Dental Club

The Dental Club serves to promote the welfare of undergraduate Dental students and enrich student life. We are also a constituent club under the National University of Singapore Student Union (NUSSU).

Notable events organised by Dental Club include the

• Freshman Orientation Programme (FOP), which includes the trinity of Freshman Orientation Camp, Rag and Flag events,
• the National University of Singapore – University of Malaya (NUSMU) Exchange and
• the Asia Pacific Dental Students Association (APDSA) Congress

Dental Club also has community outreach and welfare initiatives involving all undergraduate dental students, with the goal of enriching student life and giving back to society.

Freshman Orientation Camp

2021 e-Orientation

Traditionally, the Freshman Orientation Camp is a 3D/2N camp involving both freshmen and seniors which serves as a platform to introduce the freshmen to the Faculty.

However, owing to the COVID-19 situation and the subsequent national and university guidelines on safe management measures, the Orientation Camp for incoming freshmen for AY 2021-2022 was held online, utilising platforms such as ZOOM as well as Microsoft Teams to allow our freshmen to get to know both their classmates and seniors better.

Freshmen and seniors during the 2021 e-Freshman Orientation.

Rag and Flag

Rag and Flag has been a series of annual signature Freshman Orientation events of the NUS Student’s Union since 1958. It was conceived with the intent of encouraging our NUS community to contribute to improving the welfare of the needy and less privileged. Rag Day is an important event of the Freshman Orientation Programme. The Rag Performances put up by the various faculties of NUS are a culmination of several weeks of considerable effort in float building, rehearsing of dance moves and ultimately putting together a riveting and coherent performance. Unfortunately, we decided to sit out of Rag 2021 owing to the COVID-19 situation and the prevailing group size limitations.

Dentistry was conferred the prestigious Gold award for our award-winning performance during Rag & Flag 2019.

 

Making of floats and sewing of costumes in preparation for Rag and Flag 2019.

Flag efforts are usually held throughout the year, with various fund-raising initiatives including the Valentine’s Day and FOP merchandise sales that culminate in an island-wide Flag Day donation collection. In 2021, the Flag Team used online platforms such as an e-Store to publicise and sell merchandise in place of the annual physical Flag Day event that was cancelled. The proceeds were then given to beneficiaries of the Community Chest. Another Flag effort is the annual beneficiary engagement, where we conduct a day of oral health education for students at Pathlight School.

In 2021, however, the uncertain COVID-19 climate meant that a physical beneficiary engagement effort was difficult to organise. Instead, our Flag Team opted to create an oral health education video for Pathlight School. Additionally, we engaged Dr Tong Huei Jinn, a Paediatric dentist with a wealth of experience in managing, treating and children with special needs to share with and give freshmen and other participants a greater insight into managing the dental needs of these children.

Nevertheless, we hope to return to having a physical beneficiary engagement event once the COVID-19 situation has subsided and stabilised. This will better expose and engage our dental students in learning more about managing and treating patients with special needs and improve our chairside manners.

Freshmen who helped in the filming of the oral health education video for Pathlight School.

NUSMU Exchange

In the latest exchange held in 2020, our undergraduate dental students travelled over to the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to forge greater friendships between the two dental schools.

The NUSMU Exchange is an annual event jointly organised by the Faculty of Dentistry in the National University of Singapore and the University of Malaya, where both faculties take turns to host this annual exchange. In 2020, 20 of our peers went to Kuala Lumpur to meet with our counterparts and bonded over a 3D/2N programme which included sports, games, sight-seeing, and cross-university relationship building.

Undergraduate dental students from both the National University of Singapore (black) and University of Malaya (pink)
during the NUSMU Exchange.

Participants from both dental schools at the central market during the 2020 edition of the NUSMU exchange.

Asia Pacific Dental Students Association (APDSA) Congress

APDSA was established in Japan in 1968, with the inaugural Annual Congress held in 1969. APDSA comprises dental schools from 16 member countries of the Asia Pacific region and provides an avenue for the holistic growth of dental students through enriching activities such as its annual congress, mid-year meeting and lend-a-hand project. The annual congress is attended by dental students, academics and professionals globally and gives dental students a chance to meet and learn from professors and practitioners from all over the world.

Our students performing at the 2019 APDSA Congress.

Community Outreach Initiatives

The community outreach arm of Dental Club was conceived in recent years with the hope of encouraging our students to get more involved in service-oriented initiatives and to inspire a continual spirit of altruism. Two keynote events that had been hugely meaningful were the CommServ Conversations (CSC) and People’s Appreciation Week (PAW) events.

Held across an entire week, CSC 2022 sought to increase students’ exposure to issues facing our community through the lens of speakers and their experiences from service initiatives they are involved in. This in turn would serve as a springboard to inspire students to serve the community in their own way (and how they can go about doing it). Speakers from this session included Dr Tan Lai Yong, who took students on a learning journey to discover a less known (and less privileged) side of Singapore to provoke thought on how they can help. Dr Eugene Loh also shared about his overseas volunteering experiences and opportunities with A Call to Serve (ACTS) while Dr Eugene Tang shared about serving at free clinics locally and also on overseas dental missions.

Students on the learning journey with Dr Tan Lai Yong (far right) in Jalan Kukoh earlier in 2022.

The PAW event punctuates the school term and serves as a timely reminder for students to count our blessings.  The event centres around showing appreciation to those around us – our lecturers and staff to our lab technicians and cleaner uncles and aunties, as well as our peers who have blessed us. Throughout this week, students are encouraged to write notes of appreciation to people whom they are grateful to - a simple yet effective gesture that promotes positivity and gratitude, uplifting those around us and inspiring this spirit of appreciation, and not taking our blessings for granted.

Our Lab Technician, Mr Chin Jia Hau (second from right) receiving appreciation cards written by students across the faculty.

Welfare Initiatives

One of the key goals of Dental Club is also to enhance student life and foster a supportive culture within the Faculty. In 2021, we organised the Angel and Mortal initiative to promote the spirit of mutual peer support and encouragement, where students would write anonymously to a randomly assigned student within the Faculty and surprise each other in school with inexpensive gifts and notes of encouragement. This also helped to promote inter-batch interactions and foster senior-junior support systems. In conjunction with NUSSU, Dental Club also administered the biannual exam welfare packs that comprise exam essentials, simple snacks and notes of encouragement, giving our students an additional boost during exam periods.

Students receiving their NUSSU Welfare Packs

How We Have Grown

While the past two years have brought about many changes, created “new normals” and brought about some degrees of inconveniences, it has no doubt also challenged us to explore new ways to continue promoting a holistic education and robust student experience here at the Faculty of Dentistry. As we yet again find ourselves at the cusp of another “new” normal, we are confident that the adaptability we have developed during the pandemic period will help us to transit back to “pre-pandemic times” more smoothly.

 

Contact Us:

Email: dentalclubpresident@u.nus.edu

Instagram: @nusdentclub