Around Crownsville: Doctor preserves smiles

Smile! We do it all the time.

We tense muscles around our mouths, our lips turn up, and we smile. Our smiles communicate welcome and well-being to others. When we smile, complete strangers smile back - usually.

For one in 1,000 people born with a cleft lip, palate or both, the simple smile turns faces away. The deformity, in which the lip or palate fails to close in the early weeks of pregnancy, creates a gap exposing angled gums and misdirected teeth.

In our area, this probability translates into five or six live births with a cleft problem. Fortunately, in our area, babies benefit from advanced medical facilities and...