Amir Tahernia, MD enjoys challenges, be they academic, athletic, as head of a family, or as a plastic surgeon. As he says “excellence matters… a lot”. A native of New York, Dr. Tahernia spent his early years there before moving to the west coast and attending college at UCLA. He knew from early on in his medical training that he wanted to become a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. To him there was no other specialty in medicine that so nicely married science with art. It is this balance of science and artistry that drew him to the field and continues to excite him each day as he practices his craft.

Dr. Tahernia has had an impeccable academic pedigree, having attended some of the finest institutions in the country. His education has taken him from UCLA to NYU School of Medicine and most recently Duke University. At UCLA he was elected to the elite Phi Beta Kappa society, which recognizes only a small fraction of undergraduates as the brightest students in the country. While at the NYU School of Medicine he won honors in Surgery. He completed a total of 7 years of General Surgery training, which included dedicated research in plastic and reconstructive surgery. This lead to several fine works resulting in publications and presentations at national meetings. Dr. Tahernia is a diplomat of both the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, putting him in an elite group of double board-certified surgeons. Dr. Tahernia is also an attending teaching faculty member in the division of Plastic Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Tahernia was recently bestowed the honor of being named a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

He comes to Los Angeles after completing a rigorous three-year plastic surgery fellowship at the prestigious Duke University Medical Center. Duke has consistently been ranked as one of the top 10 medical centers in the nation. During his time there he performed the entire spectrum of plastic surgery from the most sophisticated reconstructive procedures to high-end aesthetic surgery. Dr. Tahernia was fortunate to be trained by some of the masters of plastic surgery while at Duke.

Commensurate with his clinical acumen he was also heavily involved in resident education while at Duke. While there, his contributions lead to all-time high scores on plastic surgery board preparatory examinations. In addition his academic efforts there lead to fine publications in the specialties’ main scientific journals. He also has had extensive training in hand surgery, having completed a 4-month fellowship at the world-renowned Kleinert Hand and Microsurgery Institute in Louisville, Kentucky. All in all he has had over 10 years of surgical training with a particular focus on aesthetic and reconstructive surgery.

In his spare time, Dr. Tahernia really enjoys spending time with his wife, Azzy and two children, Pasha and Sienna. He is also an avid tennis player and plays whenever he has the opportunity.