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Donald F. Phillips

JAMA. 1999;281:597-598.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A child's smile can gladden anyone's heart—or break it, if smiling is impeded by congenital facial deformities.

Plastic surgeon William P. Magee, Jr, MD, decided 18 years ago to do something about the emotional starvation, social isolation, and debilitating or life-threatening medical complications that often affect children with such disfiguring anomalies.

William Magee, MD, and volunteers in Operation Smile consult with a young patient. (Photo credit: Operation Smile)

Another young patient, Demetria, and her father traveled five times through the jungles of Panama to see Operation Smile's physicians, who repaired her cleft lip and palate. (Photo credit: Operation Smile)

"It is unthinkable that any child in the world is forced to suffer from the emotional and physical trauma of deformities that can be cured with a relatively simple medical procedure," said Magee in a recent interview. As cofounder and board chair of Operation Smile, a humanitarian and . . . [Full Text of this Article]