Riikka Veltheim

Authorised Medical Practitioner 1998
Doctoral thesis 1999
Specialist competence in plastic surgery 2005

Riikka has over 20 years of experience in aesthetic and reconstructive/reparative plastic surgery. She became a specialist in plastic surgery in 2005 and was then the youngest surgeon in Sweden ever to obtain her specialist degree.

She did her thesis in parallel with her medical studies and obtained her doctorate in 1999. She then continued her research at Karolinska Institutet on breast cancer and bone regeneration. Today, she is conducting research with Per Heden on facial ageing and on the impact of plastic surgery on the brain and on our well-being.

She was involved in the student union board during medical school and has been on the board of the Swedish Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (SFEP). At Karolinska, Riika was responsible for the national registry for severe weight loss and was part of the reconstructive team for women after breast cancer.

From Karolinska, Riika was recruited as a young plastic surgeon to Akademikliniken, where she has worked as a specialist in plastic surgery since 2005. In January 2025, she will join The Faculty.

As a mother of 3 now grown up children, she is passionate about anything that can improve the quality of life for women after the impact and damage of pregnancy and childbirth on the female body. Meeting so many different people with so many different backgrounds and desires makes working as a plastic surgeon still the best thing she can imagine.