Dr. Ben Talei

Dr. Ben Talei founded the practice, where he works as a facial plastic surgeon. He holds board certification in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery and in otolaryngology (head and neck surgery). He completed his residency at Columbia University, Cornell University and New York Presbyterian Hospital, serving as chief resident under facial plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Pearlman. He then completed two fellowships in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, one at the Vascular Birthmark Institute of New York, which included pediatric facial plastic surgery, and he received further training under Dr. Milton Waner. His work centers on the face, with a particular focus on the lips. He pioneered the deep plane upper lip lift. His lip lift research formed the basis of the Cupid Lift, and he published its design in Aesthetic Surgery Journal in 2022. In 2019 he reported the deep plane upper lip lift in a series of 823 patients in Facial Plastic Surgery Clinics of North America, and he has published a lip design that determines when a corner lift is needed. He specializes in lip revision, lip lifts and correction of earlier procedures, and he regularly corrects filler and neuromodulator results that are overfilled, migrated or uneven. Beyond the practice, he has published peer-reviewed work on deep plane surgery of the face, neck and lip, including a 2024 study of the detailed anatomy of the deep plane of the face. He directs two American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery fellowships, serves as an International Professor of facial plastic surgery at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in Monterrey, Mexico, sits on the editorial board of Modern Aesthetics magazine, and runs the annual Cupid Compendium teaching forum. He teaches deep plane face and neck lifting and lip lift techniques to surgeons internationally, has produced an instructional video series on deep plane technique, and is a frequent invited speaker at national meetings. He has volunteered on international surgical missions treating children with microtia. Media outlets including E! News, NBC News, Inside Edition and The Hollywood Reporter have consulted him as an expert resource.