Smile Bags for Operation Smile

After a patient has received surgery, they must spend one full day in recovery for a cleft lip, and two days for a cleft palate. During this time, they are unable to eat and can only have sips of water. This is common after recovery from surgery, but these young patients need something to keep them busy while they heal. Smile Bags were created more than 20 years ago by a medical volunteer, and we continue to provide them to our patients today.^~^Operation Smile has provided hundreds of thousands of safe surgeries for those born with cleft lip and cleft palate. With more than three decades of expertise, Operation Smile creates solutions that deliver free surgery to people where it’s needed most. As one of the largest medical volunteer-based nonprofits, Operation Smile has mobilized thousands of medical volunteers from a wide range of medical specialties from more than 80 countries. Operation Smile engages public-private partnerships to advance health care delivery, train local medical professionals to provide surgical care for patients in their communities, donate crucial medical equipment and supplies, and increase access to surgical care so that everyone living with cleft is treated.