Dentist fined, suspended in third case of misconduct

SINGAPORE — A dentist has been fined S$50,000 and suspended for 15 months, after he failed to supervise two foreign-trained dentists for several months under his charge.

This was Dr Sng Wee Hock’s third case of misconduct in four years, and he is currently serving his suspension for the second offence, the Singapore Dental Council (SDC) said in a press release yesterday.

A disciplinary inquiry was held on Jun 28 against Dr Sng, Dr Jun Soo Lee and Dr Park Seunghyun. Dr Lee and Dr Park were both conditionally registered dentists, which meant that they had to work under supervision in the same clinic as the supervisor. Dr Sng was a fully-registered dentist who had been approved by the SDC to be the supervisor of both Dr Lee and Dr Park. Both Dr Lee and Dr Park were also suspended for three months each, and fined S$8,000 and S$2,000, respectively.

All three dentists worked at WH Dental Surgeons, which has three clinics at Block 1 Hougang Street 91, Seletar Mall and Block 198 Punggol Field.

Dr Sng allowed the two dentists to work independently at the different branches: Dr Lee saw patients while unsupervised over a period of seven months and 100 clinic sessions from Oct 27, 2014, to May 16, 2015, while Dr Park did likewise for about three weeks and nine clinic sessions from Apr 3, 2015, to May 16, 2015.

The SDC said it had issued numerous circulars to the industry stating that conditionally registered dentists had to work under supervision in the same clinic as the supervisor. The circulars were published on the SDC’s website, and the council also sent email reminders to the three dentists.

Dr Sng had two previous convictions for professional misconduct.

In 2013, he had been fined S$15,000 and censured for failing to adequately inform a patient about claimable costs under Medisave. Last year, he was fined S$40,000 and suspended for 15 months for delegating dental procedures to unqualified persons.

In the latest conviction, the SDC said Dr Sng’s lapses of supervision was “driven by profits”. Given his profit-motive and previous convictions, the council decided to mete out the maximum fine of S$50,000 and a suspension — which will run after his current suspension ends — to send out a “strong message” to registered dentists. Dr Sng was also ordered to pay 90 per cent of the legal costs.

The three dentists have 30 days to appeal to the High Court against the sentence.