Dr Bart van de Ven is a Dutch maxillofacial surgeon, specialised in facial feminization surgery.
He was born in Heerlen in 1961. After completing his secondary education at the Bernardinus College in Heerlen, he went on to study dentistry and later medicine in Utrecht.
For his specialization, he worked in the department for oral and maxillo-facial surgery at the Utrecht academic hospital for two years, in general surgery in Arnhem and Utrecht (Diakonessenhuis) for three years, spent 8 months working in plastic and reconstructive surgery and the Maastricht academic hospital, and 2 years in the Mund, Kiefer und plastische Gesichtschirurgie (oral, maxillo-facial and plastic facial surgery) department at the Academic hospital in Aachen, Germany.
In 2001 he founded the Cleftsurgery Organisation. This organisation provides free surgeries to cleft lip and palate patients in development countries. Over the years Dr van de Ven has performed several hundreds of free surgeries in Kenya, Vietnam, Nepal and Indonesia. In 2008 he was first author of the book ‘Cleft Lip Surgery, a practical Guide’ that has been published in English and Spanish.
From March 2008 he was director of Agave Clinic, international center for advanced maxillofacial, plastic and reconstructive surgery. Unfortunately the Clinic had to be closed down due to difficult economic times in Spain.
He rebuild his practice in Belgium in a beautiful Clinic in Ghent (EMC2).
He has two children, Anne and Peppino, and lives in Ghent.
