The issue of rising dental costs in Singapore was highlighted recently in an article on dental financing.<\/p>\n
We applaud the Ministry of Health\u2019s efforts to improve the accessibility and affordability of dental care in recent months. These include enhanced CHAS dental subsidies, the extension of subsidies for basic dental procedures to Orange CHAS cardholders, and the publication of dental fee benchmarks.<\/p>\n
Regular reviews of measures, including potential expansion of MediSave coverage, and other policies to encourage preventive dental care, should be considered to ensure that dental care remains affordable and sustainable across time for individuals of all age and income groups.<\/p>\n
Public awareness of available dental subsidies is important. Some eligible CHAS cardholders may not be aware of the recent enhancements to their dental benefits. Greater awareness can encourage the public to visit their local dentist for early detection and intervention before problems become more complex and costly to treat.<\/p>\n
Employers can also contribute by providing adequate dental benefits for their staff, allowing employees time off for dental treatment, and supporting workplace oral-health screening programmes.<\/p>\n
Prevention is one of the\u00a0most effective ways to reduce the cost burden of dental disease. Good daily oral hygiene, such as flossing and toothbrushing, reducing the amount and frequency of sugar intake, avoiding habits that lead to cracked teeth, and regular dental check-ups can reduce the risk of oral disease.<\/p>\n
Prevention is not solely an individual responsibility, but also a collective societal effort. While public campaigns under Healthier SG have been successful in raising awareness of conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol, comparatively less emphasis has been placed on oral health promotion through community outreach and mainstream media channels.<\/p>\n
In April this year, the Singapore Dental Association organised a public forum to promote oral health awareness and encourage discussions on safeguarding oral health. Recent scientific advances have strengthened our understanding of the links between oral and systemic health. Poor oral health can adversely affect overall well-being, self-confidence and quality of life.<\/p>\n
By investing in prevention today, we can improve health outcomes and reduce the cost burden for individuals, families and society in the long run.<\/p>\n
Sharon Tan Hui Xuan
Chairperson
Dental Public Health Committee
Singapore Dental Association\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The issue of rising dental costs in Singapore was highlighted recently in an article on dental financing. We…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-475780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}