Foshan, City of Factories

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit China on a short 4D3N trip. It was a joint fully sponsored trip by a Chinese dental equipment manufacturer and a local Malaysian dental supply distributor. The manufacturer is a company called COXO, based in Foshan, Guangdong province. My company had recently bought an endo motor (root canal treatment machine) from COXO via the local distributor. In return, they sponsored 1 person from my clinic to visit their factories over in Foshan.

Obviously I couldn’t pass up this awesome opportunity to visit today’s China. The last time I visited China was 10 years ago, and today’s China is, in many ways, vastly more high tech and modern.

KUL – CAN (Kuala Lumpur to Guangzhou)

Foshan is situated next to Guangzhou, at the heart of the Pearl River Delta, an urban megacity and industrial heartland. The Pearl River Delta in Southeastern China, including Hong Kong and Macau, is home to some 100 million people! With vast sprawling, infinitely connected and seemingly endless built-up area, this whole area is an economic powerhouse in by itself – with Shenzhen being the tech capital, Hong Kong the financial centre and Macau the casino & duty-free zone. And of course, Foshan is the city of factories, manufacturing everything the world needs.

We visited the COXO factory on day 2 of the trip. COXO claims themselves to be the largest manufacturer of dental handpieces (drills) and the perhaps the most established dental equipment brand in China. Their products are mainly motorised equipment – endo motors and handpieces. They didn’t allow us to take photos within their factory, which is a pity, because it was really quite impressive – the amount of labour-intensive work and multiple rounds of quality control.

However one thing I noticed was that a lot of the tech is still from other countries. The calibration machine is German. The big robotic machines are Japanese. This is truly a global business with China providing the adequate skilled labourers and the tech coming from elsewhere, they can manufacture quality products are lower costs.

Based on their QC and expertise in motorised equipment, maybe in the future they could even make electric cars? *hint hint: Tesla*

Impressed, I bought a few handpieces at factory price for my clinic. Based on my recent use, I find their handpieces incredibly sturdy and powerful, which is very helpful if you put a diamond drillbit at the end of it.

The days of China products being cheap knockoffs are over. Of course, there is still a black market out there selling rejected goods for dirt cheap, but in general, Chinese products that are more expensive (but still undercutting their European/Western brands) are of top notch quality. Well if they can build a bridge linking Hong Kong to Macau, I’m sure they can build a decent handpiece.

The following afternoon we visited another factory, but this one produced dental chair units. I had never seen anything quite like it: a large assembly line putting together parts of a chair we use every day.

On day 3 we visited a large dental laboratory that makes crowns, bridges and dentures, as well as a dental/maxillofacial hospital. And of course you can’t go around China without seeing a funny English translation!

There was also time for sightseeing. I made some new friends during the trip, thanks to Summer Ho for taking this pic of me in front of Zumiao temple, the home of martial artists Ip Man and Wong Fei Hung. And here’s the best looking Starbucks in Foshan.

All in all, great trip, no regrets.

Joining as a Private Dentist

Time flies! I’ve spent three months in the private sector already, working at mydentist® in KL. We have two branches right now – the main branch is in Jalan Ipoh, and the new branch just opened last year in Bangsar. So far I’m based mainly at the Jalan Ipoh branch, slowly learning my way around things.

When we got the lions to bless the Bangsar branch. CNY 2019.

At mydentist® we do a wide range of treatments, ranging from simple restorations to orthodontics, invisalign and implants, minor oral surgeries and periodontal surgeries. At the moment I’m looking into learning MOS, hopefully that would come to fruition soon!

The Jalan Ipoh branch, looks like a spa.

I’m really enjoying my time here so far. A dental career is all about nonstop learning, and I’m constantly improving myself by the everyday challenges I’ve come to expect. And finally I can do more than just filling, scaling, and extractions!

To find out more about us, visit mydentist® website to find out more!

Anyway I’m here to write about the steps on how to resign from the government service and join as a private dentist.

How to resign from the government and become a private dentist

So you’ve completed your khidmat wajib in the govt and want to venture out into the big bad world of private dentistry. This is the TL;DR version:

1. Find a job
2. Submit resignation letter
3. Apply for APC with MDC
4. Start work

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STEP 1 –  FIND A JOB

Let’s get down to the truth. It’s getting difficult out here. Malaysia’s 11 dental schools + all the international universities are pumping out thousands of new dental grads each year. If not for the contract employment system in place for NDOPs, many new grads may have to wait years to even get a govt posting. For a population of 32 million, we are going to hit that sweet spot of dentist-to-population ratio of 1:2000 soon.

Same goes with the private sector. As more and more dentists are being produced, more will resign from the govt and spillover into the private sector. Dare I say that Klang Valley is now saturated with private dentists. The area of Bangsar alone (from Jalan Bangsar to Bangsar Shopping Centre) is home to some 20 dental clinics, at least! Saturation is bad because we will compete for the same market, and cannibalise the business.

Finding a job is difficult. So if you’re keen to take the leap from the govt and join private, you have to stand out. Be passionate about dentistry, or a specific type of dentistry. Brand yourself. You may like aesthetic dentistry, or surgery. Find a niche where you excel and sell yourself to the employer. Also play up how good you are in a team. Teamwork is very important to dentistry and leadership skills do stand out. At the same time, be humble, and show that you are willing to learn.

There’s no hard & fast rule to how to get a job. Find a clinic/boss that you like or admire or even just for the location. Email them your CV. Call them to make an appointment to see the boss. Or even just walk in and meet them. I know based on experience that some bosses like ballsy moves like walking in for an interview.

If you have connections, get them to recommend you. Nothing is better than a personal recommendation.

Once you’re close to landing yourself an offer, sit down with the management/employer and negotiate terms. As far as I know, most private dentists are considered self-employed associates. Meaning that we are independent contractors paid for our expertise in the clinic, so we are not considered a staff per se, and we don’t get EPF/KWSP. Most of the offers come in the form of basic salary + 40% profit sharing, whichever is higher, which encourages you to actively attract patients & work hard. Some clinics give you a flat salary, subject to increments over time. Talk out these terms, as well as annual leave and working hours, before you make a decision and sign your contract. Most of us work 6 days a week (!), and don’t get much leave to start with. So when you join the private sector, be prepared to hustle!

STEP 2 – SUBMIT RESIGNATION DOCUMENTS TO SDO

There are 3 items you need to submit by hardcopy to the SDO. Usually you must submit this at least one month in advance of your resignation. My SDO wanted 6 weeks (1.5 months). You can ask if your KP has a softcopy of this in the PC, or message your PT and ask for resignation documents. Fill in your details, print them out, sign and dispatch.

1. Resignation letter – should look something like this:

2. Lampiran C

3.  Perakuan hutang

These are just for references and I’ve redacted the personal details. It’s better to get an actual softcopy version to edit.

After dispatching, check with your PT to make sure they have received it. They will check the details and make sure there are no mistakes. Paperwork bureaucracy is strict in the govt.

STEP 3 – RECEIVE SURAT PENAMATAN/PENGESAHAN LETAK JAWATAN FROM JKN

This can sometimes take a few weeks to process. This is because your SDO will need to submit somemore documents to your state JKN to inform them of your resignation. The JKN will then check that you have successfully completed 1 year of service, and issue a letter which will then be forwarded to your KP. This letter is important and you NEED it to apply for an APC.

I’ve spoken to other people from other states who have resigned and apparently theirs are a bit different, but the idea is the same. This is mine from JKN Selangor.

There are many names for this abovementioned letter. For simplicity I’ll just call it surat penamatan.

STEP 4 – APPLY APC

You’ll be dealing with MDC again. For this step you need 4 things:

1. Borang 8 – get from MDC website
2. Existing APC
3. Surat penamatan
4. Bank draft/postal order (RM 50 per clinic)

For the surat penamatan, do make photocopies of it and submit it to MDC. Keep the original for yourself in case you need it in the future.

You can submit the above documents by post to MDC. However I submitted mine by hand to Cyberjaya. Thankfully I did, because I brought a personal cheque, and they pointed out that they only accept bank drafts/postal orders. So I had to go the nearby post office to get a postal order of RM50 per clinic to pay them.

MDC usually takes about a week or so to send the hardcopy APC to your new clinic. But their online DPIMS system is much faster. As soon as that gets approved, you can start practising at your new clinic!

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The timing of these sequences must be right. Because without an APC, you cannot practise, even if you’re supposed to start work. My advice is this: plan way ahead of time. Give yourself two months to do all the above before committing to start work in private.

So there you go, you are a private dentist! It’s a much more rewarding and satisfying sector of dentistry, but it comes with many more challenges, stress and responsibilities. You’ll have to work hard.

Good luck comrades!

 

Published

New site, new ideas

Dear readers, as my blog at MeJournals begins to gather some steam and increased viewership, I think it’s time to migrate my blog to WordPress proper.

MeJournals was an idea hatched by some of my good old friends in high school (Timothy and Jo Fan) at the peak of the blogosphere fandom back in 2009. They co-created MeJournals, which runs on WordPress, to promote good writing and sharing of ideas as the internet age was fast approaching. While being part the MeJournals community I had my own small personal blog for years, followed by a long period of silence, and then in late 2014 I came up with my own idea to write about dentistry. I initially wanted to start a WordPress proper blog, but I thought for convenience sake I’d just run with the old mejournals.com/kai URL for a trial run to see whether a dental blog can be informative and awesome at the same time.

Turns out it’s doing great, especially when I write clickbait-worthy posts and essential information posts with memes. MeJournals while great at being an icebreaker question “What is Mejournals? Is it another blogspot site?”; does have its shortcomings. It’s being hosted in Malaysia, and based on my stats it appears my viewers come from all over the globe. Personally I’ve tried accessing the site from UK and it’s a little slow. Themes are also getting a bit outdated as I intend to make the site look a bit more modern. I think Timothy might be a little too busy to update the MeJournals platform at this time.

MeJournals was born as an idea to improve the blogging community. However it seems that these days people are less appreciative of long write-ups, and prefer attention-grabbing short bursts of information i.e. social media. I may go as far as to say that blogging is a dying art. It’s fast becoming the newspapers of the internet. And yet I am blogging because the stuff I want to write and convey to the world needs to be written in this form – with images, videos, memes in between the words. MeJournals has helped me achieve that, and for that I am grateful to my friends who created MeJournals: massive shoutout to Timothy and Jo Fan!

I published a thing!

Back in the summer of 2016 I worked on research project at Queen’s University Belfast on root canal treatments. It was a retrospective study on the quality of root canal treatments performed by undergraduate students at the university. Back then I did not divulge into the results of the study as it was unpublished work.

Choosing to publish in a renowned journal was tiring:  there was edit after edit, meeting after meeting. Eventually in June 2017 our submission was accepted by the International Endodontic Journal! It took almost a year to get from results to publication, but the effort was worth it in the end.

Thank you Omid for your company and motivation from start to finish, and for insisting that I be named lead author! 🙂 Thanks also to the awesome lecturers in Belfast – Dr El Karim, Dr Lappin and Dr Killough.

You can find the online abstract on PubMed and on Wiley Online Library. As much as I want the whole paper to be available online for free, alas it’s the publisher’s decision to make it a paid service. However as an author I have the pdf file so if any of you readers are keen to read the paper, you can contact me. A word of warning: you may fall asleep reading it, it’s not the most exciting piece of work to read! Or better, if you have trouble falling asleep…

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As part of a new signoff routine,

Kai

How to register as a dentist in Malaysia

Hello all! I’ve already gotten my job posting, I got posted to Klinik Pergigian Gombak Setia under the district of Gombak and state of Selangor. I was fortunate enough to have only waited 3 months from the time of registration to actually getting the job offer as part of the November 2017 intake. The process of getting a job as a dental officer under the government in Malaysia is extremely complicated and headache-inducing, especially more so if you’re a foreign graduate without batchmates, as I personally went through lots of questioning and double-checking myself. So I’ve decided to help the new dentists out there: here’s my detailed step-by-step guide on how to get a job in the government as a dentist in Malaysia (accurate as of Nov 2017)

If you’re lazy to go through the entire article, here’s a condensed TL;DR version that probably doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know your way around.

• STEP 1: Register with the MDC
• STEP 2: Apply online through SPA
• STEP 3: Submit required documents to KKM
• STEP 4: Wait for job offer
• STEP 5: Attend PTM
• STEP 6: Report for duty

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STEP 1 – Email MDC

First thing you must do after you graduate is to make an appointment with the Malaysian Dental Council (MDC) to register as a dental practitioner (pengamal pergigian). I tried calling the MDC phone number, but they told me to email them so they can take their time to arrange an appointment and reply you. The email to mdc@moh.gov.my should include your full name, the university you graduated from, and that you want to register as a new dental practitioner. I wrote my email in Bahasa Melayu but I believe you can write to them in English as well.

STEP 2 – Prepare your documents

For item no. 1 you can get it through this link – http://mdc.moh.gov.my/uploads/borang-4_mdc_registration.doc

Items no. 8 and 9 only applies to dentists who have previously registered under a different regulatory body overseas e.g. GDC in the UK or Australian Dental Board etc.

STEP 3 – Attend the MDC registration appointment

From what I know, you have to attend this appointment in person (I feel for you East Malaysian folks!). The MDC office is located in Cyberjaya at this address:

E301, Level 3, Block 3440, Enterprise Building 1, Jalan Teknokrat 3, Cyberjaya, 63000 Cyberjaya, Selangor.

The appointment took 3 hours long (9am to 12 noon), and I was there with some 14 other new dentists. We were gathered into a conference room and they gave a briefing about the role of MDC as a dental profession regulatory body, the importance of professionalism and ethics, the next steps to take to apply for the job, and what to expect during the khidmat wajib (1 year as of 2017). They also collected the documents as mentioned above and gave us our MDC number.

It’ll take a week or so to process the Sijil MDC, which you can either choose to be posted to your address or collected by hand. I chose to collect by hand as Cyberjaya isn’t too far from me. In the meantime, don’t waste time and do this next step.

STEP 4 – Apply online through SPA

Now this part is the most crucial part of the application and is the part where most people get their applications stalled due to mistakes. SPA stands for Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam (Public Service Commission) and is responsible for allocating jobs to new dentists in Malaysia. Note that however they are not your employers – that would be KKM (Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia) – SPA is just a body related to them, in charge of appointing employees to public service.

Go to this link to apply through the SPA online form – https://putra2.spa.gov.my/spa8new/login.jsp

Remember to fill in all your details, including your PMR, SPM results, your musical talents, co-curricular activities etc. Just fill in as much as you can, even if they seem less than important. Won’t want to miss anything! There’s also a STPM section, but I did A-levels and I didn’t get to enter my details here so I left that section blank, which turned out to be okay. There’s also the subsection Pengajian Tinggi under Maklumat Akademik where we enter the degree and university – I chose Sarjana Muda (Am) when most other applicants chose Sarjana Muda Dlm Bdg Profesional – which also turned out to be okay.

Now here’s the important part where people mess up: where to enter your MDC number? It’s actually under Maklumat Akademik > Profesional/Iktisas/SKM/SVM. Under the dropdown box, choose Berdaftar dengan Majlis Pergigian Malaysia and put in the date of your registration (the date of the MDC appointment when you got your number), and your MDC number itself.

Fill up the rest of the online form, tick the box Saya setuju under Pengakuan Pemohon, hit Hantar to submit.

After submitting, perhaps wait a few days, then call one of SPA’s dedicated Bahagian Pengambilan phone numbers – 03-8885 6327 / 6313 / 6338 / 6372 / 6475 / 6137 ( Unit Perubatan ). Tell them you want to menyemak status permohonan, give them your name and IC number, and ask if there are any masalah mengenai permohonan. This is just for your own assurance – they’ll tell you if you missed anything in the SPA form. The form itself online won’t say anything!

STEP 5 – Submit documents to KKM

For this next step you need your MDC certificate. MDC will call you to inform you that your certificate is ready for collection or you’d get it in the post. There is also a list of documents you need to submit to the kementerian. You can download this form from this link which states what is required – http://www.moh.gov.my/index.php/pages/view/981

For my case, I went to Cyberjaya to collect the MDC certificate and made a photocopy at a nearby stationery shop, and immediately went to Putrajaya to submit the other documents mentioned in the link above.

Again, you can opt to submit it by hand to the ministry itself, or post it to them. I personally went to Putrajaya to hand in the documents and to see the ministry building. I was redirected to the Unit Pengurusan & Profesional. In the end it was quite anticlimactic as all I needed to do was to place the documents on a tray titled Pegawai Pergigian on an office desk which was vacant. Here’s exactly where you need to post/hand in your documents to:

KEMENTERIAN KESIHATAN MALAYSIA
BAHAGIAN SUMBER MANUSIA
UNIT PENGURUSAN & PROFESIONAL 1
ARAS 9, BLOK E7, KOMPLEKS E
PUSAT PENTADBIRAN KERAJAAN PERSEKUTUAN
62590 PUTRAJAYA

STEP 6 – The long wait

Go work as a DSA or a lab technician in the meantime to keep in touch with the profession! It’s also a great time to discover what other passions you may have in life – music, arts, photography, investments and business management etc.

STEP 7 – The offer email

When it’s your lucky day, you will get an email from Bahagian Sumber Manusia KKM titled TAWARAN LANTIKAN KONTRAK SEBAGAI PEGAWAI PERGIGIAN GRED UG41 DI KEMENTERIAN KESIHATAN MALAYSIA (KKM) – PERMOHONAN PENEMPATAN SECARA ATAS TALIAN DI SISTEM eDENTIST.

The email will detail when the eDentist system opens (where you choose your placement state) and that you will need to make an online account with eDentist. You can try to log in eDentist with your account but it wouldn’t open until the specified time and date. Also it will mention that the PTM and employment starts the following week, which gives you very little time to prepare, so be warned!

It’s time to plan where to get insane internet connection speeds to get the state that you want! I’ve heard of people going to cybercafes to get extra bandwidth and speed.

STEP 8 – Ready you keyboard warriors!

[UPDATE]: This part is outdated. The system now apparently allows you to choose your clinic rather than state. So there will be a long popup list of all clinics with vacancies in the country. For this you would need to do your own research for which clinic you want. Head over to each state’s JKN website to check out the dental clinics available in each state.

When eDentist finally opens, there will be annoyingly 3 tabs. The first tab wants you to fill in some extra family details in a form, the second tab wants you to fill in your pre-U qualification and year. The third tab is the one where you choose your state of choice.

For me I wanted KL as my first choice but the first two tabs stalled me for a few precious seconds, and the mere 15 vacancies for KL were filled up by then. I quickly picked Selangor (38 vacancies) as my next choice and phew I got it!

Best of luck at this stage getting your state!

STEP 9 – More documents

Once you get the state of choice, there are a few forms and documents to download from the eDentist page – a contract agreement, medical checkup form, offer letter, statutory declaration etc. These are very important, take note of the number of copies you require for each item.

Here’s a full checklist of what’s needed (extracted from the Surat Tawaran Pelantikan itself):-

1. Dua (2) salinan Surat Tawaran Pelantikan
2. Empat (4) Borang Perjanjian Kontrak yang lengkap bersama duti setem
3. Tiga (3) Surat Setuju Terima Pelantikan asal
4. *Akuan Berkanun Bagi Kegunaan Calon lantikan (SPA. 6C 2014) asal dan dua (2) salinan
5. *Borang Pemeriksaan Kesihatan Bagi Calon Lantikan Perkhidmatan Awam (Pin. 1/2013)* asal dan salinan
6. Ijazah asal dan tiga (3) salinan
7. Diploma/STPM/SPM dan tiga (3) salinan
8. Sijil Perakuan Pendaftaran asal dan tiga (3) salinan
9. Tiga (3) salinan Kad Pengenalan
10. Surat panggilan Program Transformasi Minda asal dan salinan

• For the statutory declaration (akuan berkanun) which you will need to sign in front of a commissioner of oath.
• The contract agreement needs to be brought to a Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri office to be stamped with a setem hasil.
• The medical checkup must be done ASAP and a urine test part of it. Better to do it under a government clinic (Klinik Kesihatan) or government hospital
• You’ll also need multiple photocopies of your IC, degree, MDC certificate, SPM certificate.

Also to do: set up an EPF/KWSP account, you’ll need it as soon as you report to state office. Takes literally 2 mins – go to the nearest EPF office, use a kiosk to enter your IC and print out your EPF number.

Another thing to do: make a stamp and name tag. Go to a stationery shop with the necessary facilities to make these things. You’ll need it as soon as you start work! Here’s an example of mine.

STEP 10 – Transform your mind

Keep checking the eDentist page for details about the upcoming Program Transformasi Minda (PTM). There will be another surat jemputan PTM, detailing the dress code and the length of stay. For mine it was posted online 3 days after the offer (and a mere 4 days before actually attending the PTM) that the PTM would be held in Melaka, at a resort called Amverton Heritage Resort Ayer Keroh. Food and accommodation all paid for!

The PTM is a weeklong course and contrary to popular belief, it isn’t actually all that “brainwashy”. They talk mainly about the role of the civil service, law & ethics, and the structure of governmental bureaucracy but don’t really touch the political side of things. Make use of this time to make new friends in your groups and at the dining table. There will be some group work to do during this week, so take the opportunity to foster the bond with your new friends. I think the PTM is made to be more of a fun session for new civil servants than actual serious business so just go in to have fun!

Now there’s a burning question going on: despite knowing your state of work, you still don’t know which clinic/hospital you will be placed in. You won’t find out at the PTM, which brings us to this next part.

STEP 11 – Report to the state office

After the PTM, we had to report to the state office (for Selangor it was in Shah Alam) at 8am on the first working day following the PTM. For Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu it’s on a Sunday, and for the other states, it’s Monday.

The state office will give YET ANOTHER briefing/ceramah and then you will be allocated your actual clinic placement. Selangor claims to use some “special algorithm” to place us according to vacancy requirements, home address, gender and race for diversity purposes. Some states will allow swapping between people. I got Gombak Setia which is extremely close to KL, so I didn’t let it go!

After finalising your clinic placement, which took hours, you will get a letter to report to the district office (PKPD daerah), which brings us to…

STEP 12 – Report to district office

My district is Gombak, which has its district office in Rawang. So I traveled to Rawang PKPD for the actual submission of the documents required and their photocopies, and confirmation of EPF/KWSP account and bank account details (for your salary!).

Also here you can claim mileage expenses for your troubles traveling from home to PTM location to state office to district office.

Finally, you will get a letter with your name and the address of the clinic…

STEP 13 – Report to clinic!

Go to your clinic, submit your letter to the YM (Yang Menjaga) of the clinic and there! You’ve finally gotten yourself a job as a dental officer in the civil service. From here on out, your YM will inform you of any other urusan you need to carry out. One example would be applying for an APC (annual practising certificate) with the MDC.

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Phew was that a lot of stuff to go through. Good luck to you the reader in the long and arduous task of getting a job as a dental officer in Malaysia!