Your Teeth and Aging

One of the most common misconceptions is that losing your teeth as you age is inevitable. Given our daily use of chewing and biting with our teeth, some wear and tear is expected. However, it is possible to keep your pearly whites through your silver years.

Here’s what you can do to keep your teeth strong and sparkly for life:

• Avoid sugary and starchy food

Foods which contain sugar and starch are the biggest threat to your teeth enamel. When carbohydrates are broken down, it causes the bacteria in the mouth to produce acids. When teeth are frequently exposed to such acids, the enamel will be ‘eaten away’.

• Oral hygiene

If you are wearing partial or full dentures, remember to clean them as you would your own teeth, at least twice a day. It is also best to remove them at night.

• Quit smoking

Besides putting yourself at higher risk of lung cancer and/or other cancers, smoking also increases gum disease, tooth decay and tooth loss.

• Visit your dentist regularly

Whether you have natural teeth, dentures or dental implants, remember to visit your dentist twice yearly for a complete dental check-up.

Remember, it is not a natural process to lose teeth as one age. All it takes is conscientious effort for your teeth to last a lifetime!

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Specialist Dental Group® is a corporate sponsor of the Canadian Association of Singapore (CAS). CAS members enjoy a special rate for dental services. For details, send an enquiry via www.specialistdentalgroup.com or call 6733 7883.

A Balinese Sanctuary

Festive celebrations can leave you feeling a little guilty, sluggish and in need of some guidance for the mind, body and soul.  A new year, a new you perhaps?!

Nestled on the banks of the Ayung River on the island of Bali, Fivelements, Puri Ahimsa is an awarding eco-conscious wellness retreat deeply rooted in the ancient traditions of Bali, making it a peaceful sanctuary to embrace authentic Balinese Healing, Living Foods and Sacred Arts. This special resort features 9 spacious accommodations to offer their guests with holistic Balinese inspired therapies include a combination of yoga, meditation, water therapies, deep massage therapies and prama therapy. Fresh from their AsiaSpa Award for Spa Cuisine of the Year, the Sakti Dining Room delights their guests with the most rejuvenating yet mouthwatering vegan and raw living foods cuisine.

For those in need of rejuvenation and cleansing, Fivelements offers three Signature Retreats from seven to 14 nights.  Their Signature Detox Retreat – Tri Kaya Parisudha is a cleansing programme inspired by the ancient Balinese philosophy that promotes living with purity of thought, speech and action. The retreat includes traditional Balinese healing therapies aimed to detoxify and purify the physical body, as well as the non-physical mind and soul, unifying body and mind towards a natural harmonious state of being, and allowing an organic healing process to unfold.

From now until the end of May 2015, enjoy an exclusive 15% discount on Fivelements Signature Retreats when booking directly on their website www.fivelements.org.  Valid for stays until November 2015.

For more information, please contact Heavens Portfolio on +65 6238 1718 

CIS Students Run To Stop The Traffik

Community service and outreach is an integral aspect of school life at the Canadian International School (CIS). Each student is taught to recognise they have an important part to play in the world and that not only are they in a unique position to give something back to the community in which they live, but also to communities that lie beyond the boundaries of Singapore.  

Recently, this strong community ethos played a major role in inspiring CIS student Vallesca da Silva to become one of the main leaders in organising last November’s Stop the Traffik run in Singapore. The event - a 24 hour relay race held at Gardens by the Bay - was organised by a team of Singapore international school students to raise funds for charities fighting against human trafficking, one of the world’s fastest growing global crimes.

Vallesca and her team worked tirelessly day and night for six months to organise the event. To secure sponsors and recruit runners and volunteers, they organised talks at various international schools, participated in assemblies, coordinated a mass email campaign to friends and family, and created a dedicated facebook page which a remarkable 1.8K people liked!  All this hard work achieved an incredible outcome: over 230 Singapore international school students participated in the race raising $40,000 for anti-slavery grassroots charities including Freedom Matters, APLE Cambodia and Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation.

“Organising the event was extremely demanding but also a very rewarding experience”, said Vallesca. “It reaffirmed the strong community service spirit ingrained in me since joining CIS in 2001. There is no need to believe that you are just a tiny human being with great intentions but no means to change the world. Instead, with drive and persistence, one can make a difference both on an individual and collective level!”  

To find out more about CIS and the latest activities their students are doing to help make a difference visit www.cis.edu.sg.

The Image You Project

By Jo Clary Maughan 

It’s easy to become lazy with the way we dress – especially more so as we age. As our bodies change after adolescence, birth, menopause and in older age, it becomes increasingly harder to find clothes to suit our changing shape. For many people, a comment out of the blue or a major life change – such as a divorce, relocation, career move or promotion – prompts an image overhaul.


If you own a full length mirror, go and stand in front of it and really look at yourself and what you’re wearing. Do your clothes reflect how you feel inside? When was the last you went through your wardrobe and updated it? Do you make an effort to seek out ways to stay in style or in touch with fashion, to a certain extent? Do you feel it’s time to colour your hair, but you don’t know how to proceed? When was the last time you spent money on yourself – just for you?


What we wear has a profound impact on how old, young or “who” we appear to be – and how we feel. Some styles and colours have the clout to make us look older than we really are, just by their association. And certain styles that once suited us may now be actually making us look older than our years.

Since the introduction of silent movies we’ve become unconsciously conditioned by the media as to what our “image” represents. The images projected by television and movie stars in character have encouraged us to think certain groups of people should wear certain things. If you picture a university student, used car salesman, beach bum or an old lady, your mind instantly creates mental images of what these people look like and what they would be wearing. And it’s likely that everyone reading this article is having these same mental images. This is known as stereotyping and its extreme power can be used for good or bad – if you know how.

If you need advice on creating the image you want to project, how the latest fashion trends translate to your existing wardrobe, or you want to discover simple ways to keep your look current, book a style consultation with us today. Discover how to look your best, increase your self-confidence and make wise shopping decisions – purchasing clothes and accessories that are really you, making you look good and feel great!