Welcome

It has been such a challenge to keep up with my blog in the recent years due to my busy schedule and constantly trying to balance my priorities, I have decided to keep the updates on iSmile going by using social media.
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Last December, we went for a 10-day trip to Vietnam ,covering Hanoi,  Halong Bay, Danang, Hoi An, Dalat and  HoChiMinh City.

Some snippets of our holiday…

      

Feeling very thankful and blessed to be able to do this with my family 🙂

I enjoy running, and my dear husband ,who has always had a bad knee would encourage me but he could not really run very well. However he is such a determined person and he decided to see various doctors, from orthopaedic surgeons to specialists in sports medicine ,to try to get his knees back to shape, so that he could run with me. So he spent time training in the gym specifically for his knees after the advice of one particular surgeon in Singapore. And  I am so blessed to have a running partner now!

So in year 2013 ,we happily signed up for a number of runs, with distances ranging from 10km to 21km(half marathon). We even went to do one in Bangkok and one in Singapore.

      

      

I am constantly reminding myself to be thankful that we are still able to run and keep ourselves fit, and enjoy doing this together.

This year my husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. We had the privilege to spend a week in Japan together,covering Tokyo,Osaka and Kyoto. Even more privileged to fly business class, thanks to the many frequent flyer points accumulated by TC’s work travels.

      

We did the things we enjoy doing together- eating and walking and  even managed to run around the Osaka castle!

      

      

      

One of the things I enjoy besides clinical practice as a dental practitioner is the opportunity to teach clinical students in the university.I have been doing clinical supervision for Year 4 students in the dental faculty in my alma mater,the University of Malaya(UM),for a few years now. And apart from being able to impart clinical knowledge and helping them improve their clinical skills, I also enjoy interacting with them. So I try to routinely organize some food and fun sessions for them at my home. I used to do that only for a small group of dental students from the Christian fellowship for many years now, but in the recent years, I felt that I should just include anyone who wants to come along, and oh yes! along they came!

It was Chinese New Year season, so we had quite a crowd, playing games and making a lot of happy noise! (my neighbors are quite used to these noisiness by now!)

      

      

      

I also had the privilege to prepare a home-cooked meal for the final year students who finished their final exams in July. These ones are now serving as Dental Officers in various locations all over Malaysia.

They had earlier invited me as one of their “cikgu”s(teacher) to attend an Appreciation Night at the university.

These students and eventual great dentists will always be cherished as my dear friends because of these times we share ,whether it be in or out of their polyclinics. I look forward to more of these times…

One other thing that I do routinely in my practice ,is to have visiting students from some local universities . They usually come in small groups to visit and to find out some information about a private practice. Last year, the dental faculty of UM came up with a mentoring program where the students are allocated/attached to a particular clinic for a few days for them to get a better idea of how a practice is run. I had 2 of them who came and spent some time with us at iSmile

I think I attended so many conferences and courses this year that I lost count of the number. Some were really good with some excellent top-notch speakers. Some were only so-so. However, there is always something I can learn whatever the circumstances.

I also take the opportunity during these scientific meetings to catch up with my colleagues and other dental practitioners. We are constantly busy with our respective schedules that these are precious time for us to catch up with one another.

      

      

This year I signed up for an endodontic conference in Seoul,Korea; also taking the opportunity to visit Korea. I attended the 17th Scientific Congress of APEC (Asia Pacific Endodontic Confederation )  in COEX ,Gangnam ,and the congress was entitled “New Horizon in Endodontics”.

This was an excellent conference with most of the big names in endodontics from around the world ,all gathering to share the latest in endodontics. It was a real privilege to be there together with another fellow Malaysian, at the same time experiencing the Korean culture.  They are so efficient that they have their association meeting during lunch hour AND eat their lunch at the same time!

      

      

      

And while in Korea, TC,who traveled there with me, decided that we should hike up at least one of its many mountains. Hiking is one of the favorite activities here. So we went up Mount Bukhansan,which was near to the city. Located within the Bukhansan national park, we climbed the Baegundae Peak,which was the highest peak on Bukhansan, at 840m. What an experience! after that we are determined that we will return to Korea for more hikes.

      

      

This year I also decided to attend an implant course, just to keep myself up to date on what is the latest in dental implants and its applications. For the longest time I shied away from placing implants surgically, only staying to the prosthodontics portion of the implant treatment. So it was an interesting step for me .

I attending a few full-day  intensive lecture sessions and we had to place implants on patients under supervision as part of the course.

    

There is still so much to learn………….

I can’t believe that its the 31st of December again! and i have not been updating my website for the longest time, sigh!

The year just passed too fast , I did so many things, traveled quite a bit and was just ….busy. But here I need to pause and put some updates on this site.

The main highlights are always our team activities, and most of the time we are eating! and enjoying every moment of it!

In February this year , we had a get together with our families

      

         

and we also took the opportunity to get our photos taken by a professional! We were fortunate to have Jamie Ang take some great shots for us

    

Then there are the birthdays that we managed to celebrate in between our busy schedules…

        

        

We also did our annual Buka Puasa together with family members and this time it was at the Royal Bintang Hotel at Mutiara Damansara.

   

   

11 days together in Taiwan was quite a feat for the 7 of us in the family, including our youngest who was then 15 month old. However everyone agreed that it was one of the best family holidays ever! It reminded us to be thankful for one another.

So here’s sharing some clips from our lovely holiday in November 2012

      

      

      

      

I attended an endodontic conference in Singapore in September 2012, over a weekend and picked up some knowledge on new advances in the area of root canal treatment.  At the same time,we were reminded of the basic fundamentals of what we have learnt on how our human cells have great ability to regenerate and repair.
In these times where the old kept being replaced by the new,the message was quite refreshing.

I was privileged to have a photo with the much esteemed Professor  Harold Messer.

My 2nd daughter Tjia-Yi will be a teenager soon,and I realise that she is growing up fast. In spite of our busyness, my husband and I are constantly reminding ourselves to be intentional parents, So we do try to prioritize some of our time for our children as they are growing up.
So I planned a short trip to Bangkok ,this time with my 2nd daughter.
We did the eating and shopping thing,and had a very good time.