Speech By Dr Amy Khor, Minister of State for Health, at the Singapore Dental Council Dentist's Pledge Affirmation Ceremony

Professor Chew Chong Lin,

President, Singapore Dental Council

Distinguished Guests

Newly Registered Dentists and your families

Ladies and Gentlemen

1. Thank you for the kind invitation to grace the 2012 Dentist’s Pledge Affirmation Ceremony. It gives me great pleasure to join you today to mark this important milestone in your careers as dentists.

2. Today, you will be reciting the Dentist’s Pledge. This marks your transition from the rigorous demands of Dental School into your chosen profession to practise as Dental Surgeons in Singapore.

3. The Pledge signifies your commitment to uphold the values essential to the dental profession – integrity, honesty, care and compassion.

4. The practice of Dentistry is a high calling as you will be trusted to deliver the most current, advanced, evidence-based treatment for your patients to the best of your abilities, with care and compassion and to always place the interests of your patients above your own.

5. Therefore it is critical that the solemn promises you make today be a steady compass to guide your professional decisions and ethical conduct.

6. The practice and delivery of Dentistry in Singapore is constantly evolving and the Ministry of Health has and will continue to look into meeting these challenges as they arise.

Affordable Dental Healthcare

7. The Ministry of Health will continue to ensure that dental healthcare remains accessible and affordable for all Singaporeans. The Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) is one way by which the Ministry hopes to achieve this. CHAS is essentially an enhancement of the Primary Care Partnership Scheme (PCPS) that aims to provide affordable and accessible healthcare for needy Singaporeans.

8. Under the enhanced scheme, more Singaporeans are now eligible to receive basic and simple tertiary dental procedures such as crowns, bridges, dentures and root canal treatment at participating private dental clinics near their homes. This makes it more convenient for patients who are CHAS card holders to seek dental treatment at affordable subsidized fees at participating dental clinics near their homes. Hopefully it could encourage them to seek treatment early and also help to reduce the waiting time for these procedures at the polyclinics and public hospitals. Currently, we have about 272 participating dental clinics and close to 200,000 Singaporeans on CHAS.

9. This is to ensure that Singaporeans from all walks of life, especially those who are less privileged, the needy, and the elderly will not be denied access to good dental healthcare.

Dental Volunteerism

10. I am encouraged to see that Dental Volunteerism has been steadily gaining momentum among the dental practitioners in Singapore. I am told that students at NUS Dental School visit Dover Park Hospice as part of their training to understand the oral health needs of the dentally marginalized. Dental practitioners are also often invited to speak in the faculty on Dental Community Involvement Projects and inspire students to serve the community.

11. More recently, I was invited to the inaugural Nursing Home Dental Conference that aims to provide a platform for general dentists to update their knowledge and for experts to share their experiences on managing the oral health needs of an aging population.

12. To effectively manage the oral health needs of the needy and elderly who are currently residing in nursing homes, we would need a critical mass of dentists, oral health therapists, dental assistants and dental laboratory support staff. Currently we have about 60 nursing homes but dental services are only provided at 8 of these nursing homes which are all run by volunteers.

13. Whilst nursing home patients are brought to the polyclinics or public hospitals for dental treatment when these are required, having dental services provided at the nursing homes will make it more convenient for the patients and the nursing home and would also encourage more regular and timely dental health care and treatment.

14. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage more of you to consider volunteering and contributing your professional services at these nursing homes. I am sure that you will find that helping these residents to restore their eating ability, giving back their smiles and improving their overall quality of life to be most fulfilling and rewarding.

CONCLUSION

14. Your future careers in Dentistry promise to be exciting.

15. Serving in the public sector for the next few years will continue to help you to develop essential skills that will only serve you well in your future careers.

16. In closing, I would like to once again convey my heartiest congratulations to all the new graduates and registrants and I wish each one of you a successful and fulfilling career.

17. Thank you.