Smile Train is the dental version of Doctors without Borders. This group travels the world over looking to perform several cleft lip and palate surgeries every year. Because part of these surgeries also involves restoring the functional use of a child's teeth while installing some implants for missing teeth, you (as a dentist) could get involved. Even if you cannot travel with the group to help, there are other ways for dentists to participate in charities like this one. Here are all of the ways in which you can contribute to giving children around the world reasons to smile and fully functional teeth.

Donate Your Time and Skills

The primary way to participate in these charitable events is to donate your time and skills. As you accompany a team of maxillofacial surgeons, dental nurses and specialists in the field of cleft lips and cleft palates, you can contribute your skills to helping children's teeth move into position while replacing teeth they never had because of their clefts. Typically, you have to apply for a position on the next touring team, and commit to the travel times once you have been accepted, but if you are ready to change a lot of lives and travel too, this is the way to go.

Act as a Long Distance Consultant via Video Conferencing

Another way to provide advice and support is to commit to being a consultant for the teams. This means that at any time, day or night, the traveling teams can contact you via Skype or a similar program and ask you to view some pictures and x-rays for a second opinion on how a surgery should be done. Your expertise in the field of cosmetic dentistry can help the team decide if a child can be helped and help the team decide what approach to use to accomplish the surgical tasks at hand.

Donate Money

If there is just no way you can contribute any of the above, but you still want to help, contributions of money is the last possible way to participate in these endeavors to help kids with clefts. The monetary donations pay for the doctors, nurses and oral surgeons to fly to these remote areas to do these surgeries and then fly home. It also provides stipends for food and lodging for the team members, who would otherwise have to rely on savings to make it through a trip.

You can also talk with cosmetic dentists like Cherry Hill Dentistry LLC for other cosmetic dentistry support.