

Worst dental office ever. I had to join Unilocal just to post this. I’ve been a patient since 2002 and between the ridiculous waiting time between appointments and the incompetence of the staff (they lost the bridge that took three hours in the chair to mold), I have YET to complete my original and relatively modest treatment plan. After six freakin’ years.
This morning a toothache that started over the long weekend was raging, so I called to see if I could get an emergency appointment. The scheduler said the earliest in the local office would be next Monday, but the Lynnwood office could get me in tomorrow. So I’ve got to drive 30 miles for a dental appointment.
I asked her, if the dental appointments are so hard to get, what are patients supposed to do when they’re in a lot of pain? She said, «We advise them to take Ibuprophen.»
Seriously.
People worry that universal health care will lead to this kind of service. I have news for y’all: we’re getting this kind of service anyway! I’d advise anyone who has a choice between Willamette and a more expensive alternative to take the other. You’ll save in the long run.