(Editor’s note: the following is about Truth’s Community Clinic, at 250 Langley Drive in Lawrenceville. Medical services are provided on the first and third Tuesdays of each month; dental services on the first and third Thursdays of each month. The clinic is seeking medical and dental volunteers to serve a few hours each month. For more information, visit www.truthsclinic.org.–eeb)
By Fran Worrall
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga | A local dentist is giving back to the Gwinnett County clinic that once provided healthcare services to one of his own family members.
Worrall
Dr. Thanh “Tom” Tang, who practices at Suwanee Center for Family Dentistry, began volunteering last year at Truth’s Community Clinic in Lawrenceville, a faith-based non-profit clinic that offers non-emergency primary care, including medical, dental and pharmaceutical services. His father-in-law had been treated at the clinic for several years, and Tang wanted to repay the kindness he received there by helping others in need.
Dr. Tang was born in Vietnam. His family immigrated to the U.S. when he was 12 years old, settling in the south Atlanta area. After graduating from Georgia State University, where he received a degree in business administration, he married and got a job in the retail sector. Yet, he wasn’t happy in his career. “I didn’t feel like I was living up to my potential,” he says.
Although he considered going back to school for a master’s degree in business, he made the decision to pursue a vocation in healthcare because he had always wanted to help others. He decided to pursue dentistry because many of his own family members had dental problems, and he saw first hand how oral health affects the entire body. “So many people, especially those without insurance, only see a dentist when they have a toothache,” he recognizes. “Sadly, by that time, there are often much bigger problems.”
Tang
Tang attended the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry in Lexington on a scholarship from the U.S. Navy. Following graduation, he served as a dentist at Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Va., and at Camp Lejeune, N.C. After being discharged from the military, he returned to the Atlanta area, eventually settling in Suwanee.
Tang’s in-laws, also from Vietnam, immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1980s and made their home in Suwanee. When his father-in-law, who worked at a restaurant that didn’t provide health insurance, began having dental problems, a friend suggested he visit Truth’s Community Clinic. At that point, he hadn’t seen a dentist in more than a decade and required extensive treatment. The clinic offered the help he needed. Over the next few years, he visited regularly for dental services and medical care.
In a twist of fate, Tang’s wife phoned Truth’s Community Clinic in early 2022 to ask a question about her father’s care, and an office worker mentioned the clinic’s need for a dentist during the call. Tang contacted the clinic the following day and began volunteering within a couple of weeks.
Volunteer work is a mission of sorts for the Suwanee dentist. “I know what it means to come from an underserved background, and I suffered through a lot of dental problems because of it,” he says. “Now that I’m in a situation where I can give back and make a positive difference in people’s lives, it’s important to me that I do that. Truth’s Community Clinic has given me a way to help people like my father-in-law, who is so grateful for the care he received there.”
What’s more, he says, the ripple effect of helping others can be far-reaching. “What I’m doing today may influence some of the younger people I’m treating,” Tang concludes. “That kid in my chair could end up becoming a dentist or a physician because of the care he or she is receiving. You just never know.”
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