Freedom's Charitable Cause

The Smile Train www.SmileTrain.org

Freedom Laser Therapy supports the Smile Train efforts in raising funds for children's corrective surgeries, which are born with a cleft lip or palates. Cleft lips and palates are the fourth most common birth defect in the United States. One of every 700 newborns is affected by cleft lip and/or cleft palate.

A cleft lip is a separation of the two sides of the lip. The separation often includes the bones of the upper jaw and/or upper gum. A cleft palate is an opening in the roof of the mouth in which the two sides of the palate did not fuse, or join together, as the unborn baby was developing. Cleft lip and cleft palate can occur on one side (unilateral cleft lip and/or palate), or on both sides (bilateral cleft lip and/or palate). Because the lip and the palate develop separately, it is possible for the child to have a cleft lip, a cleft palate, or both cleft lip and cleft palate.

Smoking during pregnancy increases risks of a cleft lip or palate in babies. Women who smoke while pregnant are 50 percent to 70 percent more likely than nonsmokers to give birth to a baby with a cleft lip or palate. Freedom Laser Therapy strives to educate women how dangerous smoking can be to an unborn child.

According to a study published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery [February, 2000], the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, mothers who smoke during pregnancy run a greater risk of having a baby with cleft lip or palate.

In the same study, comparisons were made between 2,207 live births with cleft lips or palates and 4,414 controls without any congenital abnormality. Women who smoked 1 to 10 cigarettes a day saw a risk increase of 50%; smoking between 11 to 20 cigarettes a day increased the risk by 55%; and smoking more than 21 cigarettes a day saw this figure rise to 78%.

Freedom Laser Therapy is dedicating our resources to assist in helping The Smile Train raises funds to help children born with cleft lips and palates. For more information about how you can support this cause contact them at www.SmileTrain.org

Significant link found between babies born with cleft lip or palate
and mother's smoking during pregnancy. www.cleft.ie/research/smoking.htm

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