Bernadette Kathleen Drummond is a New Zealand dental academic, and was the first woman full professor in dentistry at the University of Otago. She is a specialist pediatric dentist, and past president of both the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry.
Academic career
Drummond undertook her dentistry training with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery at the University of Otago, and then completed a MS degree from the University of Rochester in 1982.[1][2] Drummond earned a PhD titled Effect of fluoride on developing enamel and the use of saliva to monitor systemic fluoride absorption at the University of Leeds.[3] Drummond then joined the faculty of the University of Otago in 1988, rising to full professor in 2012.[4][5] She moved back to the UK to take a position as Professor and Head of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Leeds in 2017.[6][7]
Drummond is a specialist pediatric dentist. Her research focuses on oral health and quality of life in children, and she is an advocate of for water fluoridation, as a means to reduce caries in young children.[2] Drummond and colleagues Marina Kamel and Murray Thomson showed that children in fluoridated areas of Otago suffered less tooth decay requiring treatment under general anaesthetic than children from areas without fluoridated water.[8][9][10][11]
Drummond is a past president of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons and in 2011 was made an honorary fellow.[12][4][13] She was president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry from 1995 to 1997, and is an honorary life member.[4][14]
In 2020 Drummond was nominated for a positive impact award at the University of Leeds.[15]
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