Santa Casa holds "Smile Week" for patients and healthcare professionals
The program reinforces the work of the Reference Service for Clefts and Craniofacial Anomalies, which has over 1,300 registered patients
The Santa Casa Foundation of Pará, in partnership with the non-profit organization 'Smile Train', is holding the "Smile Week", with playful activities for patients of the Reference Service for Clefts and Craniofacial Anomalies, served by the institution, along with an educational program in oral health that will gather professionals and students from the health area on the morning of this Friday (03).
Deborah Costa, a speech therapist who coordinates the Reference Service for Clefts and Craniofacial Anomalies at Santa Casa, informs that World Smile Day is celebrated on the first Friday of October. “Every year, the NGO Smile Train, which is one of the main partners of the cleft service at Santa Casa, organizes Cleft Week, which is Smile Week.”
“During this period, they encourage all partner services, not only in Brazil but worldwide, to organize actions that bring to the population the importance of the smile, the positive impact that the smile brings to people's lives, and they also take the opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of treating cleft lip and palate. And at Santa Casa, it is no different, so we are also involved during this week organizing actions focused on this theme,” emphasizes Deborah Costa.
The activities also celebrate the seven years of the service's creation, which currently has over 1,300 registered patients and serves hundreds of patients from Belém and the interior of the State with multiprofessional consultations and surgeries for the correction of cleft lip and palate, as well as other craniofacial anomalies.
Valmir Pereira da Silva, a farmer from the municipality of Viseu, in the northeast of the state, accompanies his granddaughter Silmara Silva, seven years old, who has already undergone two palatal surgeries. He reports that the event, which is taking place in pediatrics, is very good and enlightening. “The care here is excellent. Excellent professionals, and we spare no effort to come from afar so that my granddaughter evolves more and more. She is evolving well and we will continue until she normalizes, right? I believe that from the age of 8, she will undergo the procedure to correct her nose, thanks to the support of this team here at Santa Casa, which is very good.”
The plastic surgeon Franklin Rocha, coordinator of the Service at the Santa Casa Foundation, highlights some of the advances in cleft treatment achieved since the establishment of the service. “In the beginning, only 30% of patients were operated on at the ideal age. Today, with the establishment of the service, the support of Santa Casa and the Government of the State of Pará, more than 50% of patients are operated on at the appropriate time. So, it is a very significant gain for us as professionals, for the patient, for the improvement in speech, for the development and social integration of this patient,” says the doctor.
“It is a very important week for raising awareness among the general population and healthcare professionals about cleft lip and palate and about its bearer, trying to guide the community on how to refer, that there is treatment, where the treatment is, as well as for health professionals, who sometimes do not have the intimacy, do not have the necessary knowledge to deal with this type of patient, especially regarding feeding, which is a very frequent doubt, it is guidance about speech and where to refer and how to carry out the treatment. So this week is to raise awareness about that,” emphasizes the plastic surgeon.
