Caroline A. Yao, MD

Specialties

Plastic Surgery

Areas of Care:

Location(s):

Languages Spoken:

English
Mandarin

Caroline Yao, M.D., MS, is a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles. She is the assistant director of the cleft lip and palate program at Shriners Children's Southern California.

Dr. Yao received her undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton University and a medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed residency in plastic surgery at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine and a fellowship in craniofacial surgery at Boston Children's Hospital.

Areas of interest include facial plastic surgery, rhinoplasty, cleft lip and palate, ear deformities, speech improving surgery for the cleft palate (velopharyngeal insufficiency), burns, giant nevus and hemifacial microsomia.

Dr. Yao is a volunteer faculty member at the division of plastic surgery of the University of Southern California, and a research affiliate at Boston Children's Hospital of Harvard University. Since 2013, she has been a research consultant for Operation Smile International, an international children's medical charity.

As a mother, artist and surgeon, Dr. Yao is passionate about getting to know every one of her patients by listening carefully and understanding goals. She works hard to design the best treatment plan for each individual.

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Pediatric Care

Specialty

Burn Care
Plastic Surgery

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More About Me

Board Certifications

American Board of Plastic Surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Plastic Surgery - General

Education and Training

Academic Positions and Locations

No current Academic Teaching Positions

Awards and Honors

2021, Top Doctor Pasadena

Academic Works and Presentations

Presentation: The American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association Annual Meeting - Natural Trajectory Of Midface Growth In Unoperated Cleft Defects: A Systematic Review And Meta-analysis (03/2020)
Presentation: The American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association Annual Meeting - A Competency Assessment Tool for Unilateral Cleft Lip Repair (03/2020)
Presentation: American Society of Plastic Surgery Annual Meeting - Convolutional Neural Network Models for Automatic Pre-Operative Severity Assessment in Unilateral Cleft Lip (11/2019)
Presentation: Plastic Surgery Research Council, The Smile Index Part 2: A Simple, Prognostic Severity Scale for Unilateral Cleft Lip (09/2016)
Presentation: American Association of Plastic Surgeons - The Smile Index: Part 1 A Large-Scale Study of Phenotypic Norms for Pre- and Post-Operative Unilateral Cleft Lip (09/2016)