Criswell & Criswell Plastic Surgery:
Giving Patients & Each Other 100%
Drs. Kara and Bryan Criswell opened Criswell and Criswell Plastic Surgery in Charlotte in 2008. They say opposites attract, but in the case of Charlotte magazine Top Doctors Bryan and Kara Criswell, it’s what they have in common that makes them a great team. Whether working in their nationally accredited surgery center in Ballantyne or at home parenting sons, Jack, 16, and Wyatt, 13, they are in sync.
Growing up on opposite sides of the country, both had strong physician role models, an early interest in medicine, a strong work ethic, spoke fluent Spanish, shared a love and appreciation for art and drawing, and, perhaps most importantly, chose plastic surgery as their specialty.
The pair met in Syracuse, NY, in residency at Upstate Medical University. Kara recalls, “Bryan was my chief resident and he was an excellent teacher. He was really patient, informative, and generous in allowing his junior residents to do the procedures. I respected him right from the get-go and we were friends for a long time before we ever dated. One of the things that drew me to him was he was really good at what he was doing. It was nice to have a preview of that.”
Born in Ranger, Texas, Bryan grew up in Albuquerque, NM, but spent summers in Ranger where his grandfather served as the small town’s only doctor. “It made an impression on me seeing the respect everyone had for him and the respect he had for his town in terms of the hours he put in,” says Bryan. “I think that lit the spark for me.”
Bryan earned a BA in Biology from Texas Christian University, an MD degree from University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and completed a general surgery internship at Brown University in Rhode Island, before heading to Syracuse and meeting Kara.
Bryan says he noticed Kara’s work ethic above everything else. “When she decides to do something, she does it with meticulous attention to detail in everything! I saw that early on in residency and I thought, ‘Wow, I like this person and I don’t think I’ll ever come across someone who works harder than she does.’ And that’s still true.”
Kara grew up in upstate New York near Rochester and Syracuse, where her stepfather was a successful neurosurgeon. “It showed me what kind of sacrifices you need to make in order to be an excellent surgeon,” says Kara. “So I went into medicine knowing exactly what I was getting into.”
After earning a BA in Biology and Studio Art at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, an MD degree from Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara in Mexico and New York Medical College in Mount Vernon, NY, Kara landed back home in Syracuse for residency, where she met Bryan.
Bryan and Kara Criswell married in 2008 and moved to Chicago to finish their medical training. The couple married and moved to Chicago to finish their medical training. They trained together, completing their plastic surgery fellowships at University of Illinois. Bryan started a solo practice for a few years until Kara’s fellowship was complete. The Criswells then chose to settle in Charlotte and opened Criswell & Criswell Plastic Surgery in 2008.The practice has grown to a staff of 15 and the Med Spa offers a wide variety of non-surgical services such as laser skin care treatments.
“A significant portion of our practice is cosmetic surgery, which includes facelifts, mommy makeovers, breast implants, body contouring, liposuction, and non-invasive facial rejuvenation,” explains Kara, who also serves as the Chair of the Department of Plastic Surgery at Novant Health. “But an equally significant portion of our practice is reconstructive surgery, either after skin cancer excisions or with breast reconstruction after mastectomies or other surgeries for the treatment of breast cancer. Those aspects of our practice allow us to see a wide cross-section of our community. We love the fact that we are able to offer our patients any number of procedures and do them all very well. There’s not much that we don’t do. That’s one of the wonderful things about plastic surgery and what drew us both to it. It’s one of the few surgical fields where you really can operate from head to toe on a patient. We love that variety and that challenge."
Kara explains how they first connected with TowneBank in 2017. “As our practice grew, our needs changed. We needed a loan for a laser and we just assumed the bank we were working with would be able to finance it, but they couldn’t do it. TowneBank commercial banker Andrea Williamson reached out to us and said, ‘I can get you set up with this, no problem. What do you say about transitioning over to Towne?’ and we said ‘Sure, let’s meet,’ and we’ve been with Towne ever since.”
The Criswells laugh remembering the first time they visited a Towne office. “Everyone was so welcoming and nice and just seemed to know who we were. And we thought, ‘Wait, what? We’re nobody! Why is everyone being so nice to us?’ We always felt like nobody and then we walk into a branch of TowneBank and here’s the president (Phil Jurney, TowneBank market president, who passed away in 2021) coming to chat with us and have coffee. He was amazing. Everyone was just so wonderful,” says Bryan.
Kara adds, “I’m not sure we knew how important it is to have the personalized attention of a bank. We’re physicians and surgeons. We don’t know everything about running a business. I don’t think we understood how much it was going to make our lives easier. Working with TowneBank has been great for us; it’s just seamless. It allows us to keep everything in one place and be accountable for everything and they help us to be accountable too.”
The Criswells are often asked, “What’s it like to work with your spouse?” Bryan explains, “It’s great to work with someone you completely trust and to be able to bounce ideas off them. I think it gives an extra layer of care to our patients.”
Kara says, “I think the great benefit that Brian and I have is that we trained together so we know exactly what the other one knows and the way we do things is very similar. It also helps that we share the same general philosophy of life: don’t do something halfway, be fully present and all in. Give it 100 percent or it’s not worth doing.”
For more information, visit CriswellandCriswell.com