Cape Town - A mother’s unwavering love and a team of Cape doctors' innovative approach gave a girl a million dollar smile, something she has not had since the age of seven.
Chiara Alberts, now 15, is currently three steps away from getting back her permanent smile after she fell and broke her permanent front teeth, nose, split her upper jaw, fractured skull and damaged two vertebrae in her neck, seven years ago.
The teen is currently undergoing a range of facial reconstruction surgeries at Kingsbury Hospital in Cape Town, performed by none other than a fellow of the eminent South African scientists and academics' Royal Society, Professor Rushdi Hendricks.
The operations will take about two years to complete, something Chiara's mom, Monique said was well worth the wait.
She revealed that her baby girl has had at least 47 procedures.
“Chiara could not live a normal life ever since she fell in the bathroom of our Bela Bela home. She does not have friends, she cannot eat, she cannot go to school, the small things people take for granted she could not do for most of her life.
"During this time Chiara was also diagnosed with a chronic bone infection (Osteomyelitis), which she got in her upper jaw.
"It is not usual for this condition to affect upper jaw but rather the lower jaw. The former caused upper jaw to suddenly get a gaping hole and pus started oozing out of it.
“Chiara had surgery, leading to the removal of dead bone in the front of her upper jaw, and under the nose.”
The mom said she then started Googling and YouTubing and found a Professor Karen Brandt Onel, a pediatric rheumatologist in New York.
“She put Professor Rushdi in touch with me, and on March 12, he asked to bring Chiara down to Cape Town.”
Monique said that she dropped everything, packed up and left for Cape Town, leaving behind her business. Her husband, Chiara's father, who has been their backbone, joined soon thereafter.
The mom said that their lives have not been the same since.
“When we got to Cape Town, Professor Rushdi got to work immediately putting together a team consisting of a prosthodontis, a biomedical engineer, and himself, while we started a back-a-buddy crowd funding account and you know the Lord is so amazing because when she went in the funds were there.
“With the first of the CT scans, he found a piece of non-vital triangular bone that was broken off in the middle of her upper jaw. He explained that it was the dead bone that has been causing the ongoing infection.
“She was taken into theatre to remove that piece of bone and ever since that operation she didn’t have another infection. He was the first person after all those operations and scans that found the culprit that was making my daughter sick.
“Even afterwards the team made her a temporary plate with teeth and she could wear it until her next operation instead of wearing her mask.
“She could eat with that plate, she could smile with teeth, for her this meant everything, she didn't have to hide behind her mask.”
Chiara underwent transport distraction osteogenesis surgery on August 7, where individual distractors were inserted that will grow her new bone and soft tissue to meet in the centre of her face within 21 days.
This concept of bone growth was invented by Professor Hendricks and the distractors were designed by Professor George Vicatos, which was a subject of his PhD research, which earned him a Cum Laude. When this distraction process is completed she will have a complete upper jaw with new bone and gum tissue and a hard palate.
“After step one has been completed the soft tissue and bone will need to consolidate, and mature. Step two is where new bone after it has hardened will be housing new dental implants.
“The distraction apparatus is then removed, any redundant teeth are also removed, and dental implants are placed into the new bone tissue. It is speculated that she will have four new dental implants and will have a complete new beautiful smile.”
The reason why Professor Hendricks and his team opted to use Transport Distraction Osteogenesis was due to the fact, that any proposed bone grafting would fail due to a lack of blood supply.
Professor Hendricks explains: “This technique, I invented, uses the body’s own immune system to regenerate new bone and soft tissue from the body’s own stem cells and is not dependent only upon blood supply.“
Monique said she has never been so thankful and grateful to anybody.
“Everybody has to know about Professor Hendricks and his team. At one moment we felt like we lost hope, but he gave us that hope back and gave us our daughter back.”
The medical costs of all the procedures runs into millions, an amount the family are still saving for.
Anyone who wants to donate can visit there back-a-buddy page on: https://www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/help-chiara-grow-back-her-smile
[Editor's Note: This story was update for specificity, and for further context.]