A Sydney dentist who bungled the treatment of several patients has been found guilty of professional misconduct.
The case against Dr Saad Abdul-Hassan Al-Mozany, 43, was brought on by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) in 2022, alleging the dentist was guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct.
The HCCC filed three complaints that alleged “the practitioner has engaged in conduct that demonstrates the knowledge, skill or judgement possessed, or care exercised, by the practitioner in the practice of the dental profession is significantly below the standard reasonably expected of a practitioner of an equivalent level of training or experience”.
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On Tuesday, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found Al-Mozany guilty of two of the three complaints, including that he was guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct.
The complaint made by the HCCC outlined 74 separate allegations relating to 14 patients.
All the allegations related to patients he had treated at Gentle Dental Care (GDC), which has several locations around Sydney, and where he had worked since 2010.
Al-Mozany denied all the allegations.
The complaints, some of which involved patients who were children, alleged Al-Mozany failed to conduct appropriate initial assessments, formulate appropriate treatment plans, obtain informed consent, adequately monitor patients’ general dental health and provide an appropriate course of orthodontic treatment.
Among the complaints is an allegation Al-Mozany left a patient with their upper molars and incisors in an upright inclination after treatment.
He was also accused of failing to treat a patient’s tooth decay before starting orthodontic treatment.
It’s also alleged Al-Mozany began orthodontic treatment for a patient before that patient had completed treatment for gum disease and took longer than 30 months to align the patient’s upper teeth.
“At my first appointment, Dr Al-Mozany only popped in very briefly to tell me what he was planning on doing to my teeth, and then he left the room,” one patient told the tribunal.
“I never really knew what was happening to my teeth and found it difficult to obtain information.”
From about 2017, Al-Mozany was involved in an ongoing contractual dispute with the practice and in April 2018, his employment was terminated.
He has not treated a patient in Australia since but practised in New Zealand, where he was first registered, until October 2018 when his registration as a dentist was cancelled by the New Zealand Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.
After receiving a number of complaints relating to his clinical care, the Dental Council of NSW cancelled his registration in November 2018, a decision which he unsuccessfully appealed.
In the proceedings brought against him by the HCCC, Al-Mozany alleged the complaints arose out of a corporate dispute with GDC, who he alleged advised a significant number of his patients to complain about him.
The tribunal found while Al-Mozany was guilty of two of the complaints, not all allegations in the complaints had been established, including the HCCC’s allegations that informed consent forms were not signed by some patients.
The tribunal found that in some cases, informed consent forms had, in fact, been signed.
In separate proceedings in the Supreme Court of NSW, GDC is suing Al-Mozany for $3.1 million in damages.
That case remains ongoing.
