The Executive Director of the Cleft and Facial Deformity Foundation, Dr. Seidu Bello, has asked for the creation of a craniofacial section at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, to provide more accessible and affordable maxillofacial services.
Bello made the appeal at the opening ceremony of the ‘team 25’ free cleft and facial deformity surgery programme at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Oyo State.
He urged the hospital’s management to consider hiring a surgeon and urged well-wishers to donate N5 million to help the foundation purchase basic instruments to get the unit up and running.
He also urged the Oyo State government and LAUTECH management to move quickly to establish a School of Dentistry at the university, in order to offer manpower in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery for the team 25 festival’s realisation.
According to Bello, the current 25th edition of the programme drew a large number of patients with various types of facial defects.
“As at today, 44 patients have registered. We have operated on 13 while surgery continues for one week with a target of 50 patients. It is obvious that we cannot attend to everybody which is a wakeup call to the reality that facial deformities are not rare.
“20 (45%) of the patients are from Ogbomoso, while 32 (72%) are from Oyo State.
“It is completely intolerable that Nigerians continue to suffer from glaring psychological disturbances as a result of face deformities while the rest of us gaze elsewhere”, he stated.