Plastic and hand surgeon James Chao, MD, FACS, in Encinitas holds American Board of Plastic Surgery certification and practices from his Santa Fe Drive office near Scripps Memorial Hospital. His microsurgical training at Stanford University, NYU School of Medicine, and the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery—capped by a hand surgery fellowship at NYU/Bellevue Hospital Center—bridges reconstructive caseloads with oral and maxillofacial referrals from Encinitas Oral Surgery. Clinical specialties include reconstructive and aesthetic breast surgery, hand and upper extremity reconstruction, body contouring, and free-tissue transfer using microvascular anastomosis. A former Professor of Surgery in the Division of Plastic Surgery at UC San Diego, he also serves as plastic and hand surgeon for the NFL's Chargers and ESPN's X Games, applying sports-trauma protocols that align with integrative post-operative recovery at Healing Roots. Complex cases include DIEP and TRAM flap breast reconstruction, Dupuytren's contracture fasciectomy with tendon grafting, and replantation microsurgery for traumatic digit amputation requiring sub-millimeter vessel repair.