Face Value: RSDM Team Repairs Cleft Palates in Bangladesh

In the space of an hour, RSDM oral surgeon Shahid Aziz and his team can end years of ostracism and suffering for their patients in Bangladesh.

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Aziz, a doctor at Rutgers Health University Dental Associates, performs cleft palate and lip surgery. Since 2006, he has helped more than 1,000 patients who’ve lived with a condition that in wealthier nations is easily repaired with a 60-minute surgical procedure.

Twice a year, Aziz and RSDM oral surgery residents visit the nation for two weeks to perform the surgeries, mostly on rural villagers who lack money and access to treatment. Only about 30 surgeons in the country can repair cleft palate, and Aziz estimates that there are more than 300,000 people with the condition in Bangladesh. “There’s a tremendous need,” says Aziz, who was born in Bangladesh and grew up in New Jersey.

In the U.S., the surgery is common and almost always preformed on infants. But in Bangladesh, Aziz operates on many older children and adults who have lived with the deformity all their lives. “They pretty much go into a shell and don't become a part of society and it's really sad,’’ he says. "This surgery gives them their life back.”

Although cleft lips are the most visible disfigurement Aziz encounters, cleft palates, which occur inside the mouth, cause difficulty speaking and eating and also take a toll. In Bangladesh, those with either condition are often called “children of the eclipse” because many believe the deformity is caused when pregnant mothers cut vegetables or fish during a lunar eclipse. “They don’t know that no one is too blame and it’s a random congenital problem,’’ he says.

Although the condition has been linked to a lack of folate during pregnancy, as well as a higher rate of intermarriage, cleft palate is mostly random, a case of “bad luck,’’ according to Aziz.

Since he began the trips with RSDM, with help from Smile Train and other organizations, Aziz formed his own non-profit, Smile Bangladesh. In nine years, he has witnessed many dramatic transformations. “I’ve seen mothers who break down crying when they see their child after surgery, it's like a weight has been lifted off them.”

He tells the story of one father, a fishermen, who was so grateful he fell to his knees after the surgery. "He said, ‘you've now allowed my son to go back to school,’’’ Aziz recalls.

The missions are also a powerful experience for RSDM students -- especially Shenjunti Choudhary, an orthodontics resident who was born in Bangladesh with a cleft palate. It was repaired when she was a baby by surgeons on a mission and changed far more than her appearance. It inspired Choudhary to come to the U.S. and work her way through college before enrolling in RSDM’s orthodontics program.

Says Aziz, ”To me, she’s the poster child of what this can surgery can do -- allow these kids to get back into the mainstream and they can do something with their lives.''