Joanne Hedges

Joanne Hedges is a Senior Lecturer at the Adelaide Dental School, affiliated with the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide. She specializes in Indigenous oral health research and community engagement, particularly within Aboriginal communities in South Australia.

Her research focuses on:

• Indigenous health equity and chronic disease interlinkages
• Cultural competency in dental healthcare systems
• HPV-related oral cancers and vaccination impacts
• Decolonizing research methodologies and community-driven projects
• Oral health promotion for Indigenous families

Key projects include the Tri Collaborative Indigenous Early Childhood Caries Study (2010-2018), National Health and Medical Research Council-funded studies on oral health, and the 2018 Implicit Ethnic-Racial Identity Study for preschool Aboriginal children. She mentors students and staff in cultural competency frameworks across the university.

Her scholarly output reveals trends in:

• Indigenous oral health disparities (2025: 6 articles)
• HPV-vaccine efficacy and oral cancer prevalence (2024: 4 articles)
• Methodological innovations for Indigenous research (2023: 5 articles)
• Critical analyses of neoliberal dental systems (2022-2023: 7 articles)