By TRACEY DRURY
tdrury@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1609

Nearly three months after shutting down its nationwide network of offices, Allcare Dental & Denture has completed transfer agreements for more than 1 million patients to other providers.

A post on the company's website listed as its "final post" reports that offices in the 13 states where the company had operations are now covered by a transferee/custodian. That includes five New York cities from Albany to Western New York. Buffalo-area patient files were transferred to Amherst Dentistry just over a month ago.

The company has been posting updates on a semi-weekly basis on the site. Company officials have refused to return media calls, leaving the website as the sole means of communication.

William Savino, a senior partner at Damon Morey LLP, is working with the company on a bankruptcy filing; while Paul Cambria, a partner in Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP, was responding to inquiries from attorneys general offices in several states investigating the shutdown. Savino was unavailable for comment and Cambria did not return calls.

Allcare Dental was founded by Dr. Robert Bates and David Pennington in Erie, Pa., in 2001. The company grew significantly after shifting operations and its headquarters to Clarence in 2005. It blamed a failed financing plan for the shutdown.

The transfer/custodian agreements are designed to give patients an option, as well as a physical location from which to pick up their patient records. Additionally, patients who were awaiting the delivery of new crowns, bridges and/or dentures are directed to call the appropriate dental practice in their region, as many of those finished cases have been distributed to those offices, with remaining finished cases to be shipped moving forward. Patients are not required, however, to go to those dental offices if they require additional services, a fact stated on the latest post online: "You are encouraged, but not required, to call and schedule an appointment to continue your dental care with the applicable transferee/custodian identified below."