About Us
We make every effort to ensure cosmetic surgery is affordable for our patients. For example, to avoid the excessive plastic surgery costs associated with major medical centers, we maintain a full-scale operation room at our surgical center. Backup equipment is available for patient safety, and sedation is provided by an anesthetist. Dr. Grant R. Fairbanks is the pioneer of office surgical facilities in the state of Utah. Our office surgery safety record has been exemplary for more than 30 years. We invite you to visit our facility and we will be happy to give you a tour and answer any questions you may have.
We believe in the traditional ethics for the practice of medicine and make our patients’ health and safety our highest priority. Taking care of patients from a health standpoint is paramount; every precaution is taken to minimize risks inherent to surgery.
Dr. Grant R. Fairbanks M.D.*
Dr. Grant R. Fairbanks * received his Medical Degree from the University of Utah. He completed training as a General Surgeon at the University of Maryland, and subsequently completed extensive Plastic Surgery specialty training at the University of Michigan. He served a tour of duty as Plastic Surgeon on the U.S. Hospital Ship HOPE in Tunis, Tunisia on the North African coast. He served as Chairman of Plastic Surgery at the University of Cincinnati before returning to Utah to enter private practice. Dr. Fairbanks maintains an Adjunct Professorship in Plastic Surgery at the University of Utah where he participates in the teaching program of surgeons in training.
Dr. Fairbanks was the founding President of the Utah State Plastic Surgery Society. He is past President of the Reed O. Dingman Society for Plastic Surgery at the University of Michigan. He served as an officer in the Utah Medical Association and as Chairman of the Department of Surgery at St. Mark’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. Dr. Fairbanks served in the U.S. Military as Capt. M.C. in the 144th Evacuation Hospital, Utah National Guard; as Battalion Surgeon in the 110th Artillery, Maryland National Guard; and as Commanding Officer of the 381st General Dispensary, USAR, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Dr. Fairbanks combines Art with Medicine in the form of Plastic Surgery. He believes that Plastic Surgery is the finest of the Fine Arts. Dr. Fairbanks comes from an artistic background by both heritage and education. His father, Avard T. Fairbanks, Ph.D., was an internationally renowned sculptor. Throughout his youth Dr. Fairbanks worked in his father’s studios, learning the sculpture profession and appreciation of classical sculptural beauty. His own talents were enhanced by studies with many of Utah’s most noted artists. From his own artistic accomplishments, the best known is his sculptural re-creation of the Eagle for Salt Lake City’s famed Eagle Gate. He also created a bronze portrait of Louis P. Gebhardt, M.D., Professor of Microbiology, which is located in the University of Utah Medical Library. The large relief of the Great Seal of the State of Utah behind the Utah Governor’s desk is another of his artistic accomplishments. A bronze statue of the winged horse “Pegasus” for the Pegasus Critical Care Center for large animals, Michigan State University Veterinary school, East Lansing, Michigan is another of his sculpting achievements. He created the Medal of Honor for the William C. Grabb, M.D. Memorial Lectureship at the University of Michigan. He has painted still life, landscapes, and done medical illustrations; he is an excellent painter of the human figure. Dr. Fairbanks is a recipient of the prestigious Jerome Klingbeil Award for excellence in teaching by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
Dr. Fairbanks is accomplished in all areas of Plastic Surgery. In professional circles, he is best known for his special experience in dealing with difficult problems of the nose and face. He believes that breathing and appearance are interdependent. His expertise is correcting intranasal airway problems as well as achieving improvement in nasal form. His services are frequently sought by patients who have had unsatisfactory prior nasal surgery He is experienced in restoration of beauty to the torso, including breasts and abdomen, and contouring of the hips, and thighs. Breast enlargement (augmentation), breast lifting (mastopexy), breast reduction, and breast reconstruction are all procedures which Dr. Fairbanks performs with consummate skill. With regard to the aging face, (facelift) Dr. Fairbanks has made many technical innovations to improve on state-of-the-Art techniques whereby patients can expect significant rejuvenation without appearing tight, stretched, or unnatural. He is accomplished as a scholarly writer and lecturer, and has served as a visiting professor for professional groups in the USA and internationally. He teaches a symposium to Plastic Surgeons on Medical Life Drawing and Sculpture in Plastic Surgery at a national professional society meeting.
Dr. Fairbanks is nationally recognized as a member of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and the American Society of Plastic Surgery. He is a member of the Reed O. Dingman Society of the University of Michigan, The Salt Lake Surgery Society, the Utah State Plastic Surgery Society, and the President’s Council Society, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan. Dr. Fairbanks is certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
Dr. Grant A. Fairbanks M.D.†
Dr. Grant A. Fairbanks† received his Medical Degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia. Following his graduation from medical school, he completed an internship at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas.
Subsequently, Dr. Fairbanks served in the U.S. Military as a General Medical officer at Raymond W. Bliss Army Community Hospital at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He completed his training in General Surgery and Plastic Surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is affiliated with Penn State University. He completed his boards, becoming certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.
Subsequently, he furthered his training with a fellowship in Craniofacial Surgery at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Dr. Fairbanks has had broad training in Plastic Surgery. He is highly trained in cosmetic surgical procedures, including facial rejuvenation, nasal surgery, eyelid surgery, and lip enlargement. He is also highly trained in abdominoplasty, body contouring after bariatric surgery, liposuction, breast augmentation, and breast reduction. His work with fat grafting for both cosmetic and reconstructive procedures has produced impressive results. His special interest in congenital deformities include surgery of the ear (microtia), prominent ear, cleft lip and palate, as well as cranial vault deformities (craniosynostosis).
In addition to the practice of medicine, Dr. Fairbanks has a life-long history of interest in the arts. This has come through his heritage and formal training. As a youth, he spent a season in Pietrasanta, Italy doing marble carving with his grandfather, Avard T. Fairbanks, sculptor. He serves as an instructor in a Medical Life Drawing and Sculpture Course, at a national professional society meeting, and continues his artwork to the benefit of his practice. Dr. Grant A. Fairbanks combines art and medicine in the form of Plastic Surgery. He believes that Plastic Surgery is the finest of the fine arts.
Following the completion of his Plastic Surgery and Craniofacial Surgery training, he returned to Salt Lake City, Utah to practice Plastic Surgery. He is the past president of the Utah Plastic Surgery Society and the Salt Lake Surgical Society. Although Dr. Fairbanks is in the private practice of plastic surgery, he has continued his academic interest and serves as an adjunct assistant professor of surgery at the University of Utah.
Dr. Fairbanks is board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, which is recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. His affiliations include the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the Utah Plastic Surgery Society, Salt Lake Surgical Society, the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association, and the Reed O. Dingman Society of Plastic Surgery at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Fairbanks is a fully-trained craniofacial surgeon who has specialized expertise in total ear reconstruction for children born without an ear (microtia), otoplasty or ear pinning surgery, cleft lip and cleft palate surgery, surgery for the cleft lip nasal deformity, of cranial deformities, and other aspects of craniofacial surgery. Dr. Grant A. Fairbanks has developed advanced techniques for performing total ear reconstruction that provide amazing results.
Plastic Surgery as a Fine Art
Plastic surgery is the finest of the Fine Arts. Every plastic surgeon should be an artist or have an essential art background. For this reason, we share our expertise when we teach an Art/Sculpture course annually to plastic surgeons at a major national society meeting.
Your plastic surgeons at Fairbanks Plastic Surgery have undergone formal art training as well as complete professional surgery training. There is also a strong family background in the arts. The art heritage in the Fairbanks family extends back multiple generations. Dr. Fairbanks’ grandfather was a painter in the 19th Century, who studied in Paris under Rigolo, who was a student of Corot. His son, Avard T. Fairbanks, was a professor of sculpture at the University of Michigan when Dr. Grant R. Fairbanks was born. Avard Fairbanks did his Ph.D. thesis on anatomical design.
Like Michelangelo, he studied human anatomy extensively, made accurate sculptured anatomic models and elucidated important concepts which affect the way both the artist and plastic surgeon look at the human body. Anatomy became the hallmark of his sculpture. Dr. Avard T. Fairbanks moved to Utah to accept a position as Dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Utah, which school he organized and continued as professor of sculpture until his retirement.
Despite a busy practice, Dr. Grant R. Fairbanks has erected a number of statues and made medals and seals. His largest statue is a 4,000-pound bronze eagle with outstretched wings, 20 feet across, which is perched atop an arched gateway and is a central city landmark in Salt Lake City, known as the “Eagle Gate.” He created the large bronze plaque of the official seal of the State of Utah, which hangs on the wall behind the Utah Governor’s desk. He made a portrait bust of Louis P. Gebhardt, M.D., commissioned by the Department of Microbiology, which was cast in Bronze for the University of Utah, School of Medicine and currently resides in the medical library.
He created the William C. Grabb Medal of Honor, for the University of Michigan. This medal bearing the likeness of Dr. Grabb, is awarded every other year to the distinguished lecturer of the Grabb Lectureship at the University of Michigan. In 2007, Dr. Fairbanks unveiled the Horse Pegasus for The Pegasus Critical Care Center for large animals, College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing. A smaller version of the historic Eagle for the Eagle Gate, in bronze by Dr. Fairbanks, was erected and dedicated at This is the Place Heritage Park, in Salt Lake City, Utah at the entry way to a village of historic pioneer buildings. Dr. Fairbanks also worked with a group of sculptors to re-create the Heroic Two Equestrian statue by Avard Fairbanks, honoring the Pony Express and known as “Change of the Riders.”
The human body is the ultimate art object of the artist and the plastic surgeon. Definitions of beauty arise out of an in-depth understanding of basic form, perspective, composition, symmetry, balance, art rhythms, abstract forms, light and shadow, human proportion, and anatomical design. For the surgeon with such artistic abilities, it will be demonstrated in the quality of their surgery. In addition to his surgical practice, Dr. Fairbanks’ current art focuses primarily on portraiture and figure studies in a variety of mediums. Art concepts relative to surgery are invariably utilized in the surgery decision-making process.
ASAPS Plastic Surgery Art Course: Instructors Grant R. Fairbanks, M.D. and Grant A. Fairbanks, M.D.
For the past twenty years, Dr. Fairbanks has been teaching an art/sculpture course to plastic surgeons at the annual meeting of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. The course is entitled “Medical Life Drawing and Sculpture.” Surgery depends on a knowledge of anatomy and the teaching of anatomy depends upon art; therefore, a knowledge of art and its inherent skills is important for each plastic surgeon. Definitions of beauty are arrived at from an artistic perspective and how to judge the quality of a surgical result can be more fully achieved with a requisite art background. After a basic review of art theory, anatomical design, facial and body proportions, as well as drawings that a surgeon can use in his practice to explain operations to patients, a nude model is provided so that the surgeons can draw from life using a variety of mediums. In the afternoon, they sculpt a torso from life in red chauvant plastiline. The human body appears quite different when viewed in natural poses as compared to lying on the operation room table. Artistic skills are very important to a plastic surgeon and for those who lack them, it can show in their surgical results.
Surgeons’ Art Gallery
Thank you for coming to the Fairbanks Plastic Surgery Art Section. If you would like to view art works by the surgeons, you may continue browsing this site, or you can make an appointment to come in and meet your surgeons in person.
Michigan State University in East Lansing has one of the finest veterinary schools in the world. MSU College of Veterinary Medicine provides its students with an unsurpassed educational curriculum. The veterinary school is quite similar to medical school for humans; however, the veterinarian has to learn the anatomy of many different animals in order to provide the wide variety of treatment necessary. Modern diagnostic methodologies and treatment programs, both medical and surgical, apply.
While hospitals have their intensive care units (ICU), MSU Veterinary College boasts a superb critical care unit for large animals as a separate building on campus. This modern, state-of-the-art facility is named the Pegasus Critical Care Unit after the favorite horse of Mrs. Matilda Wilson of Rochester, Michigan. Mrs. Wilson was the chief donor who made this facility possible. The bronze statue of the winged horse, Pegasus, is erected on a six-foot granite pedestal in a pleasant patio setting to the south of the critical care unit.
Portraiture and Figure Studies
Copy of Mona Lisa by Grant R. Fairbanks, M.D.
Copy of Nefertiti by Grant R. Fairbanks, M.D.
Invited Visiting Professorships/Lectures
- February 16 – 18, 1995: Visiting Professor at Penn State Medical School, Hershey, PA, Division of Plastic Surgery.
- February 18, 1995: Keynote Speaker Central Pennsylvania Plastic Surgery Society.
- April 24, 1998: Visiting Professor, Lehigh Valley Medical Center, Division of Plastic Surgery.
- May 8, 1998: Lectureship, European Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (EACS), London, England.
- October 10, 1998: Guest Professor/Keynote Speaker, Nord Deutscher. Arbeitskreis Implantologie, Hamburg, Germany.
- June 6 – 7, 2002: Visiting Professor, University of Michigan, 14th Annual Dingman Lectureship, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
- June 2003: Master Class Lecturer, 4th International Congress on Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Yaroslavl, Russia.
- July 2006: Keynote Speaker, Michigan Academy of Plastic Surgery, Mackinaw Island.
- November 22 – 24, 2007: Visiting Professor, University of British Columbia, Division of Plastic Surgery, Vancouver, B.C.
- June 5, 2011: Keynote Speaker, ISAPS Meeting, St. Petersburg, Russia.
- November 20 – 22, 2015: Annual Visiting Professor for Taiwan Plastic Surgery Society, Taipeii, Taiwan, Keynote Lecturer.
Special Awards for Grant R. Fairbanks M.D.
Jerome R. Klingbeil M.D. Award For Teaching Excellence (gold miniature bust of Nefertiti)
Keynote Speaking Award Michigan Academy of Plastic Surgeons (engraved transparent crystal block)
Distinguished Speaker Award Voices From Iraq (horse and medal)
President’s Council Society Award Oakland University, Rochester, MI (round medal with gold and white ribbon)
Distinguished Service Award Reed O. Dingman Society University of Michigan (wall plaque and gavel)
Medical Staff on Hospital Ship Hope.
Hospital Ship Hope Award For Serving as Plastic Surgeon Final Rotation 8th Voyage Tunis Tunisia (the world’s first peacetime medical ship)
Distinguished Service Award Utah Medical Association For Service as Chairman For the UMA Legislative Committee (wall plaque)
Lectureship Award Reed O. Dingman Society University of Michigan (wall plaque)