Didem Ozdemir Ozenen

Dr. Ozdemir Ozenen earned her DDS degree and a PhD in Pediatric Dentistry from Istanbul University, where she also served as a clinical instructor. She continued her education by earning a second PhD in Medical Education from Marmara University. She served as a clinical research fellow at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Maryland. There, she made significant contributions to genetic research, discovering two novel gene mutations associated with Amelogenesis Imperfecta (AI) in pediatric dental patients.

Since 2005, Dr. Ozdemir Ozenen has served as a full-time professor at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey, which recently became the first university in Europe to be accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) in the United States. She played a key role in obtaining this prestigious accreditation and has held various leadership roles at the university, including Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Head of the Curriculum Management Committee. She was also the founder and Director of the Yeditepe University’s Non-Interventional Clinical Research Institutional Review Board.  

Dr. Ozdemir Ozenen is also a founding member of Turkey’s Association for Accreditation of Dental Education Programs, where she was elected as Vice President for a third consecutive term. Her extensive contributions include numerous national and international publications, presentations, national awards, and the solo editorship of a nationally acclaimed pediatric dentistry textbook in Turkey.