Sabrina Manickam

Dentistry

Dr Sabrina Manickam

BDS (USyd); FPFA; FICD; FADI

Lecturer in Clinical Dentistry
Orange
Building 1006, Room 250

Dr Manickam earned her Bachelor of Dental Surgery from the University of Sydney in 1993. She is a fellow of the International College of Dentists and the NSW Regent Elect in 2025 and sits on the Board of Regents, a fellow of the Academy of Dentistry International and is the current Vice-Regent Australasia, and a fellow of the Pierre Fauchard Academy.

A past President of the Australian Dental Association NSW Branch 2015-2017, Dr Manickam was recently awarded the Honorary Life Membership of the Association in 2022. In recognition of her outstanding contributions to clinical dentistry and the profession, she was awarded the University of Sydney Alumni Jubilee medal in 2001.

Her extensive experience in private and public health includes her roles as Practice Principal and owner McAnulty-Manickam Family Dental, Orange 2018-2022, Area Clinical Director Oral Health for the Greater Western Area Health Service. Dr Manickam has held numerous positions within the Australian Dental Association (NSW Branch) and has just completed 20 years’ service as a Councillor, 30 years of service to the Association and currently sits on the Honours & Awards Committee of the branch.

Dr Manickam has also worked extensively with the NSW Dental Board prior to 2010 and since has a ministerial appointment with the NSW Dental Council and NSW Medical Council as a performance assessor and performance Chair.

Dr Manickam will be leading the Year 1 Dentistry program in 2025 and teaching mainly into simulation clinics across the dentistry discipline.

Dr Manickam has served as Head of Discipline, Program Leader and Associate Head of School, in the position of Senior Lecturer at the CSU School of Dentistry and Health Sciences, since 2008 until 2017.

Dr Manickam was part of the foundation academic team in 2008, and was involved with facility planning, clinic design and IT design, school development, curriculum design, accreditation processes, clinical development, teaching and administration activities.

Dr Manickam was also involved with subject development for the Bachelor of Clinical Science at CSU and prior to that was Sub Dean for Rural Dental Programs for the University of Sydney.

Dr Manickam’s expertise is in Dental Ethics and Professionalism which she has widely lectured over the last 20 years.

Dr Manickam’s research interest particularly in clinical practice is oral carcinoma. During her time at CSU, she co-authored research in both the Australian Dental Journal and the Journal of Oral Pathology.

As a result of this work Dr Manickam was involved in the development of a “Soft Tissue Assessment Program”, which was conjoint research development between Greater Western Area Health Oral Health and Central West Pathology, Orange. This was a clinical tool to assist dental practitioners to:

  • identify, brush swab and test abnormal lesions presenting in the oral environment to screen for malignancies.
  • establish pre and post swab data collection and reporting.

Dr Manickam hopes to re-kindle this research interest also to include potential melanoma screening of the head and neck as part of the dental practitioner’s routine clinical examination.