A facial deformity affects far more than appearance. It can shape whether a child goes to school, whether an adult finds work, and how strangers react on the street. Dr. Andrew Jacono has built his humanitarian career around that reality.
The New York surgeon, dual board certified in facial plastic surgery, treats two groups for free: children abroad born with facial differences or injured by burns, and adults at home scarred by domestic violence.
The Cost for Children
In many communities where his overseas patients live, visible facial differences bring severe stigma. A cleft lip can block a child from attending school or taking part in community life. Some conditions also cause trouble with eating and breathing.
Dr. Andrew Jacono has operated on more than 750 children with cleft lip and palate, microtia, facial tumors, and burn scars. He works with Healing the Children, the HUGS (Help Us Give Smiles) Foundation, and THAI Children, typically leading two missions a year to countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The Cost for Survivors
For survivors of abuse, facial scars create a permanent visual reminder of trauma. They can complicate employment and keep people from moving forward emotionally.
Through the FACE TO FACE project of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Dr. Andrew Jacono has performed reconstructions for more than 100 survivors at no cost. He serves as the project’s senior advisor. Some of these surgeries appeared on Facing Trauma, a 2011 series on Discovery Fit & Health that later moved to the Oprah Winfrey Network.
His understanding of these stakes began in medical school, when he watched surgery change the social standing of a girl teased for her cleft lip and palate.
He continues to run a Park Avenue practice while teaching as Fellowship Director for the academy. Across all of it, Dr. Andrew Jacono treats facial reconstruction as a way to remove barriers, giving patients a chance at school, work, and community that their deformities had taken away. Read this article for additional information.
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