Trudy Lin, 28, from Adelaide Dental Hospital is the youngest of only 20 practising Australian specialists in the field of special needs dentistry.
She provides oral healthcare to people with disability, psychiatric illnesses, cancer patients, and people experiencing homelessness and domestic violence.
This week the young Adelaide dentist was nominated for Young Australian of the Year for her leadership skills and strong work ethic.
“I'm opening people's gateway to being included in society by helping them smile, so they can feel socially accepted and find a job, helping them to be able to speak freely without tooth pain so that their unique voices can be included and contribute to our society,” Dr Lin tells SBS Mandarin.
Pathway to becoming a special needs dentist
Lin’s passion for dentistry started as a child after seeing the profound impact poor oral health had on her father’s life.
“The mouth is like the gateway into the body, so being unable to eat affected his nutrition and his general health.
“The way that people reacted to a smile affected his employment opportunities and caused him to withdraw socially. This really had a negative effect on his self-esteem and his mental health,” she adds.
Source: Dr Trudy Lin
[I want to] empower people to live a full life where they can eat, speak, and smile freely.
Lin started practicing as a dentist in 2015 and completed a Doctorate of Clinical Dentistry in Special needs dentistry in 2020.
She says her long-term vision is to build up a special needs care network across her home state of South Australia and eventually throughout Australia.
Her aim is for the network to be able to recognise the needs of the patients and match them with suitable medical professionals.
Lin says she was motivated to continue her studies after seeing the oral side effects medication had on her autistic younger brother and grandma who died from cancer.
“I also saw, first-hand, how many barriers they faced getting the help they needed. So that's what led me to want to specialise in the special needs industry.”
A universally accessible building designed for everyone
Aside from dental care, Lin also self-funded a supported independent living facility for people with disability to live in the community.
She says the experience opened her eyes to many things people take for granted.
She uses doorknob as an example and explains that people with manual dexterity issues find a twist lock version tricky to open, whereas lever handles have fewer limitations.
“I hope that my project increases awareness in the community about how these little tweaks and designs can help to make houses where more people can live in them, which will then benefit lots of people in the future.”
SA Australian of the Year Awards 2022. Photo by Salty Dingo 2021 Source: Dr Trudy Lin
My philosophy as a specialist in special needs industry is, I don't just look after teeth. I look after the person the teeth belong to.
“If my patient doesn't have a home to live in, how will they ever be able to prioritise going to see a dentist?” she asks.
Running for charity
Lin’s dedication to improving the lives of others led her in 2019 to fundraise for the Cancer Council and sign up its 105km ultramarathon.
She ran for 23 hours with no sleep and says aches and pains her body absorbed during the run are etched in her memory.
“My grandma, she hiked the great wall of china in her 70s. She is the strongest person I know,” Lin says.
One of the things that she taught me was that strength doesn't come from what you do. It comes from overcoming what you once thought you couldn't.
Lin says the two years she spent training for the ultramarathon couldn’t have prepared her for the actual event.
“One of the strategies that I had was, before the race, I had written on a piece of tape the names of every single one of my cancer patients who had passed away.”
When she was at 100 kilometre mark, she says she felt she had “nothing left in the tank”.
“My legs were searing with pain; I was sleep deprived… [Then] I read all of those names and thought of each one of the patients on my arm and the resilience of what they had to go through with their cancer battles.
“And that's what helped keep me going until I ran across the finish line.”
Friends of Lin joke she volunteers as a hobby.
A dental and humanitarian aid trip to Cambodia and Vietnam where she cared for orphans who have disability and had never seen a dentist in their life strengthened her personal goals and convictions.
“For most of the patients that I looked after there, it was the very first time that a dentist was ever willing to help them.
“I realised that stigma is attached to disability in all parts of the world. I want to dedicate my career to helping people with disability and be part of breaking down barriers [for people with special needs]."
