Post-Traumatic Facial Reconstruction - New Orleans Craniofacial

A split-second can change everything.

An auto accident, a gunshot, a fall, an engulfing fire. A trip to the emergency room. Once the trauma surgeons have done their life saving work, the doctors of NOLA Craniofacial offer a new beginning. We specialize in post-traumatic facial reconstruction, including plastic and craniofacial surgery.

At NOLA Craniofacial, we are pioneering the latest advancements in facial reconstruction. We believe in team care and have gathered talented specialists and the most adept surgeons in the region in support of patients with disfiguring and/or disabling facial and craniofacial injuries.

We work adjunct to the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans and at University Medical Center, a Level I trauma center and teaching hospital in New Orleans.

Getting Your Life Back after Severe Facial Trauma

We are dedicated to helping those with disfiguring and/or disabling facial trauma feel normal again.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen overnight.

Once the outstanding healthcare professionals in our trauma service have stabilized the patient and taken care of his or her acute injuries, the next phase of recovery usually happens within a week or two. Their goal, of course, will have been to set you up for success. Our goal is to rebuild your life from there with a focus on the face and its features—eyes, nose, ears, lips and teeth—all of the things that make us most ourselves in the eyes of the world.

We view post-traumatic facial reconstruction as a hierarchy: we begin with structural positioning before we turn to restoring function. Cosmetic facial reconstruction is the final and most important step.

Recovery from Post-Traumatic Facial Reconstruction

When we talk about severe facial trauma, the first surgery is always the big one; thereafter, presuming that the wounds are stabilized, the course of treatment will be determined by YOU, the patient, in consultation with your craniofacial plastic surgeon.

Maybe you have a relationship with your family doctor. This one is no different.

Once everything heals up, we talk about what’s possible, about what’s realistic, and about your own goals for treatment. “That’s why craniofacial plastics is fun,” says Dr. Sol Mundinger. “We get to establish life-changing relationships, not what I can do to help me, but what can I do to help you.”

The Latest Advancements in Facial Reconstruction

At NOLA Craniofacial, we prefer minimally-invasive techniques and biocompatible materials, and we are pioneering the latest advancements in facial reconstruction on behalf of patients in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast. These include:

Virtual Surgical Planning: In situations where surgery can be delayed, digital imaging allows extreme precision in planning and for design of patient-specific implants to repair bone deficiencies.
Microsurgery: Microsurgery enables the transfer of healthy “own” tissue, along with its vascularity from one area of the body to another. In the right patient, microsurgical “free flap” transfer of tissues can help to alleviate both physical pain and psychological trauma associated with cosmetic disfigurement.
Biocompatible Implants: In the past, titanium plates were used to repair facial fractures. Once the bones had healed, a second surgery would be required to remove those plates. Today, we use biocompatible materials that are dissolved over time as the body heals itself. This dramatically reduces complications of recovery. At NOLA Craniofacial, we prefer MEDPOR® biomaterial by Stryker for post-traumatic facial reconstruction.
Patient Specific Implants: Thanks to Virtual Surgical Planning® and patient specific implants, reconstructive surgeries that would have been impossible just years ago are now the standard of care for patients with congenital craniofacial defects and for those suffering high-velocity wounds and other disfiguring injuries.