NSW-based Supercare Dental & Cosmetics on brink of collapse owing over $7m

Patients have been left without teeth and waiting for millions of dollars in procedures they will never receive after a New South Wales dental group went into administration owing over $7m.

Several Supercare Dental and Cosmetics clinics have collapsed.

Patients who say they were left without teeth and waiting for millions of dollars in dental work are among creditors who will decide on whether to liquidate collapsed dentist clinics in NSW.

Supercare Dental & Cosmetics operated clinics across Penrith in Western Sydney, Kotarah in Newcastle, Corrimal in Wollongong, Tuggerah on the Central Coast and Wilton, south-west of Sydney before going into administration owing over $7m.

The group offered dental implants, dentures, crowns, teeth whitening and veneers along with other dental services before three clinics which traded under the Supercare Dental & Cosmetics group were placed in administration, while the Tuggerah business and parent company Usman Dental went into liquidation.

It has left patients devastated after withdrawing tens of thousands of dollars from their superannuation to pay for treatments they would never receive.

Peter Hazell, a former patient from the Kotarah clinic said he was owed about $82,800 withdrawn from his super for a full set of implants and crowns.

He’s now been left toothless after a kidney cancer diagnosis in April last year meant he couldn’t continue with the procedure, despite his teeth having already been removed.

Mr Hazell said he accepted an offer from Supercare Dental & Cosmetics to proceed with dentures instead and to refund the remainder of his money.

Peter Hazell before his dental work.

The company had offered to issue refunds through a payment plan, with weekly instalments of $10,000 a week, but this never commenced, he said.

He said he went for his last fitting appointment to finalise the denture procedure, only to find the clinic had closed.

“I’ve been left with no teeth, no dentures, no money,” he said.

“I’ve got to eat soft foods, I can’t eat steak or anything that needs to be chewed.

“I’m only using me gums to chew it, then you get ulcers in your mouth.

“I’m afraid to talk in public. I’m afraid to eat in public.”

Creditors will decide on whether to liquidate the companies which traded as the Penrith, Wilton and Corrimal locations next week, after they went into voluntary administration in May.

Together, the three companies owed about $1.5 million in estimated debts, documents lodged with ASIC said.

This added to about $5.7 million in earlier estimated debts from the Tuggerah and Newcastle clinics, as well as parent company Usman Dental, which went into administration in April and has since fallen into liquidation.

Among the creditors are former patients who were left waiting for treatments after their clinics closed up shop.

Former Supercare Dental & Cosmetics patient Peter Hazell said he was left waiting for dentures when the business collapsed.

About 441 patients from Tuggerah and Newcastle were owed an estimated $2.1 million for dental work they paid for but never received.

The Corrimal location in Wollongong was estimated to owe a further $236,303 to former patients.

The Penrith clinic had eight claims from former patients for about $55,764 for dental work not delivered or that was defective, administrators Domenic Calabretta, Richard Lawrence and Mathieu Tribut wrote in a report.

“It is likely there are further unidentified former clients/patients contained in the dental practice management system which we do not currently have access to,” they wrote.

The Penrith business, which traded as Smileloft, had only operated for about eight months.

Multiple former patients told News Corp they paid for their treatments with an early release of superannuation, and Supercare Dental & Cosmetics directed them to a third party that helped file their paperwork for their application to the Australian Taxation Office.

The patients said they felt pressured to transfer all of their released super savings within three days of receiving the money from the Tax Office, rather than allowing them to pay gradually as the treatments progressed.

Former Supercare Dental and Cosmetics patient Melissa Manning said she was left with a loose temporary top denture and bottom prosthesis.

Melissa Manning, a former patient from Kotarah said she withdrew $80,000 from her super for full top and bottom implants in February last year.

She said her teeth were removed and she had top and bottom implants installed - metal screws in the jaw, used as artificial roots for fake teeth.

She has been now left with a loose top denture and temporary bottom prosthesis, which were both meant to eventually be replaced with permanent prostheses, she said.

“The top denture I’m wearing now, it’s loose.

“It hurts, but I was meant to have to that for three months until my top implant screws were healed enough to attach the first prosthesis.

“And they attached my bottom prosthesis and it is quite yellow compared to the top denture that I am wearing.”

She had sought to have another dentist complete the work but hadn’t been able to attain her dental records since the company went under, she said.

“Because I couldn’t give her my medical records, she didn’t know the equipment that had been used.

“All of these implants have different screws, so they have different fittings to be able to unscrew them or to tighten them.

“They’re different shapes because they’re different brands.”

One of the Supercare Dental and Cosmetics clinics in Kotara, Newcastle. Image: Facebook

But, she said she had tracked down her last dentist with Supercare Dental & Cosmetics and had since been told what brand the screws were - which she hoped would help her progress forward.

Trish Gyler, a former patient from the Tuggerah clinic, said she was owed about $56,000 she had withdrawn from her super to pay for her treatments.

She said she was meant to eventually have veneers installed, but in the end had only spent about 15 months correcting her teeth with Invisalign aligners and had four crowns.

“I’ve got four implants with the crowns, teeth that are all pushed back into their original position that they were when I started in February 2024 and nothing else.

“I spent all this money and now I have no money to go to another dentist.

“Even if I did, the company is holding all my records and refuse to give them to me.”

Syma Usman was the sole director for each of the entities in the Supercare Dental & Cosmetics group.

Dr Khurram Usman, a registered dentist listed with the business, was a former director of the Wilton and Corrimal companies.

He and Mrs Usman were the two shareholders of the clinics’ parent company Usman Dental.

They were registered as living at the same address in Sydney, according to ASIC records.

Trade creditors, including commissioned dentists and suppliers were owed about $832,041 across the Corrimal, Penrith and Wilton locations, administrators’ reports from last week said.

The administrators estimated a further $293,463 was owed to the Tax Office and about $233,762 was owed to employees.

Medical business lender Credabl was listed as a secured creditor for the Wilton and Corrimal locations, and it claimed it was owed about $1.7 million for medical equipment and loans.

This debt was now considered secured, as Credabl appointed receivers in June which took control of the sites and ceased operations.

The receivers also took over a related company, which controlled the lease for the Penrith premises.

The administrators wrote the businesses may have traded while insolvent for some time - the Penrith clinic in particular was thought to have potentially been insolvent from its inception.

As such, Mrs Usman may have breached her directors’ duties, including failure to exercise due care and diligence, and failure to prevent insolvent trading, the reports said.

Mrs Usman had not told the administrators why the companies failed, but in their reports they wrote they believed there had been a lack of working capital, trading losses, poor strategic management, inadequate cash flow, poor financial control and rapid growth of the related entities.

There had been a dramatic decline in sales across the Wilton and Corrimal clinics, the reports said.

The Corrimal location saw its sales dive from $2.5 million in the 2023 financial year, to $873,196 in the following year, which was “understood to be due to a lack of available dentists”, the report said.

The Wilton location had also entered a sale agreement for $575,000 to CETL Dental prior to entering administration, but the status of the deal was now uncertain, the report said.

Creditors could vote to wind up the companies in a meeting on Monday next week, as recommended by the administrators.

There was no proposed deal for creditors in the form of a deed of company arrangement.

Employees are “likely” to recoup some of their debts from the Wilton and Corrimal clinics if they are liquidated, while other creditors could “maybe” see a dividend, the reports said.

However, a liquidation of the Penrith business is not expected to give any returns to creditors.

News Corp has contacted the group, Mrs Usman and Dr Usman for comment.

Originally published as NSW-based Supercare Dental & Cosmetics on brink of collapse owing over $7m