Pediatric Plastic and Craniofacial Newport Beach
Pediatric Plastic Surgery helps to restore or improve function and appearance in children with birth defects, disease, and traumatic injuries. Pediatric Plastic Surgery focuses on the repair and reconstruction of congenital birth defects, abnormalities, and anomalies such as cleft lip and palate, hemangioma, dermoid cyst, congenital hairy nevus, congenital ear deformity, webbed finger, and finger duplication. In addition, pediatric plastic surgeons help to repair and reconstruct pediatric traumatic injuries such as burn injury and facial fracture.
Craniofacial Surgery focuses on the repair and reconstruction of both congenital anomalies and injuries to the cranium and face. Though there is much overlap with pediatric plastic surgery in areas such as cleft lip and palate surgery and facial fracture repair, craniofacial surgery also cares for adult patients with any of these problems. Craniofacial surgery is a sub-specialty of plastic and reconstructive surgery. After completing plastic and reconstructive surgical residency, craniofacial surgeons have pursued additional fellowship training in craniofacial surgery to care for both children and adults with craniofacial anomalies or injuries.
The functional and social implications of both pediatric plastic surgery and craniofacial surgery are life changing and require a diverse set of skills to manage. After completing her plastic and reconstructive surgery residency, Dr. Chen underwent two years of additional fellowship training to bring this area of expertise to the pediatric and adult population and is dedicated to helping both children and adults improve the quality of their lives.
During her pediatric and craniofacial surgery fellowship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Dr. Chen received specialized training in craniofacial procedures including cleft lip and palate primary and secondary procedures, maxillofacial trauma repair and reconstruction, orthognathic jaw surgery, as well as pediatric plastic surgery problems such as hemangioma, vascular malformation, dermoid cyst, congenital nevus, congenital ear deformity, webbed finger, and finger duplication. During her international plastic surgery fellowship as the Jerome P. Webster fellow for the non-profit ReSurge International (formerly Interplast), she traveled to over ten countries operating on children and adults with cleft lip, cleft palate, burn injuries, and other congenital anomalies and traumatic injuries.
Both these fellowships had a special focus on cleft lip and palate surgery, giving her exceptional experience and expertise in this field. Dr. Chen also spent two years during her general surgery residency as a surgical research fellow, investigating alternative treatment modalities to alveolar cleft bone grafting. Her research resulted in multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals, as well as presentations at regional, national, and international scientific meetings.
Please contact us for more information about pediatric plastic surgery, craniofacial surgery, or to schedule a consultation with Dr. Chen.