Father and son plastic surgeons from Scotch Plains just returned from Africa where they performed corrective surgeries to give people smiles.

Nolis Arkoulakis and his father Stam spent two weeks in Kenya with Operation Smile. They operated on 133 people who suffered everything from cleft palates to burns.

Nolis Arkoulakis says people with deformities in Africa are shunned from society and their families. They can be barred from attending school and generally don?t marry or have children.

"It's really plastic surgery at its best. You can literally change that patient?s face and make it normal and then give a normal child back to a family and back to their community," Nolis Arkoulakis says.

Stam Arkoulakis has participated in Operation Smile for 17 years. He has been to Kenya five times and has worked with doctors from all around the world. He says the mission has always brought him a tremendous amount of satisfaction, but the last trip was the most rewarding because his son was with him.

Each surgery costs about $250 to perform.

Related Information:Operation Smile