Thank you for your question and for being so candid about your phobia for dental treatment. It takes courage to face your phobia and to try to overcome it, and finding the right dental surgeon is so important in helping you to have the confidence to get the dental implant treatment that you need and want.
To get straight to the point, there is no such thing as a dental implant specialist in Singapore, or anywhere else in the world. The field of Dental Implantology is not recognised or registrable as a specialist field in Singapore or anywhere else in the world. If this changes , i would be the first to take whatever qualifying exams that are necessary to register myself as a dental implant specialist! However, i do not foresee that this change will come anytime soon.
In Singapore, these are the 3 categories of dental surgeons that are legally allowed to perform dental implant surgery for their patients:
1. General Dental Surgeons who are fully registered with Singapore Dental Council (SDC).
2. General Dental Surgeons who are conditionally registered with SDC ( But they have to be supervised ).
3. Specialist Dental Surgeons, regardless of their field of dental specialty, who are registered as specialists with SDC.
For these 3 groups of dental surgeons, it is NOT a legal pre-requisite to show proof of further training in the field of dental implantology, in order to be legally allowed to perform the treatment.
Therefore, in theory, any dental surgeon who falls into any of the 3 categories above, is legally allowed to perform dental implant surgery for their patients even if they have no prior experience doing so. The onus is on the dental surgeon to ensure that he is competent and confident in performing the dental implant surgery for the patient, before actually doing so.
Having said that, it is fair to say that most dental surgeons would be responsible enough to ensure that they are properly trained in dental implants before even attempting to perform dental implant surgery on their patients.
The problem is , the term "properly trained" can be subjective.
There is a myriad of dental Implantology courses, diplomas, degrees and qualifications out there in the dental marketplace today. Some of these courses last only half a day, and the longest ones over a few years. Some are conducted in Singapore, and many others conducted overseas. The vast majority of such courses are NOT recognised by the Singapore Dental Council to be registrable as displayable postgraduate qualifications.
I have written several articles on Human about dental implants in Singapore, as well as dental implant costs in Singapore.
In your research for a good implant dental surgeon, you may find online or through word of mouth recommendations that there are some dental surgeons who are more " well- known" for being "good" at dental implants.
It is not fair for anyone to make a sweeping statement to say that all category (3) specialist dental surgeons are better or more experienced than all category (1) and (2) general dental surgeons in performing dental implant surgery. Likewise, the converse is also true, so therefore i do not blame you for realising that finding a dental surgeon whom you can trust in dental implant surgery is not as straightforward as you would have hoped.
At the end of the day, after you have done your research, it is most important that you find a good dental surgeon that you can connect with, feel comfortable with and whom you can trust to be honest and caring , diligent with his work and skilled and experienced with dental implant surgery.
I wish you all the best and if you have time, do spend a few minutes reading some of my other articles that i have written on dental implants.
Kind Regards,
Dr Gerald Tan
