Smile Train’s Sustainable Model: Advancing Global Surgery for Lasting Impact
Transforming Global Surgery, One Smile at a Time
Smile Train is the world’s largest cleft-focused organization. Since our founding in 1999, our sustainable model has empowered local medical professionals to provide life-changing, comprehensive cleft care in their own communities. To date, we’ve supported more than two million safe, high-quality cleft surgeries worldwide.
We are driven by a simple, yet powerful idea: Every child, everywhere, deserves a healthy smile and the opportunity to thrive.
What Makes Smile Train Different
Unlike traditional mission-trip models, Smile Train’s local partnership approach ensures care is available year-round. By investing in in-country medical teams, we strengthen health systems from within, making our model both cost-effective and sustainable.
Our local-first strategy means:
- Patients receive care close to home, from providers who share their language and culture.
- Healthcare workers are equipped with lasting skills and tools to deliver quality cleft care.
- Communities benefit from improved access to safe surgery for generations.
This is how Smile Train is redefining global surgery through cleft care — not as a one-time intervention, but as a long-term investment in local healthcare ecosystems.
How We Create Sustainable Change in Global Surgery
Locating Children in Need
Smile Train’s community partners around the world identify children with clefts through awareness campaigns, outreach programs, and health worker networks. They ensure families know that treatment is safe, completely free, accessible at local healthcare centers, and available year-round.
Empowering Local Medical Professionals
We believe no child should suffer because of limited surgical access. Through education, training, and mentorship, Smile Train builds local capacity in surgery, anesthesia, and comprehensive cleft care. Each trained professional becomes part of a powerful network that strengthens national health systems and advances cleft care and surgical safety globally.
Providing Comprehensive Cleft Care
Surgery is critical for treating a cleft, but it is often only one part of the treatment journey – that’s why many of our partners also provide nutritional counseling, speech therapy, orthodontics, psychosocial support, and more. This approach treats the “whole patient,” improving a child’s health, confidence, and trajectory — and supporting healthier, more prosperous communities globally.
Leveraging Technology to Scale Sustainable Impact
Smile Train integrates cutting-edge innovation across training, patient care, and quality assurance.
Virtual Surgery Simulator
Our 3D Virtual Surgery Simulator provides free, interactive instruction on complex cleft surgical techniques. Created in partnership with BioDigital, this vital tool for surgeons and trainees worldwide helps standardize quality and safety in cleft procedures.
Lifelike Surgical Training Models
Hyper-realistic 3D-printed cleft surgery simulators from Simulare Medical, a Division of Smile Train, are further improving surgical safety around the world by giving providers hands-on cleft surgery experience before they ever operate on a child.
Smile Train Express (STX)
Through Smile Train Express, our secure digital platform, partners upload and manage patient records. This reduces administrative costs and enables real-time quality monitoring across our global network.
Mobile Applications
We’ve developed mobile apps to support patients, parents, and speech therapists with interactive speech and language exercises — extending care beyond hospital walls and empowering families to take an active role in recovery.
Building a Healthier Future Together
Smile Train’s sustainable global surgery model proves that when local professionals are trained and supported, the impact lasts for generations. Together with our donors, medical partners, and communities, we are not just healing smiles — we are strengthening health systems and transforming global surgery through a more equitable, resilient, and effective model of care.