Burmese model Mable Soe gets her teeth whitened for Xmas.

Eee… Why Like That?

That was my initial reaction to seeing those ugly trunks worn by the Singapore waterpolo team in the Asian Games. And after an initial “cooling down period”, I looked at them and went “eee… why like that?” again.

Not for an unnamed Singapore official in Guangzhou. He/she told The New Paper that it looked “obscene”. Next, Carol Tan, the resilience and marketing division director at the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts denied any involvement with the design of the trunks.

Ms Tan said: “We would have told them that their design is inappropriate as we want elements of the Flag to be treated with dignity.”

Not their fault.

Quite predictably, when team manager Samuel Wong heard about the complaints, he said: “There was no question of being disrespectful to Singapore or to the national flag. We sincerely apologise if it has offended anyone.”

A remarkable show of national pride, but Mr Wong and Ms Tan can save their apologies for me. I may find the design ugly and funny, but it will take a much bigger and thicker crescent moon to offend me. Apparently, the majority of Singaporeans are perfectly OK with the trunks. Even those who objected to them only had issues with the crescent moon and not with the stars. I’m not sure how small they’ll have to make the crescent moon to please everybody, but the last thing we need is for some puritanical prig to stand up and condemn the harmless trunks. And let’s not make the crescent moon too small or it’ll look paedophilic.

The trunks may look ugly and/or silly, but as a patriotic Singaporean, I’m not even going to say that they are ugly and/or silly. I’m going to say that they look great on our waterpolo team and all my support goes out to them. May they do our country proud and wear it over that unnamed official’s head after the match.

Screw Inner Beauty

Screw Inner Beauty - lessons from the fatosphere by Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby.

I thought this book would be a wicked revelation of how superficial modern soceities are. I thought it would show us what really fills the minds of people who emphasise on inner beauty over outer beauty. I expected a funny, honest, candid and sarcastic style. Well, this book turned out to be totally beyond my expectations.

Well, it did start off with some revelation of hypocrisy by magazines that tell you to love yourself the way you are on one page and then carry tons of advertisements telling you how to change your looks for the better. Then, the authors revealed that they are fat and not ashamed of admitting it. That’s fine with me. It’s their own bodies. But the insights and advice that follow show how little they understand nutrition and physiology. It’s true that most people who embark on weight loss programs succeed at first but regain all the weight they lost, but that does not mean that the science behind dieting and nutrition is all wrong. Yes, experts have been paid to endorse programs and products. Some have even written books aimed more at selling than informing, but the science still holds. People become obesed because they take in too much and burn off too little.

Healthy At Every Size (HAES) is an interesting concept. I might even agree with it. No matter how some people exercise, they just can’t get rid of their thick thighs or buttocks. In fact, the majority of people who attend slimming programs aren’t even overweight. These are genuine victims of “media standards”. They should go for counselling instead of extreme weight loss programs if they are healthy in spite of an isolated chunk of stubborn fat that just wouldn’t go away. Perhaps they should even read the more sensible parts of this book.

However, there are many people out there who are indeed overweight and at risk of serious chronic illnesses. It’s factually incorrect for the authors to say that the majority of people will not be able to maintain their weight within healthy limits even if they exercise sufficiently and eat good food. The authors further postulated (wrongly) that there is no such thing as good food and bad food - just eat intuitively. That would be a recipe for disaster.

They seem to have forgotten that very few of our ancestors were fat because there weren’t much junk food, travelators and escalators back then. Malnutrition was a bigger (no pun intended) problem than obesity. We live in very different times and going intuitively with food loaded with trans fats and sodium without any discipline or knowledge to discern is exactly the source of weight problems (with accompanying health issues) in the developed world.

The part about choosing doctors who don’t tell you are obesed and at risk of certain illnesses is preposterous. How about avoiding the doctor who tells you you’ve got a tumour that needs to be investigated? Aren’t they supposed to be confident and in full acceptance of their bodies? Why bother to avoid doctors who comment on their weight? While I admire the authors’ positive outlook in life, I can’t help but conclude that they are people who are happy because they are blissfully ignorant or in denial.

I can’t comment on their advice on social life. I’ve never been fat and if one of them is happily married and other dating successfully, I guess, it’s OK to take some advice from them. Finally, take a look at Kate Harding’s picture below. Does she look that fat to you? Think twice before buying her book.

Bond & Conlour

This Filipino Tai Tai's problem is quite obvious. Wear and tear chipped the biting edges of her upper incisors. Though she only complained about the chipped edge of the left incor, we decided to complete the picture, so to speak, by dong bonding on the left incisor and some contouring on the other teeth.

The chipped tooth has been repaired with composite resin. The other teeth have also been "sculpted".

Not many people will dare show their cases as this magnification.

Cost of Conscious sedation.

We provide moderate conscious sedation for procedures taking less than 1 hour. Unlike deep sedation which is administered by an anaesthetist and costs $600 per hour, conscious sedation costs only $200. It is suitable for 1 simple wisdom toothe surgery or multiple extractions.

Getting To The Church On Time

Here is one young gentleman we want to get to the church on time and having teeth like this just won't do . He was wearing a removable plastic denture. His central incisor is dead.

We did root canal for the dead tooth and bleaching for the other teeth.

His gums are still not "level". Gum surgery will be required to correct that and produce a more harmonious gum line.

We removed gum tissue on the left side.

Weeks after gum surgery shows remarkable healing. We prepared the 2 bridge supporting teeth.

The temporary bridge is in place. Even thought the shade of the temporary bridge is light, it appears darker than the patient's bleached teeth.

Cost of Root Canal Treatment

If you are looking to do the root canal treatment in Singapore. Yes, you should ask for the cost of the treatment but the cheap root canal might not be the cheapest in the long run. Don't go to a dentist with whom don't have experience or you are not familiar just to get a cheap treatment. The better you should search to be sure first but I didn't saying that the dentist with the cheap fee won't do a good job .

How much does root canal treatment cost ? (in Singapore)

Central incisor, Lateral incisor (front tooth) about $ 350 - $400
Canine $400 - $600
First premolar, Second premolar $600 - $700
First molar , Second molar $700 - $950
(This price for GP )

For Endodontics Specialist about $950 - $2000