A Quarter Century of Changing the World One Smile at a Time

Charles B. Wang founds Smile Train according to a groundbreaking, sustainable “teach a man to fish” model of empowering community healthcare workers.”

Our first patient, Wang Li, receives the cleft treatment that changes her life forever in Nanjing, China.

Smile Train Express, a revolutionary digital database of our patient, partner, and medical outcomes, launches. It is now the world's largest database of cleft cases.

We distribute our first virtual surgical training materials to medical professionals around the world, via CD-ROM.

The Tech Museum of Innovation honors us with an award for the way we use technology to promote sustainable cleft care.

Our programs expand to help children in 23 countries.

Our Indian Medical Advisory Council is established, the first of what will become eight regional advisory councils made up of the top local cleft experts in every part of the world.

We support the first-ever Pan-African Congress on Cleft Lip and Palate.

We celebrate our 200,000th sponsored cleft surgery!

We distribute our first DVDs for virtually training surgeons.

Our short film “Smile Pinki” wins the Oscar® for Best Documentary Short Subject. This real-life fairytale follows six-year-old Pinki Sonkar's journey from her remote village in India to the cleft treatment that will completely transform her life.

We celebrate World Smile Day® for the first time.

Our programs are featured on the 38th Daytime Emmy® Awards

We award our first grants to form Smile Train Choirs in Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru. Singing in a choir is proven to help children with clefts build communication skills and confidence and form close friendships with other patients with similar experiences.

We unveil our revolutionary Virtual Surgery Simulator — the world's first free, 3D, open-access, web-based, interactive surgical teaching tool for cleft surgery — at the SXSW® Interactive Festival.

We sponsor our 1,000,000th cleft surgery, on a child named Osawa in Tanzania.

Our Speech Games and Practice app, delivering free speech therapy activities for children with clefts everywhere on earth, launches in Spanish on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

A landmark peer-reviewed study demonstrates how one cleft surgery can contribute up to $50,000 to the beneficiary's local economy.

The Cleft Community Advisory Council (CCAC) is established in the US. The CCAC is a board of cleft-affected individuals and other members of the cleft community who advise on our marketing materials and advocate for people with clefts at home and abroad, all to help Smile Train ensure every cleft-affected person is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

We proudly launched a five-year partnership with GSK Consumer Healthcare (now Haleon). Haleon is at the forefront of the fight against everyday oral health problems and, together, we help increase awareness about clefts among consumers and experts and provide vital support in oral health and hygiene for patients in need.

Our “It Starts with a Smile” initiative launches, bringing attention to the vital importance of non-surgical forms of comprehensive cleft care.

In the eye of a global pandemic, our model of partnering with local cleft teams around the world allows us to safely sponsor more than 68,000 safe cleft surgeries in 60+ countries from March - December 2020 — many times more than the next closest organization.

We open our first seven Cleft Leadership Centers (CLCs) at partner hospitals in Chile, Brazil, Mexico, India, Ghana, Vietnam, and the Philippines. CLCs serve as regional hubs for cleft treatment, education, training, and research, presenting a holistic, team-centered model of care.

We jointly published the first-ever State of the World's Cleft Care Report with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, validating that nutritional support is vital to every cleft journey

With 21,328 smiles collected, we officially set the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for “World's Largest Online Album of Mouths” on World Smile Day®, alongside our partner Dentsply Sirona

Father and son Alim and Rajib, from a remote village in Indonesia, receive Smile Train's 2,000,000th — and 2,000,001st — cleft surgeries.

Our first patient, Wang Li, receives the cleft treatment that changes her life forever in Nanjing, China.

Smile Train Express, a revolutionary digital database of our patient, partner, and medical outcomes, launches. It is now the world's largest database of cleft cases.

We distribute our first virtual surgical training materials to medical professionals around the world, via CD-ROM.

The Tech Museum of Innovation honors us with an award for the way we use technology to promote sustainable cleft care.

Our programs expand to help children in 23 countries.

Our Indian Medical Advisory Council is established, the first of what will become eight regional advisory councils made up of the top local cleft experts in every part of the world.

We support the first-ever Pan-African Congress on Cleft Lip and Palate.

We celebrate our 200,000th sponsored cleft surgery!

We distribute our first DVDs for virtually training surgeons.

Our short film “Smile Pinki” wins the Oscar® for Best Documentary Short Subject. This real-life fairytale follows six-year-old Pinki Sonkar's journey from her remote village in India to the cleft treatment that will completely transform her life.

We celebrate World Smile Day® for the first time.

Our programs are featured on the 38th Daytime Emmy® Awards

We award our first grants to form Smile Train Choirs in Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru. Singing in a choir is proven to help children with clefts build communication skills and confidence and form close friendships with other patients with similar experiences.

We unveil our revolutionary Virtual Surgery Simulator — the world's first free, 3D, open-access, web-based, interactive surgical teaching tool for cleft surgery — at the SXSW® Interactive Festival.

We sponsor our 1,000,000th cleft surgery, on a child named Osawa in Tanzania.

Our Speech Games and Practice app, delivering free speech therapy activities for children with clefts everywhere on earth, launches in Spanish on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

A landmark peer-reviewed study demonstrates how one cleft surgery can contribute up to $50,000 to the beneficiary's local economy.

The Cleft Community Advisory Council (CCAC) is established in the US. The CCAC is a board of cleft-affected individuals and other members of the cleft community who advise on our marketing materials and advocate for people with clefts at home and abroad, all to help Smile Train ensure every cleft-affected person is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

We proudly launched a five-year partnership with GSK Consumer Healthcare (now Haleon). Haleon is at the forefront of the fight against everyday oral health problems and, together, we help increase awareness about clefts among consumers and experts and provide vital support in oral health and hygiene for patients in need.

Our “It Starts with a Smile” initiative launches, bringing attention to the vital importance of non-surgical forms of comprehensive cleft care.

In the eye of a global pandemic, our model of partnering with local cleft teams around the world allows us to safely sponsor more than 68,000 safe cleft surgeries in 60+ countries from March - December 2020 — many times more than the next closest organization.

We open our first seven Cleft Leadership Centers (CLCs) at partner hospitals in Chile, Brazil, Mexico, India, Ghana, Vietnam, and the Philippines. CLCs serve as regional hubs for cleft treatment, education, training, and research, presenting a holistic, team-centered model of care.

We jointly published the first-ever State of the World's Cleft Care Report with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, validating that nutritional support is vital to every cleft journey

With 21,328 smiles collected, we officially set the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for “World's Largest Online Album of Mouths” on World Smile Day®, alongside our partner Dentsply Sirona

Father and son Alim and Rajib, from a remote village in Indonesia, receive Smile Train's 2,000,000th — and 2,000,001st — cleft surgeries.