They say if you want something done, give it to a busy person. Oral medicine specialist Dr Jacinta Vu enthusiastically loves all three parts of her busy life: family, a practice and life-changing pro bono work.
By Ara Jansen
It is hard to comprehend how much your smile means for your confidence, until your mouth is a mess and you’re too embarrassed to grin.
Recently named the 2025 WA Local Hero in the Australian of the Year Awards, Dr Jacinta Vu has been honoured for her dedication to pro bono work, giving smiles back to other women.
Since 2020 she has been a director of Healing Smiles, a free dental treatment program for survivors of domestic violence, which was created in 2018 by the Women in Dentistry Society, a group supporting female dental practitioners in WA. All the female volunteers within the program have donated their skills, time, materials and, until recently, surgery space.
Healing Smiles received $1 million in funding, which finishes this year. With that funding the group has built and recently opened a dedicated dental clinic for trauma and aftercare work within the newly opened Ruah Centre for Woman and Children.
“Not only does the work give women a nice smile but it does amazing things for their confidence, self-worth and dignity,” says Jacinta.
Healing Smiles has treated more than 500 women so far and Jacinta hopes the new surgery is able to increase the number of women they can help. About 50 dentists, specialists and dental assistants are part of the program.
According to Jacinta, the dental aspect of domestic violence is under reported, if reported at all. In such cases, the care needed can vary from broken or knocked out teeth through to basic dental care.
“We’ve had patients who had been under coercive control and not always able to leave the house to visit a dentist or buy a toothbrush. Or they lose care for themselves and might not brush their teeth, or they are self-medicating or being forced to take substances which impact their teeth.
“It becomes so much more than that, because generally a lot of people are fearful of the dentist. You lie back in a chair with two strange people in the room getting really close to you and you can’t control what goes on. That’s hard for most people, let alone people who have been traumatised.
“Add in the sexual abuse element and it can be even more challenging. Or something like the noise of a drill or latex in their mouth might trigger them.
“There are patients who can’t look at us because they are so embarrassed about their mouth.”
For those reasons and others, that’s why the Healing Smiles team are all women. The important qualities they provide alongside dental care are compassion, empathy and being able to listen.
“To be able to look after these women survivors and see their journey and how the treatment has changed their lives is amazing. There’s something cathartic and healing about it for them.”
Jacinta is an oral medicine specialist and co-owner of the Centre for Oral Medicine and Facial Pain in Como. She did her dental degree at UWA and specialist oral medicine training at the University of Sydney.
Born in the UK to a Sri Lankan father and Malaysian mother, Jacinta and her family migrated to Australia when she was eight and moved to Perth from Sydney about 18 months later.
As a registered nurse, Jacinta’s mother shared with her the kinds of sacrifices she saw the doctors and other medical professionals around her making.
“That was one of the reasons I wasn’t sure if medicine was for me,” she says. “I went to a dentistry information session and thought it was pretty cool. Working with my hands in that way appealed to me.
“It also put you in contact with people and seemed to have regular hours. Plus, after uni I didn’t have to do another 10 years to specialise. Instead, I started with the first year of a science degree, then moved into dentistry and after four years started my dental career.”
At 22, Jacinta was posted to Exmouth and got a crash course in being away from home and learning to look after herself, with no family close by. She was also one of the few non-Caucasian people living in town.
“It was a steep learning curve, both personally and professionally. Getting used to living alone and not having someone to come home and talk to or hug was really hard. I was the only dentist for 400km, so it was sink or swim.
“I did have a lot of telephone support. It was 2002, before email. Notes were still handwritten. I had to teach myself how to do certain things, and not be too scared to take things on, but at the same time, not be too gung ho. Generally, I am on the more cautious side. People were grateful I was there to help.
“I think you can learn something from everyone you meet. It doesn’t matter who they are or how old they are, there’s something they can teach you or you can learn from them.
“Being in Exmouth was a defining moment in my life. I still have moments when I realise that I have done a lot of stuff, not just survived situations but thrived in challenging situations, both personally and professionally.”
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Back in Perth she worked in the public system with Dental Health Services and at a private clinic. Both places helped her grow and refine her skills, while a management role as Head of Unit taught her leadership skills at a young age.
She met her husband, dentist Dr Chuong Vu, when they worked at the same clinic for about six months and married in 2007. He works at a clinic in South Perth.
By 28, Jacinta was wondering what steps to take next, not being a person to sit back and let life run her. She and Chuong decided to sit their Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons primary examinations. Babies could wait a while.
Someone suggested Jacinta specialise and, being a person who likes to engage her brain, she decided on oral medicine.
“I wrote down all the dental speciality options and when I got to oral medicine I thought, it uses the basic sciences I love, and you have to use your brain to put all the pieces of a medical puzzle together. It felt like the right kind of place for me,” she said.
“I applied and doing the interview was like a dream date. This is what I’m supposed to do. This is my calling. I resigned from my Head of Unit position and went to Sydney for four years to complete my postgraduate training in oral medicine.”
More than a decade on, Jacinta still loves her work with that same passion. She enjoys puzzling out issues around facial pain, autoimmune diseases affecting the face and jaw, non-healing ulcers and the many other issues which affect the head, face, mouth and neck.
She’s part of a small group of professionals in Australia – around 40 – who work in this not particularly well-known specialty.
In 2022, Jacinta and her business partner Dr Alissa Jacobs, stepped out on their own and opened the Centre for Oral Medicine and Facial Pain.
She is also a consultant oral medicine specialist at Perth Children’s Hospital and an honorary research fellow at UWA, as well as teaching and lecturing over the years.
After finishing her specialist studies in Sydney, it was time to have kids. Jacinta decided if she was going to do it, they were going to be close together. She had one son and three daughters in three and a half years. They are now nine, seven and six-year-old identical twins.
“My kids were all born on a Thursday on the 13th of the month and exactly 20 months apart. Not by design at all, but I believe that things happen for a reason in my life,” she said.
She hopes that closeness in age will make them lifelong friends and allies for each other.
“I like that they are growing up together and generally play pretty well together and get on most of the time.”
The whole family can now ride a bike, so they’ve started going out on rides. They like to swim and have started playing more board games. Piano lessons are also afoot, with all four children and Jacinta taking lessons.
Jacinta enjoyed playing when she was younger, and at the very least she hopes it gives them a grounding in music and a love for it.
Jacinta has a brother, and her husband is the eldest of six. Her parents and aunt still live together in Perth and Jacinta is determined to instil and nurture a strong in-person connection between her children and their grandparents, other relatives and network of friends.
Her parents and aunt are highly involved in the children’s lives, and she wants to keep it that way. They live with the Vus on and off during the week to help with pick-ups and drop-off. Chuong usually takes care of school lunches, and everyone pitches in with household duties.
“I have a fantastic family network that supports me and gives me time and space to engage my brain, heart and soul professionally and on different projects,” she said.
In keeping with always having something sizable on the go, Jacinta is currently designing a multi-generational home for her family, taking great care to create welcoming communal areas, space for the kids to run around, a massive kitchen which allows for three to four people to be moving through it at a time, and enough private, quiet space.
“I want a dedicated area for my parents and aunt if they want to be alone as well as personal space for each of us. There will be nine of us living together.”
When it comes to time on her own, Jacinta exercises to keep fit and clear her head and always has a book on the go. A Kindle is one of the best investments she’s ever made.
Although her life is certainly busy, Jacinta feels fulfilled.
“I find when things are happening for me, when life is going in a good direction, things seem to happen easily. When things are hard, I know I need to seek out and find a different path. That has been true for most of my life.”
More information on referrals and eligibility to Healing Smiles is available here.
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