Westover Dental Clinic

I’ve been going to this dental practice for some time now and have had a good experience with both the doctors at Westover Dental. They have listened to my needs when in pain and got me in quickly. They compliment my smile! They are like family! The office staff has been on point with their phone etiquette and scheduling while the assistants are always good conversation and intelligent with procedures. I would recommend this spot! Also, they use this camera that shows your teeth on a screen which really helps you see what they are talking about.

Update: February 2015. I went to see another dentist in the Kaiser system. They took fresh X-​rays and informed me that I did not have any signs of decay anywhere in my mouth.
So, Westover Dental was going to do unnecessary fillings on two of my teeth, and of course, bill my insurance for them.
Not only are they insensitive, they are also dishonest.

Do not go to this dentist. I do not normally write poor Unilocal review because I respect small businesses, but my experience here warranted one.
As several other reviewers noted, they upsell you constantly in these appointments. They added a $ 500 mouthguard to my bill after mentioning it to me as if I already agreed to buy it, and were very frosty when I asked them to remove it. This was in the initial appointment. I had a bad feeling (space is cramped and doesn’t seem clean, hygienist was quite rough), but decided to come back and have two small cavities filled. I switched over because my old dentist went off my network and they were in service.
My second appointment was one of the worst dental appointments I’ve ever had in my life, and I’ve had four root canals and six crowns put on. Both the dentist and the dental hygienist had their hands in my mouth at once stretching out my jaw and repeatedly hitting my teeth with their instruments. They didn’t have the camera they normally used for filling cavities, and they kept saying repeatedly how much better this would go with it. **If you do not have the proper equipment to provide care to patients, cancel their appointment.** They also kept talking about how badly it was going. Please keep that to yourself.
They proceeded to accidentally bond one tooth entirely to the other when trying to fill the cavity without a camera, and then had to drill the whole filling out and start again. Unbeknowst to me at the time (I immediately made a follow up appt at my old dentist, where I had X-​rays done that show this damage), when removing the overflow of bonding they drilled a hole in my VERY expensive existing porcelain crown (only five years old), which I then had to have replaced to the tune of several hundred dollars after my insurance paid out. This took another month of dental appointments. So they caused many more problems than they fixed.
After they finally filled the first cavity, I asked for a break and cried. Yes, cried. I knew something was very wrong, but I was totally numb and felt helpless sitting in that chair, knowing I was receiving sub-​quality care. Like I said, I have had MANY dental appointments in the past. I’ve had root canals without getting nervous. But I knew that this facility was not professional, and that I was going to have to seek follow up care. Most insultingly, they then kept saying I had «anxiety» around dental care, and made it seem as if this was totally my own mental issue rather than their quality of care. Several other reviewers have mentioned this as well. My jaw hurt for three days after the appointment.
My husband called the front desk and explained these problems after I went back to my old dentist (Downtown Dental Associates, they are expensive but THE BEST) and had the crown fixed. They listened, but did nothing to refund us. This was several months ago, and I decided I needed to write this review to let others know NOT TO COME HERE. I’ve been getting serious dental work done for twenty years. Modern dentistry is really amazing — almost anything can be done without pain, and with the patient feeling secure. There is no reason for all the experiences listed on this page to be happening. I am also filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

Dr. Adams is truly a dental artist! She has worked magic with my mouth. Her skills are unprecedented. She has tools I’ve never seen in a dental office. The camera. The lavender heated neck wrap. My only complaints are one time there was this temp dental hygienist filing in and she just had no pressure in her hands. I didn’t feel that deep clean that I usually feel after a cleaning. And no. 2 I feel the prices are high. It’s NW 23RD. so I get it but still.

Went here for a regular cleaning cause it’s on the same insurance as my regular dentist in Washington. I left with a sore jaw for 2 days, the dentist told me I had 2 cavities that my regular dentist didn’t find. None of this has ever happened before. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone.

Dr. Belusko put in a crown for me and I had a lot of sensitivity afterward. I complained, and he gave me the run around and some gel that was to be applied instead of reseating the crown. Years later, I am paying for a new crown. I do not recommend this clinic.

My wife and I started going to Westover Dental Clinic while we lived in NW Portland. We’ve both been quite a few times over the past few years, but neither of us will be going back. The biggest issue I have with Westover is how pushy they are about trying to get you to buy additional procedures not covered by insurance. At my last visit for a regular cleaning, they literally spent over 30 minutes trying to upsell me on a variety of different procedures, handing me brochures, making me look at a binder of before/​after pictures, and giving me an entire sales pitch. The last 10 minutes of the visit was spent on the actual teeth cleaning. Also, they have the hygienist and dentist work in your mouth at the same time, so it is often uncomfortable having two sets of hands working in your face at the same time especially when they aren’t very gentle with their tools.

After my college-​era dentist retired, I found Westover Dental. I was generally happy for many years though some things gave me pause, hmmm:
— The strong, repeated push to get veneers I neither wanted nor could afford, as I very clearly stated.
— The endless parade of dental students (some good, some definitely not) filling in for regular staff. Aside from the dentist, I never saw the same staff twice.
— The yearly ordeal of getting x-​rays on ancient equipment, with no accommodation for my small mouth.
— The occasional (but in retrospect, too frequent) odd warning letter from my insurance about paperwork anomalies.
But overall, it seemed fine. Everyone was really friendly. It was better than my college dentist. Why bother changing?
Then, after being stymied by the source of ongoing pain in one tooth over a few years, Dr. Adams suggested I see someone with root canal experience. I now count myself lucky she was willing to admit this gap in her knowledge.
I saw my boyfriend’s dentist and it was The Reckoning. There were serious, basic, obvious mistakes in the care of my teeth. Just in case this dentist was being shady I got a second opinion from my best friend’s dentist. He came to the same conclusions even though he didn’t talk to the other dentist.
The worst example being the painful tooth. I had a root canal in 2005, performed by the endodontist Dr. Adams recommended. Apparently I was also supposed to get a filling in the hole he made, but that never happened.
My tooth hurt because I still had the temp patch over a wad of blood-​soaked cotton. My tooth hurt because there was a HOLE in my tooth. It makes a Big Black Spot on an x-​ray — but in 4 years of looking at x-​rays Dr. Adams couldn’t figure out why my tooth hurt?
Sometimes you don’t know how bad something is until you have better.
[Yelp 30 Challenge: 8/​30]

I don’t think I’ll be going back. They were quite heavy-​handed in their approach. The cost was affordable, as I was In Network, but I’m not sure the value of the care is worth the cost. I had a cavity filled and it is now extremely sensitive to hot and cold. Prior to the filling, there was no pain at all. I had no pain in that tooth before the surgery. On the plus side, there was the aforementioned cost point, and everyone is quite friendly. However, the quality of care leaves a lot to be desired.

I had a horrific experience at Westover Dental with Dr. Adams which left me angry enough to write a review, something I’ve never done before.
Dr. Adams and the dental hygienist assisting her made no discernible attempt to be gentle during my 90-​minute procedure. They banged, pinched and poked without any apparent sensitivity to how stressful and uncomfortable it can be to have two sets of hands and an array of sharp instruments in one’s mouth at the same time. They exclaimed over things they found distressing as if they didn’t realize this would also cause me distress. Dr. Adams did her best to keep me informed about what she saw, but to the point where she was asking me what I wanted, rather than telling me how best she could help me. Then she drilled and poked my gums without any numbing agent. Seeing me white-​knuckled, wringing my hands from the pain, she suggested next time I get an Ativan prescription, implying that I was simply experiencing a common phobia of dentists.
To their credit, they did take into account my uninsured status by conferring with me about the cost of the visit, but they did so in such a completely unprofessional manner, I was flabbergasted. I was asked repeatedly to make financial decisions about procedures while I was barely able to talk, their hands still in my mouth. These were decisions that could have and should have been discussed afterwards– not while I’m in pain and distress– but it became apparent that Dr. Adams was in a hurry to see the next patient. She and the hygienist bickered pointedly over my head, accusing the other of taking too long to do her job, until Dr. Adams finally left without much explanation or follow-​up.
The hygienist, while warm and personable, rushed through my patient history enough so much that she accused me of not having a previous procedure that would have prevented my needing so much work today– — a procedure I did indeed have, which Dr. Adams herself performed.
I felt rushed and bullied into buying expensive whitening trays to reduce gum inflammation. The gal who showed me how to use them never once made eye contact. She acted rushed and put out to even need to be spending time answering my questions. She was short and sarcastic when I asked her several times for clarification.
I work in a health clinic and understand the demands of keeping to a schedule and the frustrations of trying help patients who often ignore their own self-​care. However, terrifying and berating a patient or disregarding their need to be comfortable and calm during a procedure indicates a poor bedside manner and a disregard for patient care. Dr. Adams might seem friendly, she might also be quite knowledgeable and competent, but I will never return to this place again. She runs an awful business and she needs to make an appointment at her own clinic to see just what it feels like to have her mouth placed in such dubious care.

I don’t write reviews but feel this I should share. This was the worst series of experiences I’ve ever had from any doc. Let me ask you… How do you screw up a filling? Or 2? Or how about 2 on 2 different people from 2 different dentists from the same clinic. Well, they did here. My girlfriend has to have a root canal from her botched up filling! I wish I had done my reseach on this place before hand. PLEASE BE WARNED… DO NOT GO HERE!

I was very uncomfortable about Dr. Adams. She seemed to be exaggerating the seriousness of my inflamed gums in order to push an expensive home treatment called «Peri Protect.» (I researched this treatment later — it’s legit, but being marketed to dentists as a good profit producer because the patient does all the work!) In fact, the inflamation cleared up very quickly without the special treatment, so I’m glad I rejected it. My insurance paid the Westover bill, lucky for me — they charged a LOT. I wouldn’t go back.