With thirty years in practice, Pierre F. Giammanco, M.D., F.A.C.S.
meets the most demanding standards...his own

Even the most persnickety of patients has
difficulty finding  fault with Dr. Giammanco.

Buoyed by his impressive credentials and years of experience, charmed by his unpretentious yet confident demeanor, secure in his obvious mastery of the facial plastic and reconstructive surgical arts, and amazed at how comfortably they could converse, the admittedly critical flight attendant had to acknowledge that the man from Michigan looked very good. After searching for several months, perhaps she had finally found the physician who could make her look better,  even  early in the morning.

The life of a flight attendant has its ups and downs  and this woman’s face had been disappointing to her for a long time, she told me when we met in Dr. Giammanco’s waiting room. (I was there to interview him. She was there for a post-op consultation.)

Looking at this attractive woman, I could not have guessed what procedures Dr. Giammanco had performed, or how recently he had done them; she appeared lovely and devoid of scarring or bruising.

“It was depressing,” Dr. Giammanco’s patient ‘K’ confessed to me that morning. “When my passengers saw me during my first flight of the day, they would tell me I looked tired. Shoot, I was just beginning a 12-hour shift. I’d tell them this is the best I’m going to look all day!”

The comments bothered her, and when she looked in the unforgiving little mirror in the cramped airplane bathroom, she realized their assessment was correct. “I knew I wanted to do something, but I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than the best.”

Thorough is this woman’s middle name. She contacted state medical boards, interviewed five doctors, then talked not only to their patients but also to their after-care nurses. “My friends call me ‘critical K’ because I find fault with everything, but I found no fault with Dr. Giammanco and that’s why I put my face in his hands.”

Great hands, as it turned out. Two weeks after Dr. Giammanco performed a lower eyelid fat removal, post auricular neck lift and submentoplasty with neck liposuction, and rhinoplasty with major septal repair on her, she looked great. “His after-care nurses were right,” the delighted flight attendant told me. “He is very gentle,   and I experienced very little bruising or swelling.

Now, I look better at the end of a 12-hour day than I used to look at the beginning of my shift!”

Midwestern Conservative Moves West

Meeting a patient’s high standards is not always easy, but Dr. Giammanco has amassed 30 years of experience meeting even more demanding standards of excellence—his own. A quick insight into the man:  He is very private about hobbies and pastimes, but I learned he enjoys painting, sculpting, music, studying foreign languages (he spent several semesters in multiple language courses and enjoys the challenge of reading and translating languages  including the very challenging foreign alphabets, such as Greek, Russian and Farsi), skiing, sailing (taking Power Squadren courses for 3 years), windsurfing, golf, tennis and cardiovascular workouts.    He has also been a clinical   professor of surgery for more than 20 years. 

In seeing Dr. Giammanco over numerous visits and getting to know him, it became almost difficult to write this article because of his fastidiousness selection of words for self-expression.  He shared with me that he hates to be close to what he means, when he can be more precise, and concise too.  Such perfectionism is an essential ingredient in an artist/surgeon.  The surgeon who settles for mastery of an old established technique without individualizing it or adapting it to each and every challenging patient and combining it with applicable, sound surgical principles fails to develop his/her own unique synthesis of new and old principles which makes him an ever-improving surgeon, with valuable experience and judgment to draw from.

Although he’s in the business of making huge changes in a person’s appearance and self-image, he takes a thoroughly midwestern conservative approach, confirms the doctor, who is Board-Certified in both Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery.

His goal is to achieve natural-looking results. To that end, he offers computer imaging to help patients visualize how they might look after a procedure. He also counsels people to consider doing the “smaller” surgeries such as a neck lift, mini face-lift and other procedures as appropriate at a younger age “so your face doesn’t have to get to those ‘dreaded agelines’ later. You can get a lot of mileage out of a tuck-up,” he believes, cautioning, “Whatever you do, choose a doctor with experience, be skeptical, ask to talk to patients, and find a physician who will show you before and after results and discuss them with you and answer your questions about each case.”

Through participation in “Face to Face,” (a nonprofit program),.and through direct contact with local shelter counselors,.Dr. Giammanco has made a huge change in the lives of women who have been victims of domestic violence. As he told a TV interviewer, “The women we treat have really turned their lives around and it’s extremely satisfying to be a part of their recovery.”

Extreme satisfaction’ is what thousands of Dr. Giammanco’s patients have felt over the years. Before building a highly successful plastic surgery practice in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Dr. Giammanco had obtained his California License and entered a four month fellowship in Facial Plastic Surgery with Dr. Morey Parkes in Beverly Hills.

A few years ago, through close friends and colleagues he was able to indulge his love of sunshine and fairweather nautical pursuits that for years eluded him until fate opened his eyes to see that “the grass really is greener here!

One of the newest tools in the cosmetic plastic surgeon's office is sophisticated computer software used to simulate cosmetic surgery's effects. While the surgeon may know quite accurately what he or she can do, the picture in your mind may be completely different. Using a digital camera, the cosmetic surgeon will take your photo, then load it into the computer. With the software and a high-resolution monitor, he or she will alter your image on the screen to give you a fairly good prediction of the surgeries results.
 

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