Why I Quit My Shady Dental Office

I recently quit a private dental office after about a year, and I have a LOT to say about why I left. The dentist was starting to go under, and honestly, I jumped ship because I became embarrassed to represent the business. I also want to put this out there because I think dentists/business owners need to understand why they can’t keep a consistent staff when employees are constantly dealing with this kind of shit.

I’ve been in dentistry for five years, worked for multiple doctors and practices, and understand that dentistry is a business. I know patients, insurance, and overhead can be complicated. This was a one-doctor private practice purchased from a retired dentist after COVID: one dentist, one full-time hygienist, one to two assistants, a remote office manager, a remote receptionist in another country, and me as the only in-person receptionist.

There were no benefits besides free dental work. No PTO, paid holidays, health insurance, bonuses, or overtime. I worked Monday to Friday, generally 28–40 hours depending on the schedule, and we were repeatedly asked to work Saturday advertising events.

Here are some of the things I dealt with:

• I was expected to collect large balances from patients even though our remote office manager handled billing and A/R, and I often couldn’t explain to patients why they owed what they owed.

• If a patient had a credit on their account, I was told not to mention it and to have the office manager “double check” it. Somehow, the credit would disappear and not be correct. I’ve worked for offices that constantly sent out refund checks, so for this office to not even do one single refund.. it was extremely concerning.

• I was expected to negotiate lower rates with vendors, the electric company, credit card companies, and municipal companies, while patients trying to negotiate their own costs were treated very differently.

• I was literally spoken to for being “too patient-focused.” I was told I cared too much about patients and needed to care less because it affected the money. That’s when I started feeling like patients were being viewed more as dollar amounts than people.

• I was asked to participate in insurance claims with incorrect dates of service that I was not comfortable submitting.

• The practice was purchased from a retired dentist, and a lot of the old equipment/materials were still being used. I witnessed expired flowable being used instead of orthodontic cement while patients were still being charged around $6,000 for braces. IPCs and desensitizer seemed to be placed on virtually every filling regardless of depth or location, and I never saw rubber dams being used for root canals. There were so many clinical practices that made me question what was actually standard of care that I eventually stopped being surprised by the next thing I saw.

• Staff were asked to practice drawing blood on each other, and the dentist wanted dental assistants to draw blood on patients because he thought it looked “unprofessional” for him to do it himself and that patients would prefer an assistant. When I raised concerns, our office manager told me she “wasn’t really an office manager” and just handled billing and hiring, despite being listed as the manager on the website. 

• He held a meeting telling us that if we noticed he was drilling too much of a tooth, we needed to stop him because he gets too “drill happy” and if he did an extra surface on a filling, we lost money.

• The office was chronically understaffed. I was the only in-person receptionist while other administrative staff worked remotely. Taking time off was extremely difficult. I was told the previous receptionist ate lunch at her desk because she couldn’t take breaks. I refused to do that, clocked out for my lunch and left. The assistants were not allowed proper lunch breaks because the dentist preferred to work straight through the day.

• I was told overtime would not be paid at time-and-a-half after 40 hours. I told him that was illegal and he said no it’s not. 

• I filled out a W-4 but was still paid in cash for six months. Other employees had direct deposits and received W-2s while I repeatedly asked when I would be put on payroll and receive mine. I was told I wasn’t getting one. I ended up filing the appropriate IRS paperwork and providing documentation of my employment. (SS-8 and 8189 forms)

And then there was the situation with my friend that completely changed how I viewed him.
She came in for an emergency wisdom-tooth extraction, had poor Delta Dental reimbursement, and I told him I’d probably pay for her because she was struggling financially. He told me, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll work it out later.” Since he’d done free/discounted work for friends and family before, I assumed he’d heavily discount it. While I was busy at the front desk, he extracted her wisdom teeth without telling me the cost. Afterwards, I found out the bill was around $800. When I said I didn’t want to come in on Saturday for an advertising event  after already working over 40 hours that week, he essentially told me I could either come in or pay her bill. I reminded him that it would put me into overtime. He told me he wasn’t paying overtime regardless. So I came in Saturday, absolutely furious, and he thanked me for being a “good sport.” That was honestly the moment I lost a huge amount of respect for him.

And I want to make this very clear: I genuinely liked the people I worked with. I don’t blame the employees for the environment they were working in, and I would hate for them to see this and think I’m attacking them. This isn’t about them. I’m not even sure I want to stay in dentistry anymore. This experience genuinely ruined a lot of what I loved about the field.

I’m not posting this because I think every dentist or private practice is like this. I’ve worked for good doctors and good practices, and I know they exist. I just need to get this off my chest and hear from other people in the dental world.

Is this normal? Dentists, assistants, hygienists, office managers, front desk.. have you experienced this kind of stuff? Are there actually practices out there that run a successful business without treating their employees or patients like this?

And if you’re a dentist or practice owner wondering why you can’t keep good employees, take a good guess why. Sometimes the reason people keep leaving isn’t that they’re “lazy,” “difficult,” or “don’t want to work.” Sometimes they just get tired of being asked to compromise things they shouldn’t have to compromise on. If you run a business and expect employees to give you full-time availability, you need to offer some kind of incentive benefits.. Otherwise you have no retention. I know some people might be biased and might feel indifferent to how I feel, but I am tired of these rich dentists cutting corners and still treating their patients and staff like crap..