Dr. Mahrukh Khwaja is a dentist, positive psychologist, accredited mindfulness teacher, and the founder and CEO of Mind Ninja, a first-of-its-kind wellness start up dedicated to improving mental health and resilience among dental professionals.  

With over 12 years of clinical experience “at the chair-side,” Dr. Khwaja has an insider’s perspective on the unique stressors affecting dental professionals. She also has first hand knowledge of the lack of industry-specific mental health tools and support for dental professionals — something she discovered during her own bout with burnout. With nothing of its kind currently available in the dental industry, she envisioned a system of support that, just like daily flossing and brushing, took a preventive maintenance approach to mental health. Drawing on the neuroscience of well-being and evidence-based positive psychology, she developed Mind Ninja as a solution that would help fellow dental professionals build mental resilience, foster meaning and connection, and avoid burnout.  

Mind Ninja offers a comprehensive range of training, coaching, and wellness products that go beyond reducing symptoms of stress to generating a solid foundation of positive well-being. These tools are designed to help dental professionals thrive in any environment, ensuring that their own bright smiles come from a place of genuine mental health. Dr. Khwaja has delivered Mind Ninja’s signature workshops and well-being programmes tobring transformative change to a diverse range of organisations, including NHS Oxford Health, King's College London, Acteon, British Dental Association, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Mind Ninja received Global Health Pharma's 2022 Award for Excellence in Innovation and was a shortlisted finalist at the Private Dentistry Awards in 2021 and 2020.  

In addition to Mind Ninja’s training and coaching programmes, Dr. Khwaja also created the Mind Flossing Toolkit. This multi-purpose deck of well-being cards features positive psychology interventions that inform and inspire dental professionals to build on their strengths and develop a growth mindset as well as practise mindfulness, self-compassion, and gratitude, both in the office and at home. The verdict is already in about its ability to create life-changing results: 100% of users report an improvement in their mental well-being after using the toolkit.  

Dr. Khwaja has been named Top 50 in Dentistry two years in a row (2022 and 2021) by FMC for her work on Mental Health in Dentistry. She is also the author of the upcoming book Resilience and Well-being for Dental Professionals, slated for publication in summer 2022 by Wiley-Blackwell.