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Local plastic surgeon an industry leader
By Katie Mintz - Sun Newspapers
Dr. Joe Gryskiewicz competes in Iron Man triathlons, chairs his church parish council and takes weekly piano lessons - and still finds the time to be a leader in the plastic surgery field.
The Edina resident was recently named president of the Minnesota Society of Plastic Surgeons for 2010-2012.
Gryskiewicz is also a spokesperson for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, co-chair of its biannual Hot Topics panel, president-elect of The Rhinoplasty Society, an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota and more.
"I don't watch TV or read newspapers, so I've got plenty of extra time," said Gryskiewicz, who is in the operating room by 7 a.m. most days. "What gets me up in the morning is just helping people feel better about themselves."
Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, he sees up to 20 patients a day at his Gryskiewicz Twin Cities Cosmetic Surgery offices in Edina and Burnsville. After a full day of surgery and consultations, Gryskiewicz spends a couple hours each evening on industry business - from reviewing research grant requests to arranging speakers for conferences.
Then there are international speaking engagements, interviews on new trends for publications like Elle magazine and the New York Times, an annual medical service trip to Peru and work on patents for products including his Insorb absorbable skin stapler produced by Incisive Surgical in Plymouth.
"He works, works, works, but he enjoys it," said his wife Corky Gryskiewicz. "He has a good balance."
Gryskiewicz, who has three grown children and two grandchildren, said he was inspired to enter the field after trips to South America. The St. Paul native was studying psychology while at St. John's Seminary on the University of St. Thomas campus when he visited Guatemala for the first time over Christmas break.
"I was struck by the poverty and the death rate," said Gryskiewicz. "Sixty percent of the kids in that town died before the age of 5. It was like, a psychology degree and theology degree didn't quite do it there."
When he returned, he changed his major. In 1972 he graduated with a bachelor's degree in nursing through the registered nursing program at the College of St. Catherine.
He applied to medical school and then went back to San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala, for six months as a volunteer nurse. He worked with a number of children with cleft palates. That's when he was inspired to pursue a career in plastic surgery.
"I just wanted to help them. It was like, 'That's it. That's what I want to do,' but I didn't really know who did that or how it was done," said Gryskiewicz.
He heard by way of telegram while in Guatemala he was accepted into the University of Minnesota Medical School, which didn't have a plastic surgery program at the time.
"I sought out who could fix a kid with a cleft lip, who could fix a kid with a cleft palate, who could fix birth defects, who could help kids with hand injuries and deformities and I found out, actually, there's plastic surgeons that do all of that. It was like, 'Bingo.' A light bulb went off," said Gryskiewicz.
He graduated in 1978 and spent seven years in general surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery residency at the University of Wisconsin Health Sciences Center.
Now he does mostly breast augmentations, nose jobs and tummy tucks. He said there is a stigma about cosmetic work, but noted it can have just a strong effect as reconstructive work.
"It's a little different mindset but you're still helping people with either one," he said. "It's so magical to change someone's whole life with a one-hour surgery."
Currently he's busy planning two meetings in Edina as part of his term as president of the Minnesota Society of Plastic Surgeons. In November, the organization will fly in a speaker from California for an event at Southdale Fairview Hospital. In March, they'll have another meeting at the Galleria Westin.
Gryskiewicz said a focus of the group is to promote education and research activities, improve the standard of practice and promote and encourage ethical conduct in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery.
He said anyone considering plastic surgery should make sure they go to a doctor who is board certified and has specific residency training in plastic surgery. In 2006, he published a book "Your Body. Your Beauty. Your Safety," which won first place in the health and medicine category from the Midwest Independent Publishers Association.
He's also working on the national Hot Topics seminar October in Toronto. He said one thing they'll discuss is a device that allows for "lunch-hour liposuction" in Europe. The new, noninvasive tool melts fat externally and does not require anesthetic or surgery. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration are looking at the device for approval.
"I've invited two people from the FDA to come and speak at our meeting and they took me up on it," said Gryskiewicz.
Gryskiewicz, 61, concedes some evenings, after a full day of work and exercise, he just wants to go to his Edina home near Centennial Lakes Park and relax. But that's not in his plans anytime soon.
"This work is so fulfilling," said Gryskiewicz. There's just nothing like it. I couldn't imagine ever retiring from this. Why would you want to play golf when you could do that?"
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