SINGAPORE - The dentist suspended and fined for letting a therapist fit braces on a patient is now contesting allegations that he forged documents and falsely claimed about $30,000 from Medisave.
Sng Wee Hock, 46, faces 13 charges of cheating and 11 of forgery.
Prosecutors told the court on the first day of the trial on Wednesday (Nov 13) that Sng made fraudulent Medisave claims between 2013 and 2014 for surgical procedures that he did not perform.
Sng doctored photographs as "proof" of the procedures when the Health Ministry instigated an audit, said Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPP) Eugene Sng and Gerald Tan in opening submissions.
He ran his own practice, WH Dental Surgeons, with branches in Punggol, Hougang and Seletar at the time of his alleged offences.
Sng was the final decision-maker in the practice and in charge of submitting Medisave claims, said prosecutors.
"The charges against the accused arise in respect of his treatment of nine patients who had sought the surgical insertion of dental implants at WH Dental," said DPPs Sng and Tan.
All nine were quoted a price of about $4,000 for each implant and many of them were told by Sng that the treatments were "fully" claimable with Medisave, said prosecutors.
"This is striking because the claim limits applicable for implant treatment were such that it was impossible for implants to be fully Medisave-claimable at the price charged by the accused," said the prosecution.
Sng then allegedly made claims for two types of surgical treatment for all nine patients - a "foreign body removal" and "autogenous bone grafts".
But Sng's patients did not recollect undergoing such procedures, said the prosecution, who said they will submit evidence to "show that FBRs(foreign body removals) are very unusual procedures and that the prevalence of such treatment at WH Dental was striking".
Sng is also accused of lodging claims for implants that had already been inserted into his patients on prior occasions. In total, he claimed about $29,500 from Medisave through such methods.
He doctored photographs to make it appear as though the surgical treatments had taken place, said prosecutors.
In some instances, he added a "single distinct white dot" to purportedly show a "foreign body" prior to a procedure. There was also the "augmentation of an image" to make a tooth socket appear more distinct, purportedly to show a socket before the bone graft procedure.
"The accused's dishonest conduct was not isolated. Instead, it was a consistent course of conduct deliberately intended to subvert the rules on Medisave withdrawal limits and the Medisave audit process," said the prosecution.
It was reported in June that Sng was suspended for four months and fined $18,000 for letting an oral health therapist fit braces on a patient and for not keeping proper notes.
The trial will continue on Thursday (Nov 14).
