The Educational and Research Foundation for the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, a 501(c)3 organization, was founded in 1974 to stimulate study, research, and scientific advancement of facial plastic surgery and all related basic sciences. It is devoted to expanding the knowledge and improving the skills of facial plastic and reconstructive surgeons in all corners of the world.

The Faces Behind Our Program
FACE TO FACE is staffed by medical personnel - facial plastic and reconstructive surgeons, nurses, speech pathologists and anesthesiologists - who donate their time and expertise, frequently for two weeks at a time. Members of the FACE TO FACE delegation have, for example, helped a two-year-old toddler in Russia abandoned by her parents at birth because of a congenital facial deformity. They have administered to a twelve-year old boy in a war zone in Croatia where he sustained severe facial trauma after playing with a loaded rifle. And they have cared for women in this country where domestic violence has wreaked havoc on their lives both emotionally and physically. These are faces that you have seen on the news and sometimes in your own community. Our surgeons travel all over the world, but their mission is the same wherever they go: they treat one face at a time, one person at a time.

Skills at Work
The FACE TO FACE program offers individuals the opportunity to overcome the physical limitations placed on them by circumstances beyond their control — deformities at birth, domestic violence, war, natural disasters and acts of terrorism. Our surgeons, use their expertise, to perform plastic and reconstructive surgery of the face, head, and neck region. This includes the following procedures: cleft lip and cleft palate repair; microtia reconstruction - the surgical creation of external ears for infants born without them; rebuilding of all forms of congenital facial and cranial deformities; reconstruction of facial soft tissues after war injuries, domestic violence and cancer excisions; the excision of childhood facial tumors and reconstruction. These are examples of the work that our dedicated physicians perform while volunteering for FACE TO FACE. While the patients still have enormous hurdles to overcome, at least they are given a chance to deal with them without a daily reminder of their physical disability.