Ronald P Gruber, MD

I had two Rhino’s and he was wonderful. I had the opportunity to have surgery after an accident that caused damage to the look of my nose as well as the function. I would recommend to anyone looking for a professional, straight-​shooter and talented surgeon, go see Dr. Gruber.

It has been 11 months since my primary rhinoplasty with Dr. Gruber and I could not be happier with the results or my overall experience with Dr. Gruber and his staff!
I did tons of research before deciding to have my nose done and knew that I wanted Dr. Gruber to be my surgeon before I even booked a consultation. (He is world renowned for his work.) He was very honest and straight-​forward with me through the entire process. He did not sugarcoat anything or promise «perfect» results which I greatly appreciated. He asked me what I wanted, examined my nose thoroughly, and told me what could be done. Then we played around on the computer with digital imaging software so I could get an idea of what my new nose would look like. I think that some reviewers mistake Gruber’s honesty and transparency with «poor bedside manner,» but I would MUCH rather have a doctor be realistic and honest than promise results that are simply not achievable.
Allie and the other ladies at the front desk were always very sweet, polite, and helpful. They promptly answered all my emails and questions before and after surgery. The nurse and anesthesiologist were also very pleasant and facility itself feels more like a spa than a medical office.
Overall a great experience! I would highly recommend Dr. Gruber to anyone seeking rhinoplasty surgery.

Dr. Gruber is simply the best! This summer he performed a rhinoplasty on my daughter. She inherited my beak!!!
I was very very nervous due to my past experience with «the nose job.» I have had four surgeries/​revisions by different doctors and the appearance of my nose still bothers me.
Thank goodness, my daughter had Dr. Gruber! Her nose turned out beautifully! When she developed a small complication (hematoma inside the nose) following surgery, Dr. Gruber made sure she got the care she needed-​he even saw her on the 4^th of July!
We are so pleased with the outcome and with the excellent service we received from Dr. Gruber and his staff. I only wish I had seen him myself!
Thank you Dr. Gruber!

I went to see four other well regarded surgeons before finding and selecting Dr. Gruber for my deviated septum and secondary rhino. Three of them put me through a typical dog and pony show with high powered sales pressure, both over simplifying my case difficulty and over pushing the other services such as botox and laser stuff. The fourth, took one look at me and said…“I can’t help you. You need to go see Dr. Gruber because he wrote the book on your case”.
My appointment with Dr. Gruber was short yet extremely thorough. I picked him 10 minutes into the conversation because he immediately picked up on what needed to be done and explained why. In his office, he has a shelf of text books he authored and yes, he has literally written the book on rhinoplasty. He does 4 surgeries a week, all year long, and has many years of experience, a good eye and a strong desire to help people.
On the day of surgery, Dr. Gruber’s staff was awesome. His nurse and anesthesiologist really worked well together and with me. No one likes surgery, right? I’ve had 6 (now 7) surgeries in my short life and this one had the best team in play. Dr. Gruber was also very engaged, I like how he asks the right questions.
My case was complicated and the results are better than I hoped for. I lived for eleven years with the results of some previous moron surgeon’s horrible mistake and now I am human-​looking again. My nose is now perfectly shaped and sized and has great symmetry… and I can breathe without difficulty. Dr. Gruber is about 20% more than others up front, but he submitted to my insurance so the net cost will be less than the lot.
I’m very grateful that I got a referral to Dr. Gruber.

I came here for Botox and its a week and a half later and the lines that i paid about 500 $ for are still there.
Then i went to get lip injections and he had no idea how to put the numbing medicine in that he created a huge ball under my left eye swelling up my whole face except my lip which was the intended area. he put two doses on my left side of my face and failed miserably, and then his ignorant secretary walked in to ask me if I chickened out, are you FUCKING kidding how retarded are you trying to tell me its normal to have half the huge ball under your eye even though it didn’t happen to the right side.
And then when he realized he fucked up he tried to asked his secretary if I had signed the forms saying its not his responsibility if anything happened to me, so I told him I wanted to read it which he tried to make me sign without reading yeah right.
And btw when you talk about patients with your moronic secretary try and make sure the door is closed. you call yourself a doctor pathetic. never again! When you decide on a plastic surgeon look at the staff and how they look like and if they look over done/​plastic, he’s surely incapable of doing his job properly.

very rude receptionist. Her name is Allie.

Dr. Gruber wrote the text book on Rhinoplasty. He is world famous in Rhinoplasty. Takes on some of the most challenging Rhinoplasty cases imaginable.
Because the difficult nature of his work he must be very selective. He has trained scores of plastic surgery residents both Stanford & UCSF.
He is also a member of the Rhinoplasty Society there are only 22 member in the entire United States. He is a treasure to have in the Bay Area.
I think Dr. Gruber is an excellent choice for Rhinoplasty.

Dr. Gruber is a fantastic doctor for cosmetic nasal surgery, espeically revisions. Three years ago, my teenaged daughter had nasal surgery by another plastic surgeon, and while the nose looked OK right after surgery, during the year following surgery, it became more and more deformed and ended up looking really strange, with the inside hairy portion of the nostrils very visible from a side view.
My husband and then I discovered that no plastic surgeon we talked to wanted to touch a revision nose surgery. After many phone calls, we were referred to Dr. Gruber by another plastic surgeon who does many noses but won’t touch a revision.
When we met with Dr. Gruber, we knew we were in good hands. We read through his resume, and found out that wrote THE book on cosmetic nasal surgery. He also published numerous articles in medical journals on how to fix the deformities that my daughter developed after her first surgery. Dr. Gruber compared himself with a «watchmaker» which requires meticulous, careful work. When he did a computerized image of what her nose would look like after surgery, he let us keep the print out, while other plastic surgeons would not let us get a printout, saying their malpractice company would not let them.
She had her revision surgery with Dr. Gruber almost 2 years ago, and it still looks fantastic. It fits perfectly with her face, and looking nice has given her confidence that she did not have when her nose was unattractive. Her younger sister wants to have Dr. Gruber work on her, too, as do several family friends. It takes us several hours to drive to Dr. Gruber’s office but he is well worth it.
For cosmetic nasal surgery, Dr. Gruber is definitely the very best you could ever find.

Dr. Gruber is the best! He was recommended to me by another top notch plastic surgeon in Beverley Hills. At first I was apprehensive because his office isn’t exactly in the best location, but once you meet Dr. Gruber you will realize he is an artist, very down-​to-​earth, calming personality and I assume that explains the office location.
This was my second nose job. Unfortunately, my first doctor (Dr. Rosenberg in Mountain View) was terrible! He ruined my nose and it looked so droppy.
Dr. Gruber gave me the nose I always dreamed of. We had the exact same vision. He is truly an artist and I am so lucky to have found him. He’s the best Rhinoplasty surgeon there is!

At first I really bragged about Dr. Gruber. He did a revision on my nose after I had a very bad outcome from a doctor in Beverly Hills. That was many years ago. After Gruber repaired my nose it wasn’t perfect but I could live with the outcome but a few years later when I returned to him to talk about a different procedure he suggested he could help me again achieve a better result with my nose. So I had another nose correction. Years again went by then about 2 years ago I returned to him for a consultation on tummy tuck. He suggested I wasn’t a candidate for that procedure but again suggested he could help me with my nose. Because I trusted him I again had the procedure. He took cartilage from my rib because the pass nose procedure reduced the cartilage he could use from my ears. He said I would look better if my nose was longer. I trusted him. I don’t live in the area so going to Oakland was a big deal for me.
The result was a traumatic mess. My nose was infected off and on for 6 months. I had to take antibiotics and had to go to work looking like a monster. After a year he did more surgery and of course I had to pay another $ 2,500 over what my insurance paid. This mistaken surgery has cost me $ 5,000 out of pocket plus what he made from the insurance company. Basically he’s the winner.
The result is still poor. I don’t feel welcome to go back and complain even though I should. He suggested I was allergic to the stitches but these were the same stitches he used in the past procedures. I think he simply put way to much cartilage in my nose and therefore it could not heal. I have recently gone to UCLA and had a MRI of my nose. This is ridiculous.
There are many good cosmetic surgeons. I don’t recommend Dr. Gruber. His ego has become much to inflated for the care a patient really needs. I would find a surgeon I felt comfortable with, that spent time with me and if the procedure had a negative outcome the doctor would go out of his/​her way to help correct the problem and not keep charging the patient over and over again.

In 2000, I was shopping for a plastic surgeon for a nose job. All my research had pointed to Dr. Gruber as the best Nose Doctor in the area. I made an appointment with him for a consultation. On the Patient Record/​Registration form, it asked several medical questions. Including if I have HIV. I disclosed that I did.
When I was speaking with Dr. Gruber about the Surgery, he told me, that although he felt that I would benefit from plastic surgery, he decided not to do it, because I am HIV positive, and he didn’t want to risk himself or his staff getting AIDS. He also told me, that if this were an emergency he would be required to perform the surgery, but since this is an elective surgery he can refuse.
I was pretty destroyed by this. It really hurts being discriminated against; especially by a Medical Professional.

so here is an update:
I met with Dr. Gruber several weeks ago. He looked at my nose and told me that «the amount of asymmetry I have is within acceptable limits» and that he had never (yes I said never) had a patient be that focused on an area like that. This is a man who works on nasal reconstruction where millimeters can make a huge difference in the result (which is why I was having a revision in the first place) so that scared me!
As far and him saying that he ‘never had another patient so focused’, I personally know another patient who has had the exact same issue with him and the same issue with the result. Also, I have seen 2 other physicians who told me that they could straighten it out.)
Anyway, he said he wouldn’t want to do another surgery but did manage to adminster filler in the area which helped correct it. Obviously he saw the problem as well. To be honest the other physician I originally saw in the city did a more precise job with the filler.
From what I know about plastic surgery especially facial surgery and nasal surgery specifically, it is a fine art, and takes great awareness and expertise. Small details make the difference between an ‘acceptable’ result and a beautiful result. As far as suggesting that I am too focused on the area, I believe anyone wearing their nose in the middle of their face would be too. I would hope that my doctor would be too.

My favorite thing is when people start ranting about how Plastic Surgery is the devil’s work, and only whores and has-​beens go under the knife voluntarily — that’s when I jump off my high horse, and tell them that I have paid a little visit to the PS Gods, and that I am neither the devil nor a whore (on a good day) and am well on my way (although far off at the tender age of 26) to being a has-​been.
I am, in fact, a smart girl, who was born with something she didn’t love, and made an educated choice to change it. I have been called superficial, shallow and even pathetic by people for the choice I made.
Still, I am not ashamed to say I have done it. I am not ashamed to say I would do it again. I do not look pulled, or carved, or misshapen. I look like me, slightly enhanced. Dr. Ronald Gruber of Oakland was a real gem of a surgeon. Very patient, very understanding, and recovery time was minimal. I did, however, wake up in the middle of my surgery, and could have sworn they were talking about strippers… And I love me some strippers. It might have been the remarkable drugs talking. They injected me again (I think. For all I know they might have just conked me on the head.), I looked at the Doctor and in slow motion said, «You’re crazy man… I like you, but you’re crazy» as I heard the Ramones lulling me to sleep with, «I wanna be sedated…» while elves and fairies sprinkled iridescent dust on me and danced in the Operating Room lights.
Magical.
If you are thinking about it, do your research. It pays to find out your doctor’s history and talk to some other people that have had work done. I was asked to talk to patients of Dr. Gruber’s that were feeling nervous, and each time they went through with it, and each time the results were outstanding.
So, I know what you are wondering… and I’ll tell you. Come close now… get in here for the real thing…
PSYCH! Guessing is half the fun. But here’s a hint: It’s not my boobs.
They’re real, and they’re spectacular.