In 2012, Shafina completed her Bachelor of Dental Surgery from the University of Otago in New Zealand. Following this, she embarked on a dedicated service as a dental officer at the Ministry of Health Malaysia until 2015. Later, she joined the Universiti Malaya, where she garnered a scholarship by the Ministry of Education Malaysia for her specialty training. Shafina pursued a Master of Science in Clinical Dentistry at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, a milestone she attained in 2018. During the same year, she was awarded the Membership in Periodontics examination by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Upon her return from the United Kingdom, Shafina assumed the role of a clinical lecturer at the Universiti Malaya until September 2022. Throughout her tenure, she dedicated herself to both undergraduate and postgraduate education, encompassing academic and clinical aspects. Her impact extended to guiding master's students in navigating project management and thesis composition.

Shafina has secured multiple research grants that facilitated the exploration of her diverse interests in fields such as Periodontology, Artificial Intelligence, and the response to COVID-19. She has contributed to scholarly discourse through the authorship of book chapters and publications featured in high-impact journals, as well as through her engagement with mass media. Her remarkable achievements have been recognised with several awards. Particularly noteworthy is her receipt of the prestigious Dental Education and Clinical Experience Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2022.

Presently, Shafina is pursuing her doctorate at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute. Her research focus is centered around leveraging artificial intelligence to predict the prognosis of treatment outcomes for gingival recession around teeth.