CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — UVA Health opened a brand-new plastic surgery clinic last week in Pantops, helping to bring plastic surgery services into the community.

Michael Grant, the new clinic’s medical director, told Cville Right Now that while big university hospitals like UVA Health’s main location are great “if you’re acutely ill or need a very complicated operation and require intensive care units and things like that,” those services are not needed by the typical patients who’s looking into aesthetic improvements to the face and body.

“We want to be accessible,” Grant said. “We want to be in a place where it’s easy for people to park. We want to be in a place where it’s easy for people to park. Where they can come in and talk to us and not feel rushed for their consultation. Where they can meet our team members and explore the various options.”

Those options include, among other procedures, non-invasive procedures like laser treatments and neurotoxins like Botox and fillers, all the way down to invasive procedures like facelifts, liposuction and breast augmentation.

These procedures can be both reconstructive, helping a patient return to normalcy after an injury or illness that may have left physical trauma, or aesthetic, providing patients with safe and predictable improvements in their look.

“It’s in the setting of both aesthetics and reconstructive procedures that we operate,” Grant said.

In his time, Grant has seen patients badly injured from incidents like car accidents or sports injuries or needing part of their face or breast removed because of cancer. He said these patients are often worried about function, like whether they’ll be able to eat or see normally in the case of their face, but also how they will look.

“It’s where we ride that intersection between form and function that we can give somebody back their pre-injury appearance and also their pre-injury function, so they can go and live normal, fulfilled lives,” he said. “And I’ve seen that a number of times.”

Grant also said he hopes the new clinic’s location in Pantops can help remove some of the “mystique” around plastic surgery, helping buck the stereotypes that it’s only for famous and wealthy people.

“A lot of these procedures are very affordable,” he said. “And if somebody has something about them, about their appearance that bothers them, just through normal aging or through a congenital problem or an injury many years ago and they desire an improvement, I think it’ll lower the barrier for having somebody like that come in and see us.”

The new clinic also features a full staff of surgeons and advanced practice providers, who are there every day. Grant said anyone interested is welcome to come into the clinic to discuss the procedures it provides.

“We’ll have somebody there every day of the week,” he said. “And we’re looking forward to seeing members of the Charlottesville community and the UVA community.”