Nuffield opens flagship clinic at iconic Orchard Rd

The dental clinic features recovery rooms, a lab, an expert team, and, soon, an academy.

After spending 13 years of his medical practice in England, Dr. Samintharaj Kumar got fixated on the wellness and healthy lifestyle promoted by the Nuffield gym, part of the largest British healthcare charity. And with that name, Kumar opened his Nuffield Dental Group business in Singapore in 2014 with absolutely zero connection to Nuffield Health.

Now, after implanting over 10 dental clinics in Singapore, the Nuffield Dental Group CEO and founder was faced with a simple yet daunting task – finding a location for the dental group’s flagship clinic.

“We wanted Nuffield Dental Jewel to be the flagship clinic for Nuffield Dental. So it was important that the location was central enough that our patients could funnel into a centre of excellence for complex treatments,” Kumar told Healthcare Asia

In 2020, it struck Kumar to install Nuffield Dental Jewel at Wheelock Place, Orchard Road, dubbed as one of the ultimate shopping streets in Southeast Asia. The location allows them to cater to tourists and locals since Orchard Road attracts seven million visitors annually, according to the Singapore Tourism Board.

“It was very difficult to find a location at that point in time to be very honest, but we were very lucky to get the space where we are at the moment. It spans two units at Wheelock Place,” said Kumar. “It enjoys a very good sort of reach to local customers and also international visitors because of the hotels and the shopping that’s along with it.”

High-end dentistry requires upscaling

Having the flagship clinic also meant upscaling their resources. And that meant installing six dental chairs at Nuffield Dental Jewel from the usual three or four chairs that deliver intravenous sedation procedures safely in their other clinics. In choosing Wheelock Place, Kumar wanted to ensure that the space can house a 3,600-square-foot dental laboratory.

Aside from dental surgeries and high technology, he said their clinic has a dedicated team of dental technicians to develop prostheses or dental crowns, which are fixed prosthetic devices that replace missing teeth.

“It is difficult or virtually impossible to do high-end dentistry without immediate close laboratory support from our technicians,” Kumar explained.

It depends on the dental expert’s examination, but full mouth rehabilitation will likely include tooth whitening, composite bonding, orthodontic teeth straightening, and dental implants, amongst others.

That is why the flagship clinic features recovery rooms for patients who had multiple procedures to restore teeth and bite at optimal conditions. “These are hospital-style

[Orchard Road] enjoys a good reach to local customers and international visitors rooms where patients can lie down for prolonged periods of time, even up to a day. Here, their vitals such as blood pressure, pulse rate, and oxygen saturation levels can be monitored on an hourly basis,” Kumar said.

Dental academy

But building clinics is not the only important task for Kumar’s dental group, it is also honing the skills of their staff. To add more teeth to the training of dental nurses, Nuffield Dental Group has its own academy.

The academy, which was accredited by SkillsFuture Singapore, offers high-quality courses to dental surgeons, who will increase the quality of oral care in Singapore.

It offers courses on wisdom teeth removal, oral surgery, implant dentistry, ceramic implants, platelet-rich fibrin, and learning cutting-edge technology like how to use the T-scan.

Kumar said the training was first offered to their in-house employees. Over 10 dental nurses were trained in the academy. But now, they are opening the academy even to dental nurses from other clinics who do not have much training. More than training them in the use of dental chairs and dental sterilisation rooms, nurses get upskilled in the dental environment for three days after finishing the course. All courses at the academy will help ensure uniformity and a high level of precision in dental processes, especially the AllOn-4 procedure. This academy’s location is being eyed at the

Nuffield Dental Jewel, where courses for experienced dental clinicians for Singapore and other countries are organised.

In a previous speech, Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung said medicine and dentistry training is pricey, about four to five times expensive. For example, at the National University of Singapore, fees are about $29,000 annually as of 2019.

He then advocated for allowing students with the potential to overcome financial challenges.

Ong revealed the support received from national public initiatives including the School Dental Program. The government also collaborated to carry out dental screening for our three- to four-year-old children in about 800 preschools this year. “Government funding of education plus means-tested bursaries provide a strong base. Your support enables the Faculty [of Dentistry] to exercise judgment and flexibility and give additional help to those who deserve and need it. For the neediest cases, all the fees will be waived, and the student may even get some monthly allowance to get by with our full support,” Ong said.

Testing implants

In October 2022, Nuffield also worked with manufacturing firm, Osteopore, on tapping a dental implant technology, which is a way to replace missing teeth.

“Dental implants replace missing teeth permanently and are a good alternative to dentures or dental bridges. As they are built to closely replicate your natural tooth, they feel comfortable as compared to other teeth replacement techniques,” read the statement on Nuffield’s website.

The technology, called Osteomesh, is described as a “semi-flexible bioresorbable mesh with a bone-like microarchitecture.” It facilitates the immediate implant placement technique, even in compromised extraction sites, which allows possibilities of more complex implant surgery.

Osteomesh has benefits such as protection of the graft material, maintenance of jaw architecture for both hard and soft tissue, regeneration of the patient’s bone, and immediate implant placement. The bone remodeling takes place before complete degradation at 18 months to over two years. It is also user-friendly since it is semiflexible, easy to handle, and provided in a range of sizes that can be trimmed with scissors. The technology can also be customised to specific patient anatomical needs as required to achieve optimal outcomes. To test this technology, Kumar revealed that they had to work into multiple meetings and outlines.

“We are talking about small defects in the mouth for dental reconstruction, especially with and without implants. Now, to create that view, they will take videos, and we would try and create cartoons or illustrations as to how the products are going to be used,” said Kumar.

In a snapshot of GlobalData’s 2023 report, dental implants and abutments procedure in APAC was 4,182,596 in 2022.

Bite scan tech

One of the technologies of the dental firm is bite analysis scan technology, which is called the T scan. Whilst gum disease and decay are common dental issues, Kumar said the technology helps them analyse teeth deficiencies of people with bite issues. “The T scan force sensor is fantastic in terms of giving me the information I need to improve the quality of life of my patients who have a biting problem,” said Kumar.

“The T scan allows dentists to accurately assess how a patient’s upper and lower jaws come together when biting and the amount of force applied,” he added.

Comparing this technology to the manual process, Kumar described that before, dentists had to use paper to identify the problematic spots of the tooth.

This technology replaces “conventional mouth impressions, which are uncomfortable, less exact, and will take multiple appointments.”

A 2022 Ken Research report that there is a rising awareness of dental services such as changes in lifestyle and diet during the 2020 era, including those linked to dental health. With this, Singapore dental services market growth will be driven by the rise in periodontitis and tooth decay.

Solutions include subscription dental services, digital healthcare, and government initiative, said Ken Research.

Under the subscription model, it is quite like Netflix where services may offer an annualised or monthly rate that covers regular cleanings, x-rays, and even fillings or other surgery.

Under digital healthcare, telemedicine, AI, and data adoption may receive support from the government. The government, on the other hand, increased expenditure to further subsidise healthcare.