NASHUA – The president of a defunct dental chain gave up his New Hampshire dentistry license to resolve professional misconduct charges.
David Bates, DDS, president of Allcare Dental Management and Allcare Dental and Dentures of New Hampshire, surrendered his license to the state Board of Dental Examiners. The board approved the agreement on May 9, according to state Attorney General Michael Delaney.
Bates had been scheduled to appear before the board for disciplinary hearings later this month. Bates has also been the focus of licensing boards in Massachusetts, West Virginia and North Dakota, Delaney said.
Most of the company’s offices closed abruptly in December 2010. In Nashua, that meant hundreds of former patients, some of whom said they prepaid for dental work, descended on the Nashua office shortly after New Year’s Day trying to track down their dental records, X-rays and dentures.
Allcare had faced financial issues for some time before closing. A plan to recover by closing underperforming offices and raising capital from an equity firm fell through, and the company was unable to recover.
Allcare, a Pennsylvania-based company that operated 50 dental offices in 13 states, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Nov. 4, according to documents filed at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Buffalo, N.Y.
After the 2010 closings, the state Department of Justice and the Board of Dental Examiners fielded nearly 150 complaints from patients who claimed their treatments were discontinued. Many of the patients had already had teeth pulled and were waiting for permanent dentures. Many had prepaid for the treatments, Delaney said.
Bates, in a consent decree he signed with the licensing board, admitted he failed to notify patients prior to the closure and that he and Allcare failed to be available for emergency care, Delaney said.
Allcare also closed operations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin, according to court documents.
