Cincinnati oral surgeon receives Ohio Dental Association Marvin Fisk Humanitarian Award
Dr. Khurram Khan is the 2025 recipient of the Ohio Dental Association Marvin Fisk Humanitarian Award.
Dr. Khurram Khan has dedicated time and resources to providing care to people in need who were born with facial differences both in his community and abroad. In recognition of his efforts, he received the Ohio Dental Association Marvin Fisk Humanitarian Award on Friday, Sept. 26 at the Callahan Celebration of Excellence, held in conjunction with the 159th ODA Annual Session.
Khan received his BDS from the Baqai Medical and Dental University in Karachi, Pakistan in 2003 and went on to receive his DMD from the Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine in 2009. He then completed an oral and maxillofacial surgery internship at Louisianna State University Health Sciences Center and an OMS residency at Indiana University School of Medicine and Dentistry.
During his residency he decided to serve his country and joined the United States Air Force. Following the completion of his residency program at IU, Khan was stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton for four years. He was an attending oral and maxillofacial surgeon and went on to become the chief of oral and maxillofacial Surgery.
After completing his military service, Khan did a one-year pediatric cleft and craniofacial surgery fellowship at Charleston Area Medical Center. He then had the opportunity to start his own private practice in Cincinnati in 2019.
In his practice, he does oral surgery and also treats patients who have facial differences, and as one of the few practices specializing in this he sees patients from all across the country.
“It’s an exciting part of my practice where we can provide dignity to these patients, because they have been bullied their entire life,” Khan said. “All they really want is not to be seen because they’re constantly seen, constantly made fun of, all they want is to be normal where nobody really looks at them. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to do that. Recently I had a patient who didn’t want to go to her graduation, but she had surgery before graduation and her mother was crying because her child would be walking on stage to get her high school diploma. It’s a blessing, I’m living the dream. These are all things I wanted to do as a kid and suddenly I’m doing it.”
In addition to seeing patients in Cincinnati, Khan has participated in international cleft lip and palate mission trips across the world for the last 10 years.
A year ago, he and his wife, Zofeen, decided to start the Smiles Unite Us Foundation, which helps fund surgeries for patients who cannot afford care both in the United States and abroad.
So far, Khan has led two mission trips to Pakistan with Smiles Unite Us Foundation. The foundation has funded surgeries for about 50-60 babies, and its third trip is planned for November.
Khan said he was inspired to start the foundation after a mission trip to Mexico a few years ago when a patient’s mother came up to him in tears.
“She said ‘I was praying and dreaming about you coming back because you took care of my son, he needs another surgery and I wanted you to do it,’” Khan said. “These parents don’t know the language, I come from a different language, country, culture, and they don’t have an option but to give up their child to us. It’s a big deal, I don’t ever take it lightly, where you’re giving up your child to someone you don’t know and saying OK operate on them. Having consistency because she knew me, we took pictures, hugged, for her to see my face again, she trusted me now. That really changed things for me where I said the children I’ve operated on, the parents I’ve built a bond with, I want to see them back every six months. The only way to do this is to have my own foundation.”
Khan is a member of the Cincinnati Dental Society, Ohio Dental Association and American Dental Association. He is also a member of the American Cleft Palate – Craniofacial Association, American Dental Society of Anesthesiology, American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America.
The Marvin Fisk Humanitarian Award is given to dentists who are working to improve the oral health of people in need, of all ages and from all walks of life. The award winners give of their time and energy overseas or closer to home, spending hours and personal resources to help fight illnesses.
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Contact: David Owsiany, ODA Executive Director
Phone: 614-486-2700
Email: david@oda.org
Photos available upon request
