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SINGAPORE – Dental care does not feature strongly in the blueprint setting out Singapore’s national preventive care strategy that was released recently, but preventive oral and dental care is absolutely important, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Friday.
“Actually for dental care, you are ahead on physical care, which is why you are not featured strongly in Healthier SG,” he told a gathering of dentists.
“For whatever reasons, preventive care for dental health as well as health seeking habits have been much stronger,” he added.
Mr Ong was speaking at the International Dental Exhibition and Meeting (Idem) at Sands Expo and Convention Centre, where he laid out how the dental fraternity fits into the grand scheme of the Healthier SG initiative that seeks to reform Singapore’s healthcare system to focus on preventive care.
Although the initiative seems primarily geared towards general practitioners, he stressed that preventive care in all aspects, including dental and oral care, is important, even if it is not a prominent part of the White Paper endorsed by Parliament on Wednesday.
“As you grow up, many more people living in Singapore have the habit of visiting a dentist from time to time, just to check out our dental health and clean our teeth, whereas we do not do that with our GPs to do our health screening ,” said Mr Ong.
Instead of focusing on dental health then, the Government would prioritise more urgent matters, with chronic illnesses being the most pressing at the moment.
During his speech, he also urged healthcare practitioners to use the National Electronic Health Record system, which would centralise patient data for different healthcare service providers to access.
“A patient can have a very good relationship with their doctor, and all the information is captured in the steel cabinet of the doctor. But one day, if the patient needs to see another doctor, say at the A&E department, and if the other system has zero information, it does not serve the patient well,” he said.
The Government will be providing grants to facilitate the transition, which he described as a worthwhile endeavour to elevate Singapore’s healthcare system further.
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