Faces of Tomorrow

Healing Together: Dr. Sam Ahani Travels to Ecuador Fixing Smiles With 'Faces of Tomorrow'

Written by Jean Bartlett Pacifica Tribune Thursday, 19 February 2009 01:59

In early January Sam Ahani, DDS, boarded a plane for a life-changing trip which would take him to Quito, the capital city of Ecuador . Ahani, who co-founded Shore View Dental here in Pacifica with his wife, pediatric specialist Sepi Vafi, DDS, was part of a 37-member team which included dentists, anesthesiologists, plastic surgeons, ENTs (ear, nose and throat doctors), nurse anesthetists and a world-renowned pediatric pulmonologist (lung and respiratory tract specialist) all on a mission (through the Davis-based non-profit organization Faces of Tomorrow) to provide medical and surgical services to children and adults in need of cleft lip and palate repair.

Dr. Sam Ahani with a young Ecuadorian patient

The total trip took 10 days and in the span of seven of those days, the Faces of Tomorrow team did 60 surgeries. "It was amazingly coordinated and well-organized," said Ahani. "To do that many surgeries in 7 days here would be impossible."

Not everyone could be treated, some because the post op care would take longer than the team had this time around. Others because there were simply too many.

"One of the things Faces of Tomorrow told us was you just can't see everybody that comes, so don't get disheartened," said Ahani. "When we arrived, there were rows and rows and rows of moms with little babies with cleft lips.

And we screened them one at a time so theyhad to wait all day. But the people were very gracious and didn't throw themselves on the ground like I might have done!"

That first day, surgeries were scheduled. While all ages were welcome, the majority of patients were infants and children. All patients were treated at Tierra Nueva Hospital , a nonreligious hospital founded by Italian priest Padre Carolo, as a place where "medical missions could provide care to families and their children born with medical abnormalities."

Children and adults
waiting to be seen

Medical expenses for patients identified for surgery were covered by Faces of Tomorrow at a cost of $250 per patient. In the States this surgery runs a minimum of $5,000. (Follow-up can send the price up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.) A stay at a nearby hostel for the parents of pediatric patients was additionally covered. Dr. Ahani said some parents stayed with their kids in the hospital.

Founded in 2007, Faces of Tomorrow was started by several doctors who had previously traveled on compassionate medical missions to Ecuador to treat cleft lip, cleft palate and ear anomalies.

A cleft is an opening or a split in the upper lip, the roof of the mouth (palate) or both. A cleft palate may go through to the nasal cavity. Both a cleft lip and cleft palate are treatable birth defects which can be repaired when the baby is strong enough for surgery at 3 to 6 months old. Until surgically treated, a cleft palate can affect hearing, speech development and feeding and most definitely if left untreated through the years, self esteem.

Ahani heard about the organization when it first started and did some fundraising for them. When they asked him to join the team this year, he had to think on it.

The father of two young girls, one of whom is autistic, Ahani wondered if it might not be better to wait a year. Plus he had never been away from his wife and their daughters for ten days.

Driving along one day and talking to his mom about it, suddenly the face of a child with a cleft lip was peering down at him from a billboard.
"I looked at my mom and she looked at me and she said, I guess you're going!" laughed Ahani. "When I got home and told my wife that story, we all agreed that I should take the hint!"

Ahani said Faces will give you money to buy the medical and dental products required by your work however he was able to raise those funds through donations. Individuals take care of their own plane ticket. The organization explains all that is needed in regards to: clothes, money, shots, visas, etc. They make sure people and equipment arrive together. Volunteers came from at least Oregon, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Mateo County . The organization had everyone meet up in Atlanta and arrive together in Quito.

"This is a real team effort, I couldn't have done any of it by myself," said Ahani. "But my wife really gets the credit. She held down the fort at home and at the office!" Additionally both Dr. Ahani and Dr. Vafi are thankful for their exceptional staff.
At an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet and 15 miles south of the equator, Ahani said Quito literally takes your breath away. "You don't get used to that and every once in a while you have to take a deep breath."

Faces of Tomorrow advertised their services in advance through the newspaper. Some patients came from as far as Columbia -- an 18 hour bus ride.
The hospital supplied some nurses and some staff. Peace Corps volunteers worked as interpreters. "I can't say enough about them," said Ahani. "These volunteers were mostly women, Stanford grads and they all live in Ecuador for $200 bucks a month."

Carmen Rivas without the scarf she used to wear to cover her face, 2 days after surgery

The Faces of Tomorrow team stayed at a nearby hotel. "It was fine but nothing fancy," Ahani said. They slept 2 or 3 to a room, many of them meeting each other the first time on this trip.

Dr. Ahani spent a lot of time in the operating room. "We did extractions first and then the surgeons would do the lip or the palate." Ahani did do "some normal dental stuff" but mostly he created palatal obturators, a short-term prosthetic used to close defects of the hard/soft palate. The results were immediate.
"There was this 12-year-old kid who could only talk through his throat. The moment that obturator was in, he was able to speak a little more normally," said Ahani.
A woman of 40 also particularly stands out in Dr. Ahani's mind. "She wore a scarf over her face to cover her cleft lip. Her father would never allow her to have the surgery. When he died, she heard about the mission and showed up immediately. She was a really pretty woman who had spent her whole life hidden behind a scarf. After the surgery she just looked beautiful."

The youngest child Dr. Ahani worked with was a three month old. He said while people were excited about the surgeries there were also some nerves.
"Just like here, we had to do informed consent on them, and if you are not used to hearing that stuff, it's a little bit scary." To help alleviate the fear, patients were made as comfortable as possible and there were a lot of toys handed out. "All the volunteers brought toys," laughed Ahani.

Ahani, who was recently voted Best Invisalign Dentist in San Mateo County and was featured on "Best Of The Bay," said this was the first time this team brought a dental component and part of the plan for next year is to offer educational outreach programs to teach people about dental hygiene.
"Parents would tell us that their child's teeth came in white and then they just disappeared." Ahani said the disappearing or rotted teeth, were due to not having any familiarity with a toothbrush and also depending on the cleft, the fluid from the sinuses contributed to complete decay.

Along with toys, Dr. Ahani gave out toothbrushes and toothpaste but he laughed over one of his gifts. "There was a little lady by the dental clinic selling candy and she wanted to give me some as a gift. So I wanted to give her something back and all I had was a toothbrush and toothpaste, which I gave to her." Later Dr. Ahani realized she didn't have any teeth!

To see a mom's reaction after her child's successful treatment was very emotional. "In the States, a cleft can be picked up in ultrasound. So it is not such a shock when your child is born. But there it's like there is a big hole in your child's face and it's devastating."

On the last post op day, Ahani said volunteers were loaded down with love. "All the kids came in with their parents and the tears were flying and there were hugs and high fives."

"It's rewarding, tiring and inspiring and also difficult to not be able to treat every one," said Ahani. "But there was no negativity. Nobody complained about long hours. Everybody was just there to do what they can."
"I'd like to do it every year," said Ahani. "But I need a few months for my wife to recuperate before I ask her if she can take it!"

For more information and to donate to Faces of Tomorrow please visit them on the web at www.facesoftomorrow.org.

(c) 2009 Pacifica Tribune. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.
Record Number: 11739241