My Dental Experience

I graduated from then the University of Singapore dental school in 1978. That makes  it 32 years of practice as a dentist but the oldest patient has been seeing me for 33 years. How can that be?

Well she was my patient when I was a dental student. I made her a cantilever porcelain fused to metal bridge with an anti rotation device. Sounds confusing. Surprisingly it is still in her mouth .Some dentist extracted one of her front tooth.Well in those days  most dentists pride themselves in taking out teeth and made a living on making dentures. Since then shen has never loss a tooth. So thats how far dentistry has progressed.

To tell the truth what we were taught in the dental school then have long been discarded. I have seen tremendous changes in my profession that all of us can go to the next world with all our natural teeth present albeit with a few crowns here and there to make up for the wear and tear. I am sure soon there will be many people who will go through life without having an idea of a filling in their mouth.

There are many things readers of this blog cannot believe.
The most common dental problem is a toothache. I am sure it is the bane of many people especially where dental care is poor.
First I can say all the children who came to me without dental decay and  followed me to adult life has never experience a toothache. Majority will have no fillings in their life.
You can come into my clinic with the most severe toothache and within half an hour leave without pain. You can have a wisdom tooth surgically removed , go a play a game of soccer and celebrate your  party at night.. My daughter did just that .You can have your front tooth broken and be repaired in half an hour. The best is even if you to take it out we can glue back the tooth so that you can leave  the clinic as if you have not taken out the tooth.

Isn't it a wonderful world.

Dental Charity



 Many of my patients would tell their children that they should be a dentist when they grow up as dentists makes a  lot of money. I am sure some dentists make a lot of money especially those who look after the teeth of movie stars, bankers or have many  tycoons as their client. Little do they realise that the dentist is just a daily rated worker and in fact paid on piecemeal work.
Well we have our perks and one of the most important our ability to help fellow human beings improve their dental health , their looks and thus  their social well being.
I am a sucker for volunteering for jobs that others do not want. When my good friend Lewis Lee the then SDA president asked me to take charge of Singapore Dental Health Foundation, it was then in the process of being wound up because the existing committee no longer had the energy to run it.
It looked fairly straight forward since I  have just retired .
Now I know why  the previous committee is tired . Even though we are supported by the Singapore Dental Association they have not been able to recruit more members to help out. Thus the same few people have been running around doing all the work.
As far as I am corncern I have been benefiting from the job so far.
First I use my position to pressure my friend Dr Myra Elliot to allow me to participate in her annual charity trip to Dsskit,  a small town in the  Ladakh region which is in the Himalaya mountain range of North West India. This is probably my most memorable journey I have undertaken.