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.

Our third clinic recently opened on the 8^th floor of Mount Elizabeth Medical Center in the third week of June 2011. We are now working shoulder to shoulder with a very special team. Our new experience of working with a medical pioneer in Singapore and his team has been an eye-opening one.

Before June, I had thought to myself that with the opening of our new clinic, our three locations would have a meaningful square footage in combination with a good mix of experienced clinicians. Little did I know that I had a limited understanding of the term ‘experience’.

There is no doubt that collectively we will be a fraction of who we are today if luck were not on our side. Life could be a lot more of an upstream battle if we had to live through a world war, were born at a less prosperous era in mankind, had a lousy mentor and when communication was not so instantaneous.

Dr. Tay Chong-Hai and his team of excellent nurses have been working at the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre since the late 70s. Through a quick google search, one would find that this bright man was born in Malaysia, lived through World War II, became a poet, an author, a scientist, a teacher and a pioneer medical practitioner with a disease named after him.

For those who are not in the medical/dental field, throughout the history of mankind, only very few diseases are named after an individual. It is a honor that happens to one in millions! Dr. Tay had discovered the ‘Tay Syndrome’ in the early 70s when he was a young doctor.

There is no doubt that he was known as a knowledgeable Professor to many of his younger medical colleagues. A casual chat with him would reveal his earlier real life detective stories about how he exposed a silly medicine shop owner who mixed some toxin into his medicine in the false hopes of get a quick fix for his clients. The artifacts from that case are still on display in a museum in Singapore.

We have only one conclusion - we are indeed honored to be in Dr. Tay’s company.

Dr. Ansgar C. Cheng is a Dental Specialist in Prosthodontics 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