Noel world millions of children live with untreated facial deformities. And they live with it due to the impossibility of accessing hospital facilities capable of treating them. They are children who find it difficult to eat, breathe, speak, to be accepted by their peers and by the community. Since 1982, he has dedicated himself to their cause. the non-profit organization Operation Smile, which manages 35 treatment centers in 20 countries around the world. In these Centers, such as those located in Colombia and Morocco, patients receive for free dental, orthodontic, speech therapy, psychological care and orthognathic interventions. The latest centre, which has just been inaugurated, is in Milan, and is the first in Europe.
Facial malformations, from cleft lip to cleft lip and palate
We speak of cleft of the lip and/or palate meaning the failed fusion, during intra-uterine life, of the structures that make up the lip and palate.
There cleft lip and palate it can be unilateral or bilateral, but can also occur as a mixed form. The forms in which the cleft only involves the upper lip are defined cleft lip (commonly known as cleft lip), cleft palate the cleft that exclusively involves the palate.
30% of children with cleft lip and palate and 50% of children with cleft palate have other associated abnormalities and present with a syndrome (the best known being Pierre Robin syndrome or sequence).
In the world, 5 million people, for example in Guatemala, India and Madagascar, live with this type of malformation without being able to cure it.
Operation Smile, the first European treatment and training center in Milan
Thanks to a memorandum of understanding between the Operation Smile Italia ETS Foundation and the ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo of Milan, Italy too will have an Operation Smile multidisciplinary treatment centre, unique in Europe. The Center is coordinated by doctors Costanza Meazzini, Luca Autelitano and Angela Rezzonico, it will not be just a treatment centre. In addition to providing multidisciplinary diagnostic and therapeutic assistance for facial malformations, it will also be the European Hub for the integration of professional training and scientific updating.
A point of reference for doctors and volunteer health workers of the Organization, with particular attention to professionals in low- and middle-income countries.
And it will also be a scientific research center on new technologies, surgical protocols and therapeutic pathways in the field of cranio-maxillofacial malformations.
As Federica Tedeschi, General Manager of the Operation Smile Italia ETS Foundation explains, “the goal is to implement training programs in the surgical, speech therapy and orthodontic fields of professionals from low- and middle-income countries”.
The Charity event in Rome
To support Operation Smile’s medical programs in Guatemala, India and Madagascar, a charity event, “For Smiles”. TO Palazzo Colonna, in Rome, there will first be an auction of fine wines led by Gelasio Gaetani and Paolo Cuccia, together with the presenter and cultural entrepreneur Claudia Conte.
Followed by a Gala Dinner, with the exceptional godmother Eleanor Danieland with the participation of the actor Roberto Ciufoli.
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