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WHETHER you see a dentist in Bedok or Orchard Road, you will soon know how your bill size compares with that charged by a government-run dental centre.
The information, to go public on the Health Ministry's website from tomorrow, will set price benchmarks for treatments such as wisdom tooth surgery and root canals.
This is so that patients can make more informed choices about how much to pay to care for their teeth.
The initiative follows the Health Ministry's move to make public hospital bill sizes - which triggered almost-immediate price cuts at hospitals that were more expensive than the others.
Aside from pushing for greater cost transparency, the ministry has two other missions - to set up of a register of dental specialists to raise professional standards and to raise the number of dentists by recognising the degrees from 55 more American and Canadian dental schools.
The Health Ministry says the 4.68 million people here need another 653 dentists, based on a ratio of one dentist to every 2,500 people.
This is a conservative projection, given the rise in demand for dental services.
Professor Patrick Tseng of the Health Ministry's Manpower Standards and Development Division, said people were now more aware of dental health and aesthetics and had the money to pay for both.
On the move to put the cost of various dental treatments online, he said it could allay concerns over the widely varying treatment prices here.
A check by The Straits Times found that a root canal can cost $400 at a heartlands dental clinic and $1,500 in an Orchard Road one.
A National University Hospital (NUH) spokesman said a private patient at the hospital would pay between $350 and $900 for a root canal.
Prof Tseng said that making the cost of dental treatment more transparent is all the more important because over three quarters of dentists here are in the private sector.
He pointed out, however, that fees will still vary with the clinic's location, the dentist's experience and the materials used.
Of the 1,422 dentists here, 1,219 are in active practice, out of whom 922 or 85 per cent are in private practice.
Dentists in the private practice, welcoming these changes, say making the fees public supports the ideals of transparency and free-market trade.
After all, nobody wants to a nasty surprise with the bill.
Read the full report in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.
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