Amber Zhang

    DOCTOR Zac Morse, who has two decades of dental experience, has become the first Western dentist to be based in the city after he joined Dental Bauhinia at Futian CBD recently. Morse, 43, thinks Shenzhen is in need of international-standard dental care.

    “Shenzhen is developing fast and more expats are coming here so I am now able to provide an alternative for people who go to Hong Kong to receive international-standard dental care,” said Morse.

    Dr. Morse has expertise in painless and special-care dentistry. He meets the complex individual needs of people who may otherwise be reluctant or unable to have dental care.

    He said his methods in painless dentistry are relatively uncommon even in Western countries and are fairly new in China. As an expert in this field, he has authored or co-authored over 100 scientific publications in English and Japanese.

    Originally from Australia, Morse earned his postgraduate degree in dental pain and anxiety control at the University of Sydney. To investigate more unsolved health issues, he joined the Nippon Dental University which is the world’s largest dental university and Japan’s oldest dental school in 1999.

    “I became the first dentist from an English-speaking country to be awarded a doctoral degree at this university and the first non-Japanese to be appointed as an associate professor,” he said.

    As a dentist with rich experience, Morse has helped patients in various places. “My first job was on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. I was the only dentist on the island so I needed to treat patients of all ages. I learned a lot from the challenge,” Morse said. He had also been associate director of the Fiji School of Medicine and taught dentistry at the University of Hong Kong.

    Morse said he is happy to work at Dental Bauhinia since it has a strong team. The principal of the dental clinic Dr. William S.J. Zhu is an expert in lingual orthodontics (where teeth can be straightened with invisible braces placed behind teeth) which is also relatively new in the nation.

    “It’s just the start of my dental career in the city and in South China and I hope to stay here a long time and help a large number of patients,” he said.