Cleft Awareness Month with Smile Train | Dentsply Sirona

With more than 3,800 supported cleft surgeries in 15 countries, Dentsply Sirona and Smile Train look back on almost three years of their impactful partnership. With Smile Train, the world's largest cleft-focused organization, celebrating its 25thanniversary this year, Dentsply Sirona has a strong partner to advance the future of cleft care, bringing healthy smiles to children and parents around the world as a result.

Charlotte, N.C., July, 2024. This July, Dentsply Sirona, the world's largest manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies, celebrates National Cleft and Craniofacial Awareness and Prevention Month as well as the 25^th anniversary of its partner Smile Train. To mark these special occasions, the company goes BEYOND to raise public awareness of clefts and to elevate the importance of increasing access to cleft care.

As part of its sustainability strategy "BEYOND: Taking Action for a Brighter World", Dentsply Sirona is committed to bringing better oral health and wellbeing to communities around the world. To help empower cleft professionals all over the world to create healthy smiles, Dentsply Sirona continues to foster special training programs: the company supported Smile Train's launch of the first advanced training in Digital Cleft Orthodontics in Medellín, Colombia. The program offers participants from different Latin American countries training on digital workflows in presurgical orthopaedics, mixed and permanent dentition, as well as hands-on workshops across three stages of treatment.

To highlight the significance of Cleft Awareness Month, Dentsply Sirona is also hosting a fundraiser amongst its 15,000 employees worldwide which aims to promote oral health while raising up to US$ 80,000 in support of life-changing cleft surgeries. In July and August, every dental check-up registration by a Dentsply Sirona employee will result in a US $25 donation on behalf of the company to Smile Train.

"Every three minutes, a baby is born with a cleft lip or palate which cause difficulties with eating, breathing, hearing, and speaking*. As a leading company in the field, we are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of those affected and to raising awareness for the importance of increased access to surgeries and care for children in need. It is amazing to witness the life-transforming power of cleft treatment and we are incredibly proud of what we have achieved together with our partner Smile Train." says Andrea Frohning, SVP, Chief Human Resources Officer at Dentsply Sirona.

Strong partners advance cleft care quality and access in underserved regions

Over the past three years, Dentsply Sirona and Smile Train have been taking continuous action to advance the future of cleft care through digitalization. Together with the FDI World Dental Federation, Dentsply Sirona and Smile Train developed the first-ever global standard protocols for digitalized cleft treatment. These protocols are designed to help improve the accuracy and efficacy of the current treatments by providing dental professionals with a comprehensive digital clinical approach across all stages of care.

Dentsply Sirona has gone BEYOND over the last year, funding an additional 1,000 free cleft surgeries, adding up to a total of 3,800 life-transforming surgeries in 15 countries since 2021. Donations of 20 pieces of state-of-the-art equipment to seven Smile Train partners' facilities across Latin America and Asia give even more patients access to modern treatment standards.

"As the world leading cleft-focused nonprofit, Smile Train continues to transform lives and cleft care around the world. As we celebrate our 25th anniversary this year, we are proud of the 2 million free cleft surgeries we've supported," said Susannah Schaefer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Smile Train. "We could not have achieved this major milestone alone. We're thankful for longstanding partners like Dentsply Sirona who support our vision by offering financial support, expert knowledge and equipment, while using their position to help shine a light on the obstacles cleft-affected individuals face without timely, high-quality and comprehensive cleft care."

To learn more about Dentsply Sirona's sustainability efforts and for more information on the partnership , visit www.dentsplysirona.com/en/company/our-sustainability.html.

*https://www.smiletrain.org/sites/default/files/2022-04/smile-train-strategic-plan-2021-2026.pdf