A self-proclaimed dentist was issued a hefty fine for illegal dental practices in Singapore.
Channel News Asia reported that Siti Shahrima Abd Rahim was made to pay a fine totalling to S$2,500 (RM8,820) by a district court on Monday (April 8), to which she paid in full.
The 37-year-old pled guilty to one count under the Dental Registration Act with the court taking into consideration another similar charge.
She was caught after one of her previous customers complained about not being able to floss after applying composite veneers in January 2022, after coming across her services on Carousell.
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The woman paid S$700 for Siti to install a new set of veneers and remove her existing veneers. The customer realised the following day that she was unable to floss her teeth as there was “little to no space” between her veneers, as quoted.
The customer contacted Siti who then claimed that she could not do much about her issue at hand as she was quarantined due to Covid-19 which prompted the customer to send an e-mail to Singapore’s Ministry of Health.
A prosecutor from the health ministry sought the fine for the self-proclaimed dentist, saying, as quoted from the report, that “the offence carried the potential for more serious injuries”.
During the trial mitigation, Siti said that she wanted to return to Malaysia to celebrate Hari Raya and asked if she could pay off her fine in installments, stating that she had borrowed the money to pay the fine, adding that she could get more money from Malaysia if necessary.
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She learned how to perform dental procedures on her own through YouTube dental tutorial videos after not being able to go for her dental appointments during the Movement Control Order in 2020 to curb the spread of Covid-19.
After much practice, Siti went on to advertise her services such as whitening veneers, tooth and braces and providing retainers on e-commerce platform Carousell, charging her customers between S$650 (RM2,293) to S$700 (RM2,469).
She was practicing as an unregistered and unlicensed dentist the entire time.
In order to meet her customers, Siti usually entered Singapore using short-term passes and met them in high-end hotels, letting them know of the location on either the Carousell or WhatsApp applications.
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