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Answering Aesthetics’ Toughest Questions

The Aesthetic Foundation is devoted to improving the safety and effectiveness of aesthetic surgery and medicine through unbiased, novel research.

With your support, we can continue to uncover valuable insights that positively impact the future of our industry.

Together, we advance aesthetics.
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Our Mission

Demand for aesthetic procedures is rapidly increasing, creating safety concerns that risk patients’ lives and misconceptions that challenge the aesthetic industry and its future.

Our mission is to improve the safety and effectiveness of aesthetic surgery and medicine. 

Established in 1993, The Aesthetic Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that funds and supports unbiased research that answers the biggest unknowns in aesthetics. The groundbreaking research we’ve funded has helped save patients' lives and improve aesthetic outcomes.

Externship Program: A Mentoring Experience

The Aesthetic Foundation's Externship Program helps make aesthetic education more accessible by providing medical students mentorship opportunities and increased exposure to aesthetic plastic surgery and research.

Externship

Focuses on general aesthetic plastic surgery education with potential for aesthetic research opportunities. In this program, we pair you with a board-certified plastic surgeon and Active Member of The Aesthetic Society for a yearlong 1:1 mentorship.

Externship with Scholarship

Offers the same benefits as the Externship but includes a scholarship of up to $3,500 if you qualify to help cover program-related costs such as travel, lodging, local transportation, and meals to attend your observership and The Aesthetic Meeting.

Cooperative Research Externship

Helps broaden your understanding of aesthetic research and your range of research skills. We match you with other medical students with similar interests but diverse abilities. Each cooperative team will assist with an active aesthetic research study.

View “Never Truly Gone” and learn more about the Breast Cancer Journey Assistance Fund.

This film shines a light on the experiences breast cancer patients go through and the impact their diagnosis has on their family, friends, and finances. The Breast Cancer Journey Assistance Fund awards $250-$750 to qualifying breast cancer patients to cover breast cancer care expenses. Click to learn more, view the full video, and donate.

Turning Research into Results


The world's most advanced board-certified plastic surgeons conduct and rely on the research we fund.

How You Can Support Our Mission

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Become a Member

Join us and shape the future of aesthetic surgery.
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Lead Research

Pioneer discoveries that redefine aesthetic medicine.
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Donate

Your support transforms lives through groundbreaking research.
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Get Involved

Engage, contribute, and make a significant impact.
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Partner With Us

Together, let's advance aesthetic surgery innovation.

Lifetime Statistics

130
Supported Research Grants
$1,300,000
Awarded to Research
79
Published Research Manuscripts

How We Can Support You

Impact Stories

Receiving Our Resident Travel Scholarship Helped Propel His Education

Brian Bassiri-Tehrani, MD, was thrilled to be awarded the Resident Travel Scholarship in 2023. He was excited for the opportunity to attend The Aesthetic Meeting and learn new techniques from the best in the industry. “It was a transformative learning...

Brian Bassiri-Tehrani - Square
Brian Bassiri-Tehrani, MD
Go to Receiving Our Resident Travel Scholarship Helped Propel His Education details

Our Externship Program Confirmed His Decision To Pursue Aesthetic Medicine

Christian Laurent, a medical student attending a medical school without a home plastic surgery program, was interested in learning more about plastic surgery so he could determine whether it was a path he wanted to pursue. The Aesthetic Foundation’s...

Christian Laurent
Christian R. Laurent, MD
Go to Our Externship Program Confirmed His Decision To Pursue Aesthetic Medicine details

Foundation-Funded BBL Research Helped Save Lives

The Gluteal Fat Grafting Task Force set out to answer why people were dying during and after Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) surgeries and how to make the procedure safer. The Aesthetic Foundation co-funded groundbreaking research that uncovered key issues...

Luis Rios
Luis M. Rios, Jr., MD
Go to Foundation-Funded BBL Research Helped Save Lives details

Latest Updates

Governance

The Aesthetic Foundation Welcomes Dr. Onelio Garcia Jr. as President

Published on May 5, 2024

Grants

BRAVE Coalition partners with The Aesthetic Foundation to support breast cancer patients

Published on May 22, 2024

Research

The Aesthetic Society & The Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation Unveil Findings From the Biospecimen Study on Breast Implant Illness (BII)

Published on Nov 9, 2022

Donors

M. Bradley Calobrace, MD Joins President’s Circle of The Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation

Published on Aug 11, 2020

Your support makes progress possible. Together, we advance aesthetics.
DONATE NOW