Dr Yuen Heng Wai

Dr Yuen Heng Wai is an ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore.

His specialty is ear, nose, throat, head and neck surgery, with subspecialty in otology/neurotology (condition of the ear and lateral skull base).

He treats a number of conditions including allergic rhinitis, allergies (child), ear acute otitis media, ear chronic suppurative otitis media, cholesteatoma, ear infections (including child), ear otitis externa, ear otitis media, ear pinna infection, earwax in children, facial nerve conditions (Bell’s palsy), facial pain (trigeminal neuralgia), hearing loss (adults), hearing implants (including cochlear implants), nasal polyps, nasopharyngeal cancer (nose cancer), nasopharynx cancer, neck pain, nosebleeds, thyroid nodules, tinnitus, tonsils and adenoids (child), voice check, and voice disorders – vocal fold paralysis, vocal nodules, polyps, cysts and tumours.

Dr Yuen was formerly a senior consultant at Changi General Hospital (CGH), where he founded and led the otology, hearing implant and skull base surgery services. This service provided care to adults with hearing, balance disorders and skull base tumours. He remains a visiting consultant at Singapore General Hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, CGH, Sengkang General Hospital and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

He graduated from the National University of Singapore and was conferred the membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, UK and the Royal College of Surgeons of England, UK. He was conferred a master’s degree at NUS.

Dr Yuen was elected a fellow of the Academy of Medicine. Subsequently, he was awarded the Health Manpower Development Plan award to do advanced training in ear surgery for chronic ear diseases, otosclerosis, hearing implants, and skull base tumours at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Canada. He also trained at the Ear Science Institute Australia, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, University of Western Australia, where he received advanced surgical training in middle ear and cochlear implants. He has trained many past and present ear surgeons in these procedures. He was later awarded a master’s degree in health professions education from Maastricht University, Netherlands.

He has performed more than 100 cochlear implant surgeries since 2010.

He was also the earliest doctor in Singapore to perform middle-ear implant surgery and round window attachment, bone anchored hearing aid implant for single-sided deafness, and Bonebridge bone conduction implants. He was also the earliest doctor to do Eustachian tuboplasty for patients with Eustachian tube stenosis from head and neck radiation. He has been practising medicine for more than 25 years.

Dr Yuen has published widely in peer-reviewed journals. He sits on the editorial board of the journal Otology & Neurotology and on the board of directors of the Prosper Meniere Society. He has been involved in the training of ENT doctors for many years. He was the first associate programme director for SingHealth’s otolaryngology residency programme. He held leadership positions in education and training within SingHealth and Duke-NUS Medical School.

Currently, he is an adjunct associate professor at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and NUS’ department of biomedical engineering. He is an examiner for the ENT specialist exit examination and is a board member of the Chapter of Otorhinolaryngologists.

Dr Yuen received several SingHealth Health Quality Service Awards.