Dental Asia May/June 2020
For more than two decades, Dental Asia is the premium journal in linking dental innovators and manufacturers to its rightful audience. We devote ourselves in showcasing the latest dental technology and share evidence-based clinical philosophies to serve as an educational platform to dental professionals. Our combined portfolio of print and digital media also allows us to reach a wider market and secure our position as the leading dental media in the Asia Pacific region while facilitating global interactions among our readers.
For more than two decades, Dental Asia is the premium journal in linking dental innovators
and manufacturers to its rightful audience. We devote ourselves in showcasing the latest dental technology and share evidence-based clinical philosophies to serve as an educational platform to dental professionals. Our combined portfolio of print and digital media also allows us to reach a wider market and secure our position as the leading dental media in the Asia Pacific region while facilitating global interactions among our readers.
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Behind the Scenes<br />
The unsung heroes<br />
Is there anyone who has<br />
one day since time was of the<br />
influenced you in pursuing<br />
essence.<br />
dental technology?<br />
Dennis Goh has been in dental technology for 16 years.<br />
In our younger days, my<br />
Also, there was a young patient<br />
Today, the lab manager oversees a team of dental technicians<br />
cousin was a dentist in the<br />
who could not control his bite<br />
at Precision <strong>Dental</strong> Lab, which specialises in crowns, bridges<br />
Singapore Armed Forces.<br />
due to a nerve complication.<br />
and prostheses. He shares how dental technology first piqued<br />
As a forensic dentist, he<br />
To prevent him from chewing<br />
his interest, and his passion for it.<br />
sometimes appeared in the<br />
his own tongue, I fabricated a<br />
newspapers, and the stories that he revealed through human teeth splint using mouthguard material. This also protects his parents’<br />
amazed me. I thought, “Perhaps dental prostheses could also help fingers from his bite.<br />
him solve mysteries. If I took up dental technology, one day we<br />
could be colleagues.”<br />
Looking back, I am thankful I was able to help them in their times<br />
of need.<br />
In 2001, I had the opportunity to visit National <strong>Dental</strong> Centre<br />
Singapore (NDCS), where dental technicians presented not<br />
just tremendously life-like crowns, bridges and dentures, but<br />
also prosthetic eyes, ears and noses, which are used in oral and<br />
maxillofacial surgeries. They left a deep impression on me, so I took<br />
up a course in dental technology with the Institute of Technical<br />
Education.<br />
Every prosthesis is a masterpiece by a<br />
dental technician, who mimics every detail<br />
of a tooth as closely as possible<br />
Mouthguard<br />
Dennis Goh with his cousin, a forensic dentist<br />
What would you consider your special interests in dental<br />
technology? Kindly share some of your most memorable cases.<br />
My interests are in removable prosthetics, i.e., dentures.<br />
Many years ago, when I was a technician at NDCS, the family<br />
members of a dying patient pleaded for a set of dentures. It would<br />
have normally taken two and a half days, but I pushed myself to<br />
complete it within one and a half day.<br />
On another occasion, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon needed a<br />
set of surgical arch bars for a patient who had an accident. It would<br />
help reposition and secure the jaw during the surgery. I rushed<br />
to complete the arch bars within three hours instead of the usual<br />
In the past, dentures were crafted from a mould of the patients’<br />
teeth and processed to form the final acrylic denture for fitting<br />
by a dentist. How has the advancement of technology changed<br />
the way you make dentures?<br />
I am from the analogue-method generation, where injection<br />
moulding was the norm. Then came CAD/CAM, where denture<br />
bases are designed by<br />
software before being<br />
milled. Soon, the press<br />
system and milling will be<br />
replaced by 3D printing.<br />
When I was at the Great New<br />
York <strong>Dental</strong> meeting four<br />
year ago, there had already<br />
been great advancement in<br />
3D printing. I was amazed<br />
by the improved print times,<br />
as well as the things that<br />
could be done by different<br />
software such as <strong>Dental</strong><br />
Dennis Goh keeps himself up to date with<br />
Wings, 3Shape and exocad. developments through dental shows<br />
54 DENTAL ASIA MAY / JUNE <strong>2020</strong>
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