Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): MediSave generally does not cover dental treatments unless they involve surgery and are medically necessary. Non-surgical procedures like extractions, crowns, dentures and braces are not MediSave claimable.
Singaporeans are not seeing their dentist regularly enough. Over 50% of Singaporeans visit a dentist at least once a year. However, 40% of these visits are for reactive treatment rather than preventive care. This means many seek dental care only when they experience pain, often leading to more complex and costly procedures.
I am also concerned about tooth loss among seniors. About 13% of over 60-year-olds are completely toothless. Edentulism impacts the nutrition, social confidence and overall well-being of our seniors.
MOH launched Project Silver Screen in 2018 to provide functional screening, including oral health checks, for seniors aged 60 and above. How effective has this programme been in addressing dental health issues among older Singaporeans? Are there plans to expand or improve on it?
Oral health is an essential part of overall well-being. Yet, it is not included in the Healthier SG programme. Studies have shown that poor dental health is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes complications. Preventive dental care should be encouraged to reduce these long-term health risks.
I urge the Ministry to review how dental subsidies are structured, expand MediSave coverage for essential treatments and integrate dental care into Healthier SG.
More public awareness efforts are also needed to ensure that all Singaporeans seek regular checkups instead of waiting for problems to arise. Making dental care more affordable and accessible will improve the well-being of all Singaporeans.
The Chairman: Mr Gerald Giam.
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: Sir, I appreciate the steps that MOH is taking to enhance preventive oral care and allow for more MediSave use. Does the Minister recognise that Singaporeans are not visiting their dentist frequently enough for regular checkups? As I mentioned in my cut, while over 50% visit a dentist at least once a year, 40% of these visits are for reactive treatment rather than for preventive care. Are there plans to encourage more frequent visits to the dentist of at least 12 to 18 months? And does MOH have plans to expand the capacity of public dental services to meet this increased demand?
Mr Ong Ye Kung: I would say, the polyclinics are quite busy, but we can leverage private clinics more for preventive oral care. My hypothesis is that when you go to a private clinic because you have a decayed tooth, the dentist says you need a root canal. It is more expensive today. It requires quite a few trips to the clinic, and so, you would rather extract or, in the first place, let us not go to the dentists. So, there is a bit of that behaviour.
That is why we are increasing the subsidy for such restorative treatment quite significantly. With this step and with some more education, including a national dental plan that we are now drawing up, we hope that more people are aware of the importance of oral health and understand that any restorative treatment, and for orange CHAS cardholder’s preventive care treatment, they will all be better subsidised now. I think more people will come forward and we can better leverage and better use the capacity we have today in all the private dental clinics.
So, I think this is an important step we are first taking and we are still reviewing and drawing up our national dental plan.
Ministry of Health
7 March 2025
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=budget-2621
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 