Operation Smile & Avante: Renewing Smiles Around the Globe

The Opportunity

Operation Smile, founded in 1982, is one of the largest volunteer-based international medical nonprofits that repairs cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities of children and young adults. Operation Smile relies on the skill, passion and dedication of more than 6,000 active medical program volunteers from 67 countries to deliver safe surgery and training programs around the world. Teams of plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, dentists, nurses and others travel to more than 100 sites in 30+ countries each year, to date providing hundreds of thousands of cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries for free.

A major challenge Operation Smile faced was a lack of medical equipment in low-and-middle income countries, such as Ghana and Rwanda. The Operation Smile staff in those countries wanted to conduct medical missions, but without proper medical equipment, there was not much they could accomplish. Operation Smile headquarters was able to donate enough operating room equipment to each country so they could begin conducting their own local medical missions, taking care of their own children with cleft conditions.

Our Solution

Jesse Hines first reached out to Avante to inquire about medical equipment for their medical missions around the world. As SVP, Logistics and Facilities of Operation Smile,, Jesse Hines is responsible for many of the organization's key components. Mr. Hines not only acquires medical equipment and supplies for Operation Smile, he also maintains and ships the equipment to over 30 Operation Smile partner countries. To streamline the ordering process of medical equipment, Jesse Hines worked with Avante to provide a wide range of appropriate and durable medical equipment that would be used to repair cleft lip, cleft palate, and other dental and facial deformities.

Avante Medical has been a one-stop shop for 80% of our medical needs; and, they can get equipment to us quickly. They understand our business and they are supportive of our mission. They give us a fair price- all while standing behind their products.

Avante offered Operation Smile operating room equipment that fit within a specific budget. Due to Operation Smile's global impact, careful consideration was key when providing equipment that was suitable for various countries with different voltage requirements. The organization sees a wide range of extreme cases and Avante made sure the medical staff had what was needed. Durable equipment is a must when considering Operation Smile serves over 150 medical missions a year, and has renewed the smiling faces of more than 21,000 patients in the last year alone.

For more information, visit operationsmile.org