Guwahati, Feb. 3: This time Operation Smile, India is all set to restore the smiles of the state’s tea garden community.

Around 142 individuals of the community, who are afflicted with congenital deformity of lip and soft palate, will undergo corrective surgery at the ongoing seventh International Surgical Mission in the city.

The mission is being organised at Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital in the city by Operation Smile, India in association with the National Rural Health Mission, Assam, from January 29 to February 16.

An international team of surgeons and paramedics is likely to conduct 500 surgeries on patients, including those from the tea tribe community.

So far, over 2,500 individuals of different age groups from across the state have benefited from the six international surgical missions conducted during the past two years in the hospital.

The skilled team of surgeons successfully conducted the operation on infants as young as two-three-month-olds during these missions.

To focus on the deformity of cleft lips and soft palate among the tea tribe population of the state, doctors associated with the programme also conducted tests in eight tea gardens as well as their adjoining villages in Upper Assam and on the north bank of the state.

“Cleft deformities of the lip and soft palate are prevalent all throughout the state. But many people of the tea tribe community are not aware of the surgical cure available to treat these deformities. Hence, unlike other surgical missions, this time we screened patients at eight referral tea garden hospitals in Upper Assam and the north bank. Collaboration with these hospitals helped disseminate information about congenital deformities among the tea tribes as well as the rural folk residing in villages surrounding these tea gardens,” said Dalip Pande, director (partnerships) of Operation Smile, India.

“Our international medical teams are very skilled and the patients are absolutely safe in their care. Besides, a patient is required to stay in the hospital only for a day or two after the surgery. Doctors are simultaneously conducting screening of patients along with surgeries at the hospital and we expect more patients to arrive within the next couple of days,” said Ajit Verma, executive director of Operation Smile, India.