A local plastic surgeon brings a community-driven perspective to the people and hometown hospital system that raised him

BY ERIK SCHONING · PHOTOS BY AMESSE PHOTOGRAPHY

All medical providers build relationships with their communities; few have deeper roots than plastic surgeon Joseph A. Costa, M.D.. A native Staten Islander, Dr. Costa has built his practice at Northwell Health on the simple, yet increasingly rare idea that stronger ties to the community means stronger care.

Dr. Costa’s childhood home is five minutes from SIUH. The hospital has been at the center of every major moment in his life: he was born there, did his residency there, and now practices medicine in the hospital system. Dr. Costa even cites two influential childhood surgeries at SIUH, including treatment of two broken femurs, that drew him to medicine in the first place.

“I think my road to medicine really came from those experiences I had at the hospital,” Dr. Costa said. “I always liked science as a kid, and the care that was given to me when I was a child really made me want to go into the field.”

Years later, Dr. Costa began his general surgery residency at SIUH, a full-circle moment in his career. He remembers the day he returned to the hospital he knew so well, that he literally grew up next door to, not as a patient or a visitor but as a practicing doctor.

“The greatest thing for me was taking care of patients I knew,” Dr. Costa said. “I got called to the emergency room and it would be so-and-so’s aunt or so-and-so’s uncle. It was taking care of my community, and I loved it.”

Today, Dr. Costa has built his practice as a plastic surgeon on those same patient-first principles that got him into health care, splitting his time between three primary areas of practice: cosmetic surgeries (your tummy tucks, rhinoplasties and abdominoplasties), breast reconstruction, and body contouring; he is specially trained in post-bariatric contouring.

Contouring in general has seen a major uptick in recent years with the explosion of GLP-1s. Rapid weight loss means loose skin, and Dr. Costa is a master of working with patients whose bodies have undergone major change. Through contouring, Dr. Costa is able to restore his patients’ natural shape.

That same expertise applies to breast reconstruction, some of the most meaningful work in Dr. Costa’s practice. This treatment is typically for patients who have undergone breast cancer treatment and mastectomies. In the midst of an extremely stressful and trying period, Dr. Costa is able to give his patients a sense of normalcy and renewed confidence.

“I had a young patient. She didn’t have breast cancer, but she had a gene where she was at a very high risk of developing it,” Dr. Costa said. “The breast surgeon did a bilateral mastectomy, and I did the reconstruction. I recently saw her and she’s super happy, super excited. It felt great that I could use my skills to make her whole.”

Dr. Costa may take a people-first approach, but that doesn’t mean cutting-edge care takes a backseat. His practice is one of the few on Staten Island with VASER ultrasound-assisted liposuction, a gamechanger in the field. With VASER, Dr. Costa and his team are able to get even better results in their contouring work. An ultrasound probe emulsifies fat, liquefying it. Used in conjunction with power-assisted liposuction tools, this procedure maximizes fat removal, while the ultrasonic waves create an elastic recoil effect in the skin for natural tightening.

The other exciting new development in Dr. Costa’s practice is the arrival of Crisalix, an AI 3D simulator and imaging software.

“If a patient comes in and she wants to talk about breast augmentation, I can take pictures of her, upload them to the computer, and I can show her exactly what those implants would look like on her,” Dr. Costa said. “Before, we would have her try on an implant and ask what they wanted. Now, we can show them exactly.”

As a plastic surgeon, Dr. Costa describes himself as “a surgeon of surgeons.” As part of the larger Northwell Health community, he frequently collaborates with pain management doctors, who might send him a patient suffering from back pain due to macromastia. He works closely with neurosurgeons, aiding in muscle tissue repair for spine surgery patients. As a breast reconstruction specialist, he works closely with breast surgeons throughout the system. That multidisciplinary approach means that the care he provides, cosmetic or otherwise, is always deeply informed by the medical community at large.

Patients who see Dr. Costa often see a lot of him; it’s not uncommon for him to have three or four visits with a patient even before scheduling a surgery. Whether it’s a patient recovering from bariatric surgery, someone in search of aesthetic reinvention, or a cancer survivor looking to reclaim their image, Dr. Costa places the utmost importance on connecting with those who come under his care.

“These are my people,” Dr. Costa said. “I’m from here. I know what Staten Islanders want, and I can talk to them in ways other doctors can’t. And a lot of my patients are friends of friends. Someone says, ‘Go see Joe, he’ll take care of you.’ These are people who raised me, and now I get to give back and do something for them.”

Whatever brings a patient through his doors, Dr. Costa prides himself on a practice that, for so many, feels a lot like home. That’s because, for this doctor, it is.

Northwell Health Physician Partners Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at South Avenue — 1000 South Avenue, Suite 100 / (718) 226-6780