When not caring for plastic and cosmetic surgery patients in the St. Louis, St. Charles, Chesterfield, and Kansas City, Missouri areas, Dr. Nayak feels fortunate to be able to volunteer his time and reconstructive expertise in areas where the need is greatest. His most recent trip to Vietnam was in October of 2023. This was his 12th trip. Read the Thank you letter from the National ENT Hospital of Vietnam.
Dr. Nayak and three other surgeons from the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery’s “Face to Face” surgical mission program traveled to Hanoi and spent 9 days there caring for patients and teaching local surgeons plastic surgical techniques. While other members of the team performed cleft lip and palate surgery, as well as ear reconstruction, Dr. Nayak focused on his area of reconstructive expertise: rebuilding missing or damaged noses. Two particularly memorable patients had extensive nasal deformities: a seventy year old woman whose nose was destroyed by smallpox scarring 50 years ago, and a man in his forties who sustained a blast injury caused by a land mine left over from “the American War”, as the Vietnam War is called in that country.
