SINGAPORE, Sept 12 — Nearly nine in 10 people in Singapore are worried about rising dental care costs, according to a survey commissioned by a committee appointed by the Singapore Dental Association (SDA).

And one-third of people in that category would try to seek alternatives, such as getting dental work done in Johor Baru or Bangkok, or at public health institutions here — though they were concerned at the long waiting time.

The survey was commissioned by the SDA’s standing committee and was published yesterday. It sought the views of 1,438 people aged between 25 and 60, mostly Singaporeans, in August. The SDA is the professional body for dentists.

In a media statement on the survey, the SDA said that aside from seeking to understand the public’s concerns on dental costs, it wanted to "gauge the public confidence” of practising dentists in Singapore in relation to safety and performance.

The statement said it was concerned that a series of media articles on dentists being convicted in court, or by the Singapore Dental Council (SDC), the profession’s self-regulatory body, might have put the "dental profession as a whole in a bad light”.

It did not specify the cases, however in recent years, several dentists have been dealt with for various offences. In 2017, one dentist was fined S$50,000 (RM150,000) for failing to supervise two foreign-trained dentists under his charge. And in May last year, another dentist admitted making fake claims to the Central Provident Fund.

The statement noted that none of the respondents in its survey had filed a complaint against their dental practitioners, and that they felt their dentists are "competent with their work”.

The survey also found that, of the respondents: