Meet Dr. Paul P. Daraei, a double board-certified facial plastic surgeon changing lives one face at a time.
PHOTO BY PATRICK HEAGNEY
Although he hails from Southern California (Laguna Hills, to be exact), Atlanta will claim Dr. Paul P. Daraei (@drpauldaraei) any day. The double board-certified facial plastic surgeon at Premier Image Cosmetic & Laser Surgery (@premierimageatl) has called the A home for more than 15 years and graduated from Emory School of Medicine—where he also completed his surgical residency—so we’d say he’s more than qualified to tout the Atlantan label.
Not only is the handsome doc known as ATL’s go-to “nose guy” (a more quippy way to say he’s the No. 1 rhinoplasty surgeon), but he’s also a husband to his wife, Ashley, and devoted dad to his 3-year-old son, Luca, and 1-year-old daughter, Juliet. So when he’s not sculpting flawless faces, he’s making pancakes with his fam.
“I’m always ‘on’ at work, so when it comes to my personal life, I like to soak up experiences with my family, exercise, cook and eat, and relax as much as possible,” he says.
Here, the skilled surgeon talks shop on his career, kids and how he’s seemingly mastered a work-life balance.
What pushed you to pursue a career in facial plastics?
“I knew I wanted to go into facial plastics before I started my residency. Honestly, I just thought it was cool initially! Then, in order to do facial plastics, you go through a head and neck surgery residency, and during that, I loved every single part of it. Some of it was the anatomy that drew me in. The second part was that when you’re in medicine, often you’re managing things on the inside of the body that the patient can’t see. But in facial plastics, people are coming to you to change things on the outside that you can see, things that can dramatically improve self-esteem. It’s mostly about feeling better about themselves. I gravitated toward that. I felt that when you listen to what the patient wants and deliver on that consistently, they’re very grateful afterward.”
How do you stay inspired?
“I want to be the best; yes, everyone wants to be the best. But I want my colleagues and peers—people that trained me or who I trained with—to look at me as if I was worth training. I want them to be proud of my results. So I want to make sure that I do safe, consistent, good surgery that makes patients feel better and deliver those same results in the eyes of my peers. Of course, making patients happy and being patient-centric drives me too. Listening to them, doing what they want, doing it correctly, talking to them before and after. And from an overall life perspective, being a good role model for my kids. Right now, they have no idea what I do. But it would be nice for them when they grow up to know that their dad does something that helps other people.”
Do you have a memorable patient success story that sticks with you?
“One woman was in her early 60s—a wonderful woman and patient—and she’d spent her whole life teased because of her nose. When she was younger, she couldn’t afford surgery, and then later, she had a family and couldn’t focus on it. She retired and decided she was finally going to do something for herself! Even on post-op day one, the day after surgery, she was already happier.
Another patient that stands out to me was a very young girl in her early 20s who was running during college and got hit by an 18-wheeler. She came to me for rhinoplasty, to fix a laceration in her lip and to do laser resurfacing on her face to get rid of tattooing from the asphalt. And she looks ever so beautiful now after her surgery.”
Tell us about your beautiful family! What’s it been like adjusting to doubling as a parent and the No. 1 rhinoplasty surgeon in ATL?
“It’s a lot of time and a lot less sleep, but the highs are higher. It’s also very humbling because you find out quickly that your kids are smarter than you! I’m very proud of what I do, and I enjoy doing it. But for the most part, you work to not work. You work so you can be with your family, raise them and love them as much as possible.”
Dr. Daraei outside of his practice PHOTO BY PATRICK HEAGNEY
5:30AM EARLY RISER
“It’s become hard to do with kids, but if I’m able to work out on our Peloton Tread, I do that first thing in the morning. My wife is much more diligent about it than I am!”
7AM SUPER DAD
“I wake up my kids, make breakfast for them and, depending on the day, I try to take my son to school as frequently as I can before going to work.”
8AM WORKIN’ HARD
“We usually see the postoperative patients first in the morning so we can spend time answering their questions. On a given day, I usually have a mixture of appointment types, from consultations to injectables to in-office procedures.”
The serene interiors in the waiting room at Premier Image Cosmetic & Laser Surgery PHOTO BY PATRICK HEAGNEY
12PM LUNCHTIME
“Our office is a close-knit group, so I’ll grab lunch at Jinya Ramen Bar or The General Muir with our team from Premier Image.
5:30PM CLOCK OUT
“I hang out with my kids when I get home, and if it’s nice we’ll go play outside. We eat dinner pretty early, so afterward I’ll cook dinner with my wife, and we’ll eat no later than 6pm.”
6:30PM FAMILY FIRST
“We have a consistent routine down of dinner, bath time and then bedtime for the kids! We’ll take turns putting our son and daughter to sleep. But recently, my son likes to go to sleep later and play basketball in his room, which has been a great time to bond.”
8PM WINE DOWN
“After the kids are in bed, I’ll go over anything from the work day, or prepare for the next day if I have any cases. I’ll also spend time with my wife, drink a glass of wine, watch TV (typically The Office or Scrubs) and chat about our day.”
Photography by: Patrick Heagney
