Specialist Dental Group has launched an on-going series of blog posts by our individual dental specialists. All views provided are the dentist’s own opinions and are posted on this blog as part of our on-going efforts to educate the public about dental issues and other matters of interest relating to dentistry and healthcare.

Several members of the clinical team at Specialist Dental Group have been involved on the editorial boards of a few professional journals for a number of years now. We serve on a few cosmetic dentistry journals and two of the best respected specialty journals in the world of dentistry.

 Being ‘involved’ in such capacity is a personal/professional honor but it also means we do a few things on a pro bono basis: (1) we review other colleague’s submissions for publication, and (2) we also support those journals by sending in our own write-ups. 

I have nominated a few of my bright graduate students (and ex-graduate students) at the National University of Singapore to get an ‘entry’ level involvement by writing abstracts for the International Journal of Prosthodontics. This serves a few purposes: (1) the younger generation has an opportunity to practice their scientific writing skills and their critical minds, (2) they have a chance to be ‘soft launched’ into the global scene of our specialty area, (3) to relieve the work load for the existing people on board.

This pro bono ‘entry level’ job is by no means an easy one. A lot of learning and hard work is needed on top of the already super busy clinical schedule of these graduate students. In the past, some of my students were very reluctant to get involved as they did not see the value of expanding their professional horizon beyond their existing geographic limits.

All of a sudden, I have all my current post-graduate prosthodontics students at the National University of Singapore fighting for this entry-level job! With some super bright minds and a lot of energy, I am sure they would be an asset to the profession in our specialty.

Now my job is to give them adequate guidance to do their job right….  

Dr. Ansgar C. Cheng is a Dental Specialist in Prosthodontics (Teeth Replacement) with Specialist Dental Group. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor with the National University of Singapore.  He has a special interest in dental implants, cosmetic dentistry and treatment of  medically compromised patients, including cancer patients. For more information about Dr. Cheng, click here