Rate My Professor Deanna Beckett

Dr. Deanna Beckett is a Senior Lecturer in the Oral Health discipline of the Department of Oral Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, Health Sciences Division, at the University of Otago, where she has been employed since 2009. She serves as the Convenor for Year 3 of the Bachelor of Oral Health programme and contributes to interdisciplinary tooth morphology education. Beckett earned her PhD from the University of Otago in 2024, with an exceptional thesis titled "Dental consequences of vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy and early infancy." This pioneering work was the first worldwide to examine an exfoliated primary tooth in a laboratory to correlate vitamin D status during formation, revealing that children of vitamin D-deficient mothers have three times the risk of dental decay by age six and reduced enamel crystalline quality. She completed her Master of Public Health at Otago in 2017, focusing on measuring oral-health-related quality of life, along with a Diploma in Dental Therapy and Diploma in Public Health. Her research interests include tooth development, dental defects of enamel and dentine, and vitamin D's role in oral health, with ongoing longitudinal studies on children approaching age 12. Funding supports her work from the Otago Medical Research Foundation Laurenson Award LA282, Health Otago Charitable Trust, New Zealand Ministry of Health Research Fund, and University of Otago Research Grant.

Beckett received the New Zealand Oral Health Association's Hon. Annette King Award for Leadership and Excellence in Oral Health in 2024 for her vitamin D research, which builds on 2012 studies by Professor Ben Wheeler and suggests supplementation benefits in low-sunlight areas like Dunedin. She won the University of Otago 3-Minute Thesis Master's category in 2017 for her presentation on economic evaluation in oral health. Key publications include "An Exploration of Mineral Density, Elemental and Chemical Composition in Human Primary Teeth" (2023), "Dental health in a cohort of six-year-old New Zealand children who were breastfed as infants: a comprehensive descriptive study" (2022), "Dental Consequences of Vitamin D Deficiency during Pregnancy and Early Infancy—An Observational Study" (2022), "Empathetic, persistent and female: A snapshot of oral health therapy students in Australia and New Zealand" (2022), and "Sugar in your diet: kino te pai! an evaluation of oral health science outreach and community impact" (2021).