The Children’s Hospital Los Angelescraniofacial orthodontic fellowship has become the second program inthe United States to be awarded full accreditation from the Commissionon Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association.
“Most postgraduate orthodontics programs in the country do not fullytrain orthodontic residents in the care of children with craniofacialanomalies. A fellowship in craniofacial orthodontics has been in placeat Children’s Hospital Los Angeles since 2000, but we wanted to gothrough the peer review process for accreditation. Hopefully, thisprogram can prepare the next generation of orthodontists who will betrained in craniofacial orthodontics and give the fellows the tools tobuild a craniofacial team in their own hospital," said Stephen Yen, DMD,PhD.
The team in the craniofacial program at Children’s Hospital LosAngeles typically treats children with common facial birth defects,including cleft lip and palate, cleft palate, and hemifacial microsomia,which comprise about 70% of the patient load. But they also seechildren with some very rare craniofacial anomalies that most otherproviders only see in a textbook. Children come from as far away as theCalifornia’s Central Valley, Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico to receivetreatment. In all, the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles craniofacial teamfollows more than 3,000 craniofacial patients, ranging in age from afew weeks after birth to 19, making it among the largest programs in thecountry.
The craniofacial clinical center at New York University is the onlyother program in the country to have received the same accreditation.
