CHANGING LIVES
ONE SMILE AT A TIME
A cross-border community-based nonprofit offering comprehensive cleft lip, palate, dental, and hearing programs in a permanent Mexico clinic. We focus on bringing the best care, training, and lifelong support to underserved children and their families.
Our Mission
Thousand Smile Foundation’s mission is to provide exceptional medical and dental treatment at no cost to patients with maxillofacial deformities who would otherwise go untreated. We aim to be part of a lifelong health journey alongside patients, families, and the Mexican communities, emphasizing collaboration with medical professionals, schools, Rotarians, and passionate volunteers to exchange techniques and foster strong relationships.
Working Across Borders to Change Lives
Discover the incredible 40 years + mission we (as doctors, nurses, Rotarians, and volunteers) undertake to provide life-changing cleft palate, cleft lip, and dental treatment to children in need in Mexico. Your support ensures that local kids with maxillofacial deformities receive the care they deserve, FREE OF CHARGE.
We have surpassed our one thousand smiles mark and performed over 2,000 cleft palate surgeries and an additional 20,000 dental visits.
We couldn’t have done it without you. We are unique in that at our permanent Ensenada clinic, we provide a full range of reconstructive surgeries, specialty care in hearing, speech therapy, dentistry, orthodontia, and even nutrition support. We are committed to providing the very best care for patients and their families throughout their lives at no cost to them.
Meet Thousand Smiles
We are doctors, dentists, orthodontists, speech therapists, audiologists, health educators, nurses, and regular volunteers who work to provide dental care, orthodontia, as well as surgical repair of cleft lips/cleft palates for children in Mexico who might otherwise receive no care.
We are licensed, credentialed professionals from Mexico and the U.S. We are affiliated with Loma Linda University, UCSD, and UCLA. We provide continuity of care; we see patients as infants and will continue to provide proper care as the patient grows until the defects are repaired.
About Cleft Palate and Cleft Lip
Cleft lip and Palate are abnormalities of the mouth and upper lip present at birth.
“Cleft” refers to an abnormal gap between the two sides of the lip and the inner roof of the mouth. There are small barely noticeable defects or some that are very severe and disfiguring. There are effective surgical treatments for all of these children.
Correcting these problems requires a team of specialists, many surgeries, hearing assistance, speech therapy, and long-term dental services. At Thousand Smiles Clinic, we are prepared to provide all of these services for the lives of these children!
