Dental implants vs root canal treatment
on August 30, 2017
Dentists are taught to save teeth. Cavities in teeth are caused by bacteria eroding away the enamel and dentine. At this stage, the decayed portion of the tooth can be drilled away and the resultant defect filled with an inert material such as amalgam or increasingly, tooth colored co …
Dental Implant Complications in Singapore
on June 24, 2017
As dental implants becomes increasingly popular as teeth replacement, more and more people are having dental implants in their jaws. Today, it is has become a mainstream treatment in many clinics. Along with it widespread adoption, the incidence of complications arising from dental im …
A little bit of orthognathic surgery but not too much
on June 6, 2017
It is quite common in my practice to have patients coming in to ask for jaw surgery to correct what they feel are minor deformities. They often say that they are not seeking major changes and only want a bit of surgery but not too much. Every often, such requests are harder to ful …
Medical tourism for corrective jaw surgery in Singapore
on May 22, 2017
Singapore has a long history as a medical tourism destination. The high standard of healthcare, comparable to the best of America and Europe, has attracted many patients from Asia. Some of the most commonly sort after procedures by medical tourists are cardiology and oncology. Correct …
Corrective jaw surgery for the middle-age patient
on May 19, 2017
Most patients for corrective jaw surgery are teenagers or young adults. It is often at this age that the patient is aware of the problem and seeks treatment. The motivation for seeking surgery is usually a combination of functional problems and aesthetics. However, increasingly, I a …
Do I need to remove the fixation plates after corrective jaw surgery?
on May 9, 2017
Corrective jaw surgeryis a procedure whereby the jaw bone is cut, detached, moved to a different position and held there with some sort of fixation device. In the past, the fixation device comprised mainly stainless steel wires to tie the jaws in the new position. Today, this is achie …
Who calls the shots in orthognathic surgery- orthodontist or surgeon?
on May 8, 2017
Many conditions require multi-disciplinary management. For example, ischemic heart disease may require the expertise of the cardiologist and the cardiothoracic surgeon. In the same, way, dentofacial deformities require the expertise of the orthodontist and the maxillofacial surgeon. T …
What qualification to look for in a dentist for dental implants?
on April 3, 2017
There are about 2000 dentists in Singapore and the majority does not provide dental implant services. This is because of the relative novelty of implant dentistry, becoming mainstream only in the last twenty years or so, and that most dental schools do not teach it as part of its core …
Bringing down the cost of dental implants
on March 27, 2017
A few days ago, I attended a seminar conducted by the Economics Society of Singapore on the “Contentious issues in Healthcare”. Naturally, rising healthcare cost is a hot topic. Economists look at big picture numbers such as GDP often treat the delivery of healthcare as a single entit …
Wisdom tooth surgery – a walk in the park or a trek up Everest?
on February 8, 2017
Today, I removed the four wisdom teeth of the son of my first ever wisdom tooth patient. His father was my first ever wisdom tooth surgery patient thirty years ago. I was in final year dental school then and removal of that one tooth took two hours. It was a most traumatic experience, …