It was a time for mainstream otorhinolaryngology to take notice. At present, the influx of bright and innovative ideas, most of which had been contributions from professors and pioneer surgeons in ENT, lead to the formation of academic subspecialties – rhinology, otology, audiology, maxillofacial surgery, laser surgery, and head and neck reconstructive/microvascular surgery.

It was in December, 2002 in one of the year-end socials of Ospital ng Maynila, that Dr. Ed Yap and I chanced upon each other. I reminisced how he enthusiastically ascribed to me his endorhinoplasty technique for nasal tip improvement among Filipinos. Not to be outdated, I indiscriminately described to him a new method which I recently learned of how to create a supratarsal fold among Orientals using a non-cutting  suture technique. I remembered how we spontaneously flattered one another through our casual conversation, which eventually culminated in establishing a new subspecialty group, which we both felt should be under the umbrella of the PSO-HNS.

Being the dynamic and unrelenting chairman of Ospital ng Makati’s department of Otorhinolaryngolgy, he had the privilege of spearheading 3 consecutive annual postgraduate courses, each focusing on facial aesthetic surgical techniques. Such procedures he had been performing independently in his private practice. As for myself, during that period, I was making time in my own practice schedules sharing my knowledge on the facial applications of Botulinum toxin to dermatologists, cosmetic surgeons and fellow otolaryngologists. The seemingly increasing number of ENT’s attending scientific sessions related to aesthetic surgery lead us to believe that there was a genuine clamor to organize more meetings of the same nature. Others, in fact expressed their sentiments regarding the need for a more elaborate manner of learning modern day facial aesthetic surgery techniques, perhaps more training opportunities.

This caught the eye of a handful of ENT surgeons who had actually been performing a plethora of  aesthetic plastic procedures on conditions of anonymity, a fate surprisingly consistent with the Hippocratic tradition!

Armed with the 21^st century’s most potent tool for data dissemination, that is, text messaging, F.A.C.E.S. was on its way to holding its first general assembly, which successfully materialized on June 22,2004 at the Imperial Suite Hotel located at the infamous Timog Rotonda in Quezon city. The meeting’s highlight was the presentation of the “Articles of Organization”. The room was filled with otolaryngologists with strong personalities,  although as expected  sparred over philosophical differences. Yet, I noticed that the common thirst for learning created an atmosphere coherent with our goals of improving and expanding the academia, which may well be the key to attracting sufficient dedicated surgeons to achieve viability as a noteworthy organization.