Smitha is a Senior Lecturer and general dentist at Sydney Dental School who maintains private practice. Her principal research area is in oral microbiology and she is a member of Dr Christina Adler's laboratory at the Charles Perkins Centre. She has completed a PhD investigating the development of the oral resistome (collective of antibiotic resistance genes) in children using whole genome sequencing. Smitha's current research focus is on the role of the oral resistome in oral health and disease, especially tooth decay. Smitha is the Discipline Coordinator for Treatment Planning for the Doctor of Dental Medicine program and is heavily involved in teaching, curriculum development and assessment in the final two years of the DMD program. Her outstanding teaching ability was acknowledged by her recent acceptance as Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). She was awarded her MSc in Conservative Dentistry with Distinction from the prestigious UCL Eastman Dental Institute in 2011, followed by the award of Fellowship in the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons in 2012.