STC Plastic Surgery: Brian K. Machida, MD, FACS

Someone weighing a facelift usually walks in carrying one fear ahead of the rest: coming out looking tightened, wind-swept, visibly worked on. Answering that specific worry is the whole pitch of STC Plastic Surgery, the Ontario, California practice of Dr. Brian K. Machida. The work here stays above the collarbone: face, neck, and ears, nothing else. That is unusual in a field where plenty of clinics list body contouring, breast work, and facial surgery side by side on one menu.

That narrowing is the first thing worth understanding. STC Plastic Surgery: Brian K. Machida, MD, FACS lists no body contouring, no breast surgery, nothing below the jaw. A prospective patient reads that as either a limitation or a reassurance, depending on what brought them through the door. For facial work specifically, a surgeon who has stopped trying to be a generalist is a reasonable thing to want.

The credentials get stated plainly. Dr. Machida is described as double board-certified, with close to thirty years in the field and more than 6,000 facial rejuvenation procedures behind him. Figures like those circulate freely in cosmetic marketing, so the sensible reading is context, not proof. What they do sketch is a career spent concentrated on one region of the body over a long stretch of time, and the "facial rejuvenation" framing the practice leans on covers both the surgical and the injectable sides of that work.

A practice narrowed to the face and neck

One detail the site keeps returning to is anesthesia. Many of the advanced procedures are performed under local anesthesia, and for anyone nervous about being put fully under, that is a genuine draw. It is also concrete enough to test at a consultation, which is where a claim like this either holds or falls apart. Skipping general anesthesia also sidesteps a category of risk that weighs heavier as patients age, which may be part of why the practice puts it forward.

STC Plastic Surgery pairs the point with a stated preference for outcomes that look like the same person, only rested.

Whether the reality matches the framing is a question the before-and-after galleries and an in-person visit have to settle. STC Plastic Surgery keeps those galleries on the site precisely so prospective patients can judge for themselves instead of taking the marketing at its word. That is the right instinct for facial surgery, where the proof is visual and personal.

The surgical list, from facelift to earlobe

The operations at STC Plastic Surgery divide cleanly. Deep-plane facelifts and neck lifts target sagging along the jaw and under the chin, and the deep-plane version is worth flagging on its own, since it is the more technically demanding form of the operation and the one associated with faces that still move naturally afterward instead of looking pulled flat. Upper and lower eyelid blepharoplasty handles the hooding and undereye puffiness that read as tiredness. Chin augmentation reshapes a weak profile. Otoplasty pins back or reshapes prominent ears, and earlobe repair deals with tears and stretched piercings.

Each procedure sits within a few inches of the next. That proximity is the entire logic of a face-only surgeon, and it holds together better than a scattered menu would.

Lasers, Bellafill, and the non-surgical side

For patients not ready for the operating table, STC Plastic Surgery lists fractional laser treatment, Bellafill injections, regenerative cellular therapy using stem cells, and BeautiFill procedures. The stem-cell language deserves a skeptic's eye. Regenerative claims in aesthetics tend to run well ahead of the published evidence, and the site does little to explain what the treatment actually involves or what a patient should expect from it. Bellafill and fractional laser stand on firmer, more established ground. A cautious reader will want plain specifics on the cellular therapy before agreeing to it.

Supporting material rounds out what STC Plastic Surgery offers: patient testimonials, post-operative support information, and a run of educational videos and blog posts. The aftercare content is a quiet point in its favour. Facial surgery is often won or lost in the weeks of recovery, and a practice that bothers to publish guidance on it is signalling that the relationship does not end the moment the sutures go in. Post-operative support spelled out ahead of time is the sort of thing a patient only appreciates later.

Credentials, reviews, and reaching the office

Outside opinion lines up well. Yelp carries 115 reviews for STC Plastic Surgery, alongside 307 patient photos, and for cosmetic work that image count arguably matters as much as the star rating, because a visitor can study real outcomes instead of trusting a single number. The 307 photos are the real tell here, since a clinic confident in its results tends to let the pictures pile up.

Top Rated Local aggregates 138 ratings across two verified review sites and reports an average of 4.87 stars, which is high. A Wanderlog listing gathers further positive accounts, including one praising the result of a deep-plane face and neck lift. Nothing negative from third parties surfaced in the search, which is worth stating plainly rather than dressing up.

STC Plastic Surgery also keeps a testimonials page on its own site, which naturally counts for less, since a business chooses what lands there.

Reaching the office is simple. A phone number and a street address are posted, a contact page handles consultation requests, and profiles on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Yelp are all linked from the site. There is no hunting involved, and for a surgical practice that openness counts. Someone who first sees the name in a business directory listing, not through a friend's referral, gets the same information without extra digging.

Business hours are the one thing a visitor might have to phone in to confirm, but the number is right there to do it. A patient who wants to check the galleries, read the outside reviews, and then book a visit can do all three in a few minutes.

The doubt that lingers has nothing to do with competence or reachability, both of which the record supports. It sits in the gap between what the marketing promises every face and what any single patient will actually get. Thirty years and six thousand procedures describe a history, not a guarantee, and the regenerative-therapy corner of the menu is exactly the kind of claim a careful person should press hard before signing anything.

A prospective patient is left weighing a strong, consistent public record against a service list that quietly mixes proven procedures with one that is anything but settled. The galleries invite the visit. That one unanswered question is what a consultation still has to close.

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