Partnership Projects of Children’s Lifeline™ & Smiles International

• Number of patients screened for review: 53
• Number of cases selected for surgery: 18
  Number of cases rescheduled due to illness: 1
• Surgical reconstructive procedures performed: 63
  • (reason for multiple procedures performed under the same pediatric anesthesia; it was performed this way to make best use of the opportunity for child’s overall safety with less exposures to anesthesia throughout care.)
• Relative value of cases if performed in the USA at hospital setting with specialist anesthesia , surgeons, and nursing facility charges: $411,500.00 USD

The Team

Team members working at the August 2024 CaboSmiles clinic:

Team and Support Staff Arrivals

So Many Children Seeking Treatment

Getting Down to Business

Overall, this was a satisfying mission which gave many children an opportunity to get their second, third, or even their fifth surgical staged procedures. It was also the first opportunity for us to use the H+ Hospital Mas for comprehensive and complex facial bone repositioning surgery, Orthognathic-Reconstruction, on the first Monday. This fulfills the philosophy of this special project to provide longitudinal and full service reconstructions. A dramatic lip change on the face is always wonderful to put out into the world, but a functioning patient having the full five to seven stages of reconstructions necessary to fully enter society with the ability to eat, speak, breathe and hear often outweighs the glamor of any care just for a SMILE. Added to the surgical accomplishments of this clinic, our Rotary Global Grant GG2349599 funded purchase of a Nasopharyngoscopy Unit which was utilized by our Speech Language Pathology team. The equipment is maintained and used by the Maxi-Med center, and provides local availability of this technology for mission clinics, as well as for regular patients throughout the year.

Cabo Mission Video

Before and After Pics

Support Staff Keeping Everything in Order and Moving

Local and International Support Organizations

The joint efforts through Children’s Lifeline International and the Smiles International Foundations give hundreds and thousands of children afflicted with facial cleft differences and deformities hope for a more normalized future, allowing them to grow and flourish in their communities. The abilities to eat, speak, breathe, hear and SMILE cannot be underestimated. These procedures allow integration of these young patients into their communities as functioning young adult members of the work force.

Prof. Jeffrey J. Moses DDS, FAACS
Diplomate, Amer. Board Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery President/Founder,
Smiles International Foundation