There is a story that Dr. Saulo Borges carries with him, one that serves as the moral compass for his entire life’s work. It is the story of a young Ukrainian patient. She had endured multiple surgeries for a craniofacial deformity, yet she still carried the deep, invisible trauma of being judged by her appearance. Her suffering was a stark reminder of a truth he had long understood: in his field, you are never just treating anatomy. You are treating identity, confidence, and hope. Using advanced 3D planning and customized implants, his team provided her with a successful medical result. But the true measure of success came months later. She created her first-ever public social media profile, proudly showing her face, smiling without fear.
That single image, full of joy and renewed self-esteem, reaffirmed the true purpose of his career. For Dr. Saulo Borges, technology alone does not change lives. It is a sterile and dormant tool. But in the hands of dedicated clinicians, driven by a clear and compassionate purpose, innovation becomes the bridge between suffering and possibility. For more than thirty-five years, he has been a quiet architect of these bridges, a man who moves seamlessly between the worlds of high-tech clinical practice, complex humanitarian leadership, and savvy entrepreneurship. He is a Brazilian orthodontist who became a lifeline to a hospital in Crimea, a real estate investor who uses his financial freedom to fund global health missions, and a pioneering specialist in artificial intelligence who is now seeking to augment not just clinical workflows, but human potential itself.
The Gateway from Arcos
The story begins not in a high-tech lab, but in Arcos, a small town in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. It was there that Dr. Borges learned his first and most foundational lesson: education would be his gateway to creating a life of meaningful opportunity. This drive led him to dentistry training at Unilavras, where he was drawn to the precise, transformative power of orthodontics, a field he saw as the perfect synthesis of science, technology, and human impact. This was the “what” of his career, the craft he wished to pursue.
Seeking to master this craft, in 1990, he trained with the leading experts at USP/Bauru, Brazil’s premier institution for orthodontics and craniofacial rehabilitation. This experience at the renowned HRAC/USP, or “Centrinho,” was formative. It was here that he was first exposed to world-class multidisciplinary care and to the emerging technologies, like 3D planning for craniofacial surgery, that would later reshape his entire career. He had found his “how.” His “why,” the driving purpose, was still taking shape. In 2001, he joined Rotary International, an organization that expanded his vision beyond the walls of his clinic. He began to see a future built on international collaboration and scalable health innovation, a network that would soon prove essential.
The Project That Became a Vow
In 2013, a request for assistance appeared on a Rotary International platform from the Child’s Clinical Hospital in Crimea, Ukraine. Dr. Borges, now an experienced orthodontist with a growing international network, believed he could help. The initial goal of what would become the Smile Ukraine Project was modest: train the hospital’s professionals to properly rehabilitate the 25 to 30 patients with cleft lip and palate they typically treated each year. The project began in July 2013, with training sessions held both at Centrinho in Brazil and at the children’s hospital in Crimea.
The work was progressing successfully. Then, history intervened. Protests erupted in Kyiv, and Russia annexed Crimea. The project was stopped cold. Dr. Borges and his team were prevented from continuing their work. “I could have abandoned the project at that point,” he reflects. He was faced with a choice: accept the geopolitical reality as a sunk cost, or hold true to the mission he had started. He made a decision that would define his leadership. He decided to wait.
An entire year passed. In December 2014, he returned to a transformed Ukraine. He traveled to Kyiv to negotiate the transfer of the entire project to the Bogomolets National Medical University, the country’s largest medical university. What happened next was a lesson in crisis-driven opportunity. The Smile Ukraine project, originally structured and funded to assist 25 to 30 patients a year, was rebuilt from the ground up. In its new home, it expanded its capacity to serve approximately 500 new patients annually.
This massive expansion motivated Dr. Borges to develop two additional Global Grants to fund the new, larger training activities. During this Kyiv phase, his team established a complete Orthodontic Documentation Center, equipping it with donated photographic equipment, furniture, computers, and software. More than 400 Ukrainian medical professionals received advanced training, and several scientific papers were published. In total, more than 5,000 patients benefited directly and indirectly from the initiative. The project was a landmark success until it was suspended in 2020, first by the COVID-19 outbreak and later by the war. Even today, Dr. Borges and his team continue to provide full support to their Ukrainian colleagues through videoconferences and online training.
“The years I dedicated to this major humanitarian initiative,” he says, “taught me to become more human, to respect others more deeply, and to embrace our differences. I learned how to build connections among universities, companies, and individuals, while achieving significant clinical results under limited budgets.”
The Crisis in Irpin
The pivot to Kyiv, however, revealed another, more insidious challenge. In scaling the project, Dr. Borges discovered the absence of a unified national treatment protocol for craniofacial deformities in Ukraine. Each hospital operated in its own isolated silo, applying its own standards and methodologies. This fragmentation was not just inefficient; it was dangerous, risking long-term harm to patients who might receive different, and often conflicting, standards of care.
Recognizing that a technical solution was not enough, he organized a national medical conference in Irpin, bringing together directors from all the country’s leading regional hospitals. It was a masterful act of servant leadership. He did not arrive with a mandate. He arrived with a platform for collaboration. The landmark event’s centerpiece was a live palatal graft surgery, broadcast from Kyiv to the conference in Irpin. Through this practical demonstration and the collective dialogue that followed, Dr. Borges and his Ukrainian colleagues laid the groundwork for a nationally standardized treatment framework, a milestone in the modernization of Ukrainian craniofacial care. He had not just brought technology to one hospital; he had helped facilitate a new national conversation.
The Strategist’s Freedom
This level of dedication, leading a massive international humanitarian project for seven transformative years, begs a simple question: how? Dr. Borges is not just a clinician; he is a strategic planner. “Life planning has always been an essential part of who I am,” he notes. He understood the unique challenges of his profession in Brazil early in his career. The country, he explains, has more than 640 dental schools and approximately 450,000 licensed dentists. For comparison, the United States has only 77 schools and around 203,000 dentists. This saturation in Brazil (roughly one dentist for every 472 inhabitants, versus one per 1,681 in the U.S.) meant that financial stability would require diversification.
In 2001, he founded Saubor Empreendimentos e Participações Ltda., his entrepreneurial and real estate investment firm. This venture, along with various personal investments, provided the financial resources needed for him to focus on humanitarian missions.
“Over the years,” he states, “my investments… have provided the stability that allows me to dedicate, on average, two to three months each year to humanitarian healthcare missions around the world.”
This balance is the core of his philosophy, a perfect fusion of “why” and “how”: “while business ensures sustainability, humanitarian work gives purpose and meaning to what I do.”
From Humanitarian Tech to Augmented Intelligence
The experience in Ukraine profoundly shaped his vision of technology. He challenges the notion that humanitarian healthcare must rely on “simple” or “low-tech” solutions. The Smile Ukraine initiative demonstrated the opposite: even in post-conflict environments, advanced digital planning, teleconsultation, and data-driven coordination can transform care delivery.
This experience fueled his current focus: integrating artificial intelligence into Orthodontics and craniofacial surgery, not to replace the specialist, but to expand their diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities. The primary challenge in Brazil is structural: the lack of a high-quality, integrated digital data repository, which is essential for training robust AI models.
For this reason, he is seeking new partners, researchers, companies, and innovation centers, to co-create and develop artificial intelligence models applied to craniofacial healthcare. The goal is to combine deep clinical expertise with cutting-edge technology, building solutions that elevate the standard of care in Brazil and beyond.
The Orchestra of Compassion
After more than three decades of work, Dr. Borges sees his role in a new light. “I now see myself less as the main player and more as a coordinator,” he reflects. “A coach, perhaps, someone who brings people together and helps them perform at their best.” He is adamant that none of his achievements would have been possible without the vast network of individuals who offered their trust and unwavering support. He serves them, and in doing so, he serves the mission.
He speaks of them with a gratitude that is both profound and precise. His first and most important partner is his wife, Adriana, and his daughter, Letícia, who inspires his work. The leaders within Rotary International who stood by him in the most challenging moments: Mykola Stbljanko, Virgílio Bandeira (in memorian), Aristides Beraldo Garcia, Ângelo Antônio de Freitas, João Otávio Veiga Rodrigues, João Bosco Béze, Paulo Azevedo, and Paulo Marcos Lima.
He names, with the careful attention of a conductor acknowledging his orchestra, the extraordinary team of Brazilian professionals from Centrinho (HRAC-USP): Dr. João Henrique Nogueira Pinto, the Administrative Director who first authorized the institution’s participation; Dr. Eudes Nóbrega (Plastic Surgeon); Prof. Dr. Terumi Okada Ozawa (Orthodontist); Prof. Dr. Gisele Dalben (Pediatric Dentistry); Prof. Dr. Giovana Rinalde (Speech Therapy); and Prof. Dr. Renato Yassutaka Yaedú (Orthognathic Surgery).
He credits his colleagues from UNESP/Araraquara, Prof. Dr. Luiz Gonzaga Gandini Jr. and Prof. Dr. Márcia Gandini, and from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Prof. Dr. Sérgio Monteiro Lima Jr. and Prof. Dr. Fernanda Boos Lima.
And he honors his Ukrainian partners, the professionals who received the training and who will carry the legacy forward: Professors Yefimenko, Sokolovskyi, Shafeta, Flis, Kuroiedova, Kopchak, Tsyih, Melnik, Lugovskoy, Yakovenko, Korotchenko, Dutka, Konopliasta, and Lindholt. This network of institutional collaborators, including USP, UNESP, UFMG, University of Itaúna, Bogomolets National Medical University, Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, National Pedagogical Drahomanov University, and Poltava V. G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University, forms the true backbone of his mission.
The Future of Human-Centered Innovation
Dr. Borges’s vision is clear: to empower a new generation of leaders and professionals. He is actively developing high-impact Continuing Education programs in Orthodontics and Orthognathic Surgery alongside his esteemed colleagues, Dr. Gandini and Dr. Yaedú. His goal transcends borders; he seeks to build new bridges, forge strategic partnerships with universities and professionals, and advance his innovative work in augmented intelligence.
When he is not working, he is a man of deep curiosity and technical passion. His hobbies are a reflection of his work: he builds computers, configures 3D printers, and appreciates the engineering of cars, motorcycles, and watercraft. He is a fan of science-fiction films and a voracious reader of technology and science, all balanced by the daily presence of music.
He begins each day with gratitude, discipline, and a clear intention to innovate and empower. With over 35 years of clinical experience and more than 25 years devoted to humanitarian initiatives, he has learned that leadership is not about titles, but about transforming challenges into progress. “Technology alone does not change lives,” he insists. “But in the hands of dedicated clinicians, innovation becomes the bridge between suffering and possibility.” It is the simple, powerful ‘why’ that has guided him from a small town in Brazil to the frontiers of medical innovation, a journey defined not just by the smiles he has restored, but by the dignity, confidence, and human potential he has helped to unleash.
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