DENTAL HEALTH AFFORDABILITY AND CAPACITY OF PUBLIC DENTAL SERVICES

NOTICE PAPER NO. 942
NOTICE OF QUESTION FOR WRITTEN ANSWER
FOR THE SITTING OF PARLIAMENT ON 07 JULY 2026

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms Valerie Lee
MP for Pasir-Ris Changi GRC
 

Question No. 1607 
To ask the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry has assessed the affordability of dental care for Singaporeans across different income groups; (b) how the Ministry assesses whether the capacity of public dental services, including in polyclinics, is sufficient to meet current and projected demand; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider enhancing MediSave coverage for preventive and routine dental treatments.

Answer

1        The Ministry of Health (MOH) recently enhanced CHAS dental subsidies which are tiered by income, for common preventive and restorative procedures . We also extended the Flexi-MediSave scheme to higher-cost dental restorative procedures such as permanent crowns and root canal treatments at public healthcare institutions and CHAS dental clinics, to better support patients in affording these procedures in Singapore. We periodically review requests to expand MediSave coverage, but will need to strike a balance between helping Singaporeans defray their current healthcare costs and ensuring they retain sufficient MediSave savings to meet their future healthcare needs.

2        MOH monitors the capacity of public dental services across polyclinics, national specialty dental centres, and hospital dental clinics through indicators such as attendances, workload, and wait times. We refresh demand projections to assess whether services can meet future needs, and to ensure capacity planning keeps pace with demographic shifts and evolving oral health needs.