Dr. Andrew Jacono Transforms Lives Through Reconstructive Humanitarian Surgery
When Dr. Andrew Jacono travels abroad on a surgical mission, he brings with him instruments and skills developed over decades of performing some of the most complex facial procedures in his field. The patients waiting in those makeshift surgical suites are not seeking cosmetic refinement. They are children born with deformities that mark them as different in their communities, that keep them out of school, and that limit the futures available to them. Dr. Jacono goes to meet them where they are.
A dual board-certified facial plastic surgeon with his main practice in New York, Dr. Andrew Jacono has provided surgical care to more than 750 children through international missions to countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, and Vietnam. He works with Healing the Children, the HUGS Foundation, and THAI Children, completing roughly two missions annually. The conditions he treats include cleft lip and palate deformities, microtia, burn scars, and facial tumors.
Why Humanitarian Work Became Central
Dr. Jacono’s commitment to this kind of service traces to an encounter in medical school. He watched a young girl with a cleft lip and palate, who had spent years isolated and teased by her classmates, emerge from reconstructive surgery with a changed face and an altered life. The impact of that single intervention became the model for everything he went on to build.
For children in developing communities, a cleft lip or other visible facial deformity can carry severe social consequences. Surgery addresses both the physical condition and the barriers that come with it: children return to school, reenter social life, and experience the kind of ordinary childhood that had previously been denied to them.
Serving Survivors at Home
Dr. Andrew Jacono extends his humanitarian work domestically through the FACE TO FACE program, where he provides pro bono reconstructive surgery to survivors of domestic violence who cannot afford private surgical care. His clinical and academic roles also allow him to train future surgeons in the responsibility that accompanies specialized medical expertise. Through his Fellowship Director position and his academic posts, he works to ensure that the next generation of facial plastic surgeons carries forward the same sense of obligation. this article for more information.
Learn more about Dr. Andrew Jacono on https://www.realself.com/dr/andrew-jacono-new-york-ny