Smile Train

About Smile Train

Smile Train is an international charity that has supported more than 1.5 million cleft surgeries in over 90 countries since 1999. Its mission is simple: free, high-quality cleft lip and palate surgery for children whose families cannot afford private care. Cleft lip and palate, an opening in the lip, palate or both due to incomplete fusion during pregnancy, occurs in roughly one in 700 newborns globally. It can present in isolation or as part of a syndrome.

At Vivekananda Polyclinic and IMS in Lucknow, Dr. Agarwal, FRCS Edinburgh, has led the Department of Plastic, Craniofacial and Microvascular Surgery as Project Director of Smile Train since 2015. Under his leadership, around 3,000 children with orofacial clefts have been treated to date through the Smile Train programme. Treatment is delivered free of cost to families, supported by a fully equipped surgical and post-surgical team that handles the journey from infancy through to adolescence and beyond.

Cleft repair is time-sensitive. Untreated cleft lip and palate affect feeding in infancy, then speech, hearing, dental development and self-confidence as the child grows. Primary cleft lip surgery is usually performed around three to six months of age, and palate repair around nine to twelve months. Secondary procedures, including alveolar bone grafting, speech-improving palate surgery, rhinoplasty and orthognathic correction, follow at age-appropriate stages. The aim is a child who grows up able to speak, eat, hear and smile freely.

A multidisciplinary team is essential for cleft care. Our department works alongside anaesthesiology, paediatrics, speech therapy, orthodontics and ENT, so every aspect of the child's development is supported. Dr. Shweta Jain leads dental care for these children at Kayakriti, and our experienced nursing staff guide families through feeding, post-operative recovery and follow-up appointments. Smile Train cleft surgery in Lucknow is delivered with the same standards of safety and confidentiality as any private case in our practice.

For families travelling from across Uttar Pradesh and beyond, we coordinate scheduling around school terms, immunisations and growth milestones. Counselling is offered to parents who feel anxious about how their child's appearance or speech might evolve. The cause of cleft is usually multifactorial, and rarely something a parent could have prevented. Our team explains this honestly, then focuses on what can be done to help the child reach full potential through reconstructive cleft treatment.