Dentist in Katong

Katong Area has changed a lot. We used to be located along Tanjong Katong road, near this Chicken Rice stall, and just opposite the road from SPC Petrol Station (it used to be Esso or Mobil). Now we’re up the road, so if you’re starting out along Tanjong Katong Road and want to find us, you need to take Bus No. 40 heading North and stop at the bus stop at Lorong 39 Geylang, near the 7-11. You’ll have to cross the road – and there is a traffic light only a few metres away just in front of the Four Chain View hotel.

Alternatively, you could take Bus No. 43, 134 or 135 and stop when you see Geylang Fire Station. Then walk down Paya Lebar Road to Geylang Road. It’s just a 5 minute walk, no crossing of roads.

If you’re driving, it is a straightforward drive up Tanjong Katong Road. Turn left into Geylang Road, then right into Lorong 37 for the public car park.

Alternatively you can bundle your trip with some errand, park at any of the buildings in that area (Tanjong Katong Complex, One KM Mall, Singpost building, Paya Lebar Mall or City Plaza), and walk over to us.

Back to our experiences when we had our dental practice in Katong…

I used to think this chicken rice was fantastic. They always got good business. 11am-1:30pm, always people in line. One time I counted 22 people standing in the queue (not counting the multiple packets of chicken rice some of them ordered!).

The chopping block for the chicken rice hawker was very worn down. At least 5 cm height difference between different parts of the chopping block, it was that amazing. You can’t get that except by selling chicken rice like he did, working nonstop for decades. Not years. Decades!

Childhood memory is one thing, but you grow out of them eventually.

In the early 2000s I went and ate that chicken rice again. Yes, it tasted good. But I had become an adult, with adult sensibilities by that point. What was once ‘yummy’, is now ‘greasy and salty’. How come when I was young, I never noticed all that grease and the fact that the rice was swimming in oil?

That was the last time I ate chicken rice at that stall. I don’t even remember the name.

The old Tanjong Katong Girls’ school was here, as well as some other schools whose names I can’t remember. But now thanks to the ever-enterprising government, some of the school grounds have been rented out to what is presumably a couple of higher paying organizations (Canadian International School, Chatsworth International School), and some other school grounds have been converted into a carpark (bless the hearts of the civil servants for giving us another $1.20/hour carpark!).

Now just how much has this area changed in my lifetime?

The most memorable is the disappearance of many trees. It used to be so leafy and shaded. There were all the red sandalwood trees along this road that I once collected over a hundred of their distinctive red seeds just by walking along Tanjong Katong Road. (I could have collected far more, but I only wanted the cleanest, brightest, reddest seeds.)

(outlink: http://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/plmar97.htm open in another window, or shall I just link to the image? Find circassian seeds from red sandalwood trees).

Another thing that has changed, are the flood markers. There used to be flood markers as much as 1.4m high all along Tanjong Katong Road. Now they are all gone, not even one left to mark the times.

And did it flood?

Yes! This was back in 1970s and 1980s, the days before political correctness forced a change to the word Ponding. It didn’t pond back then, it flooded, and the flooding reached at least 0.9m one year. There were people in wooden sampans rowing along Tanjong Katong Road – now a river, exactly like it used to be in years gone by!

Katong Dental Surgery was closed for the longest ever period in its existence for reasons due to natural causes – three days – as a result of flooding one year. I really wanted to go out and play in the water, but there was some serious risk of drowning because there were big drains (now mostly gone) along the road and the current could get very strong as the water attempted to drain away. I was told stories of kids being swept into the drains and drowning, although if I recall the mah pio poh (night tabloids), there was at least a case of a kid being swept away and found alive far away later.

Does anyone recall reading about how in archeology, civilization shows itself by sediments that build up over time? Yes, that happened with Tanjong Katong as well. I once lived here. The entire area is higher than it used to be. The buildings used to be higher above the road and public pavement surfaces than I remember, and I know it because I used to climb into the drains to play, or jump down the steps from the five foot ways in the shophouses lining both sides of the road. (Could catch fish, collect seeds, rub hand over moss, collect bottle caps, etc in the drains.) But the government repeatedly resurfaced the roads, and now I’m convinced that Tanjong Katong Road is at least 5cm higher. (I still remember the smells and the interesting sight of the steamroller which I always wanted to make use of to squash my bottle cap collection)

Anyway, we weren’t the only dentists practicing along Tanjong Katong Road. But it was much busier then, and there was no real competition for patients. Nowadays the foot traffic looks like a fraction of the old days. People don’t really walk along such roads anymore, and not to mention, the trees are gone so the shade is gone.

Contact us for an appointment!