As a double board-certified facial plastic surgeon and assistant professor of otolaryngology for the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, Dr. Harry Ching has a skill set which makes him a bit of a unicorn, which is to say, there aren’t many like him in Nevada. One of only 53 ear, nose, and throat (ENT) physicians in the state, there are very few who are also trained in cosmetic surgery, capable of handling the complex procedures that Ching completes on a regular basis, care that many Southern Nevadans assume they will have to travel out-of-state to get.
“I’d say that definitely in facial plastic surgery and ENT, there are many things that people in private practice don’t want to, or can’t take care of,” says Ching. “So, those physicians will send patients either out-of-state, or to us ... most of those things, we can take care of. For example, many plastic surgeons may not want to do the more complicated procedures, such as revision rhinoplasty, so instead of sending those patients out-of-state, yes, I take care of those."
Surgery day typically starts at 7:30 a.m. and goes well into the afternoon. “Sometimes I have a more complex rhinoplasty that can take four to five hours," he explains. "The longest ones are patients who might have broken their nose multiple times, may have had surgery on their nose before and that makes everything more complicated because of scar tissue and various factors ... we may need to get cartilage grafts from other areas. In those situations, we have to reconstruct the nose and that can be a lot more difficult than a cosmetic rhinoplasty.”
According to Ching, “Some of the patients I’m managing, there’s a very limited number of surgeons in town who would take care of them, especially taking certain types of insurance, and one of those doctors is starting to slow down a bit.”
Indeed, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges U.S. Physician Workforce Data Report, 26% of the ENT physicians in Nevada are close to retirement age, putting even more pressure on early and mid-career surgeons like Ching. Thankfully, the native Northern Californian likes being busy. “Yes, that’s the practice of medicine, that’s how we hone our skills, how we get better, and it’s how we take care of the community.”
Ching graduated with honors from medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles and completed his residency in otolaryngology - head & neck surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine. Then, he went a step further, completing a prestigious fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of California, Irvine, where he trained with world-renowned facial plastic surgeons in Orange County and Los Angeles. Possessing sterling credentials, he could have gone into private practice — where he could pick and choose his cases. But there was something about academic medicine that appealed to him.
“I was considering private cosmetic practice or a private ENT practice, but this was an opportunity to build something from the ground up,” says Ching. “It was the way I felt it should be built ... there was a need.”
Ching also enjoys training residents and helping the chair of otolaryngology, Dr. Robert C. Wang build out the department. Wang helped train and recruit Ching, and now enjoys seeing him succeed. “Dr. Ching is a talented facial plastic and nasal surgeon who emphasizes cosmesis with function and is a strong component to our overall success as a department,” says Dr. Wang. “He trained here, returned after fellowship, and has built a flourishing practice. We are fortunate to have him. I can tell you that his patients are extremely grateful for his excellent work.”
And that gratefulness is part of what drives Ching. “The favorite part of my job is when I see patients a few months after the procedure and they talk about the effects the surgery has had on their lives. Some of my patients were born with a crooked nose and can’t breathe properly. We have to completely take apart the nose and then rebuild it piece by piece, and that can be really challenging. Afterwards, when we see we made the nose look more normal, and their breathing has improved, that’s pretty fantastic.”
Ching is also called to work on patients involved in motor vehicle accidents, reconstructing their disfigured faces, not just improving the look, but restoring function.
Thanks to his advanced training, he also is adept at performing facelifts, blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), brow lifts, and Asian eyelid surgeries. He also specializes in reconstruction of the face after skin cancer, treatment of eyelid disorders, Botox injections, and injectable fillers.
Like so many other physicians who carry a heavy workload due to the shortage of physicians in Southern Nevada, Ching is almost philosophical about treating an underserved community. “Our specialty is a very underserved one in our city,” Ching says. “Not many new docs have come to town, and we’ve lost a few to retirement. There’s a big need in terms of head and neck cancer ... because we’re the only ones who do it. We only have so many hours in the day.”
But for Dr. Harry Ching, every hour of the day helping patients is time well spent.
Appointments with Dr. Harry Ching, or any of his fellow board-certified otolaryngologists and highly-trained audiologists, can be made by calling the UNLV Health ENT Clinic at 702-671-6480, or by visiting unlvheath.org.
