In a little over an hour, oral and maxillofacial surgeon John Wallace and the team from Smile Bangladesh can forever change a life.<\/p>\n
The 501(c)(3) nonprofit has spent two decades repairing cleft lips and palates in Bangladesh, a country of about 175 million people where it\u2019s estimated that fewer than 30 surgeons have formal training in cleft surgery.<\/p>\n
Many Bengalis are unaware that the birth defects can be fixed, and those who are often cannot afford or access care. A failure to correct a cleft can be disastrous \u2014 leading to poor nutrition, difficulty speaking, and social isolation.<\/p>\n
Smile Bangladesh has been filling the gap in care since January 2006. Wallace \u2014 the Park Cities surgeon who founded Dallas Oral Surgery Associates \u2014 is the nonprofit\u2019s treasurer and has been involved since its early years.<\/p>\n
The procedures, Wallace said, each cost about $300. That\u2019s a bargain for the transformational surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a magic wand, and give me a little time, and we\u2019re going to wave it. I\u2019ll change your whole life from here forward,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m in awe of the education that I\u2019ve received. I\u2019m in awe of the skills that have been given to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallace flies to Bangladesh annually as part of an approximately 20-person team of medical professionals from around the United States. Some of the group\u2019s patients travel for days by bus or train to receive medical attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
About 70 people lined up to be screened by Smile Bangladesh on its most recent trip to Khulna in southwestern Bangladesh. The doctors and nurses spent four 12-hour days doing surgeries.<\/p>\n
In the United States, newborns with clefts are quickly identified and treated. But that\u2019s not the case in Bangladesh. Although the youngest patients are infants, Wallace once repaired a cleft on a 78-year-old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re kind of a last resort,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re their only shot, in most cases.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Wallace\u2019s most memorable patients was a poised teenager whose speech was almost incomprehensible due to her defect. The morning after her surgery, even she couldn\u2019t believe how wonderful she sounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sound like I have a voice,\u201d she told Wallace through an interpreter.<\/p>\n
Wallace has continued his support of Smile Bangladesh at home in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In past years, he\u2019s teamed up with Sevy\u2019s chef\/owner Jim \u201cSevy\u201d Severson for a September charity wine dinner. Severson has prepared the menu, and Wallace has brought wines from his personal cellar.<\/p>\n
Guests have been invited to taste the wines \u201cblind\u201d and vote on their favorite drink after each of the meal\u2019s five courses. Then, Wallace has revealed whether their choices were a $30 bottle from the store, or a $300 bottle that\u2019s been aged for 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smile Bangladesh relies on donated equipment and reuses many supplies that would be considered disposable in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On his most recent trip to Bangladesh, Wallace brought donated anesthesia equipment, along with his five children\u2019s baby blankets. His son Matthew Daniel\u2019s blanket, adorned with the alphabet and animals, was placed over each of Wallace\u2019s patients during their surgeries.<\/p>\n
The procedures, Wallace said, open up a world of possibilities for patients, giving them a chance to have families of their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the things you take for granted don\u2019t happen if they can\u2019t get this fixed,\u201d he said. \u201cYou do change their life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a little over an hour, oral and maxillofacial surgeon John Wallace and the team from Smile Bangladesh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":["post-130718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}