Smile Train and Dentsply Sirona Bring Latest X-ray Innovation to the Philippines

Imagine going to school with extra teeth. Or with your teeth jutting out at different angles.  

For so many children with clefts, this is daily life — even after surgery.  

It’s why specialized, long-term orthodontic care is crucial to the cleft journey, and why Smile Train is proud to support it at an ever-expanding number of our partner centers around the world.  

But before one of our specially trained partner orthodontists can install a single spacer in a child’s mouth, they need a panoramic x-ray, and that’s where other troubles can begin.  

In many of the places where our patients live, good x-ray services are hard to find. Those that exist tend to take a long time to send the images back to the hospital or do a poor job, requiring the family to schedule another visit for a redo. With so many patients and families living day-to-day, every delay, every extra step added to the process, is another patient who will not be able to come back to complete their care. Another child who will grow up ashamed to smile.  

This is not acceptable. Not to Smile Train, not to our dedicated local healthcare partners, and not to our corporate partners at Dentsply Sirona, the world’s largest diversified manufacturer of dental products and technologies.  

That’s why, amongst other equipment, they donated the Orthophos S 3D — their reliable extraoral 3D x-ray imaging system — to Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation Philippines (NCF). It’s only been a few months, and already, the difference is dazzling.

Excellent visibility leads to excellent results, and with this unit, NCF’s team can now provide patients with high-quality digital x-rays in-house: Easy patient positioning supports reproducible outcomes and high-definition image quality. And on the rare occasion a second image is needed, it can be done immediately, in the same sitting, because results are available instantly. This allows the care team to consult with the family on next steps within minutes — saving valuable time, avoiding extra travel, and enabling more children to stay on track with their treatment.  

“It’s a win-win situation for both the doctors and the patients,” said Dr. Janet Pandan, a longtime orthodontist at NCF. “The diagnosis is easier and faster…. [And] the patients now have easy access to these records. As the orthodontist, it is easier for me to diagnose their cases and plan for their treatment.”  

With similar success at other partners, scaling this program could exponentially expand our impact around the world, giving the gift of local, world-class, personalized orthodontic care to more children in need in more places than ever before. It’s just one more way Smile Train and our partners are changing the world one smile at a time.  

“As President of NCF, I thank you very much,” said Dr. Bernard Tansipek. “Not only are the doctors grateful, but our patients are grateful.”  

Dr. Pandan added, “I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Dentsply Sirona and Smile Train teams for making this possible. As members of the cleft team, it is our dream to have access to this equipment. State-of-the-art, modern, and the quality is really good.”