He was appointed as a Consultant in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery to St Bartholomew’s Hospital and the Royal London Hospital in 1989. He was subsequently appointed as Lead Clinician and Direction of the Craniofacial Unit at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, treating all formal of facial conditions. His interest in facial surgery constituted the majority of his NHS practice. In 2005 he resigned from the NHS and is now in full time private practice, where he undertakes all forms of cosmetic surgery in addition to reconstructive and facial surgery. He has published over fifty papers in the medical literature, and has an active research and teaching profile. He has supervised undergraduate degree courses in conjunction with the Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine. He is frequently an invited speaker and member of expert panels on international courses and conferences on aesthetic surgery. He has served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the British Journal of Plastic Surgery.

In 2003 he co-founded the charity Facing the World (www.facingtheworld.net) treating children from developing countries with a wide variety of congenital facial conditions. He has travelled to Sri Lanka, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Ethiopia and Nicaragua treating children with cleft lip and palate and other major facial conditions.

Mr Waterhouse is a volunteer with Operation Smile travelling to developing countries worldwide offering cleft lip and palate surgery to children who would not otherwise be able to access surgery.