Choosing a Plastic Surgeon
Choosing an experienced and talented cosmetic surgeon can require some simple but necessary detective work. Cosmetic surgery is still surgery and it is important to put your health and well being into the hands of someone who will do a great job. That said, below are a few tips to finding a good doctor.
Quick Tips for finding a qualified plastic surgeon for you:
- Look at their training — Did they study at a top-notch program? For instance, Dr. Faires attended Baylor College of Medicine‘s plastic surgery program, which is a national leader in that specialty.
- How many years experience? Practice makes perfect; the more times a surgeon performs a procedure, the better at it he or she will be.
- Is he board-certified? Board certification from the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) means that the cosmetic surgeon has formal training in plastic surgery and has passed rigorous certification exams. Many people are unaware that there is nothing to prevent non-specialized surgeons from performing cosmetic surgery.
Is Your Doctor Certified in Plastic Surgery?
Did you know that any medical doctor can practice plastic surgery? That means your "cosmetic surgeon" could be a doctor who was formally trained in Ob/Gyn, Ear, Nose and Throat or even in oral surgery. You want to make sure that you choose a plastic surgeon who is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) and a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). All members of the ASPS were formally trained after medical school in the specialty – which means, an ASPS certified surgeon has devoted his or her career specifically for plastic surgery. It’s not a side job and it wasn’t an afterthought.
To find out if the surgeon you are considering is a member of the ASPS you can check their web site find a plastic surgeon and search for a certified physician in your area. Also you may search for your doctor’s qualifications via Search for a Physician. This will offer credentials on any type of physician – not just plastic surgeons.
To achieve board certification from the ABPS, the physician must have received his or her degree from a medical school that is nationally accredited, the physician must have five years experience of combined plastic surgery and general surgery, then as a final step, the physician must pass two strenuous examinations.
So what if the surgeon you want to use does not have five years experience in surgery? He or she may be quite talented but simply lack the experience needed to be eligible for board certification. This situation should be fine, but if the physician has been out of medical school for five years or more (usually by the time they reach their early to mid thirties), you should question why he or she is not board-certified yet and proceed with caution.
Quantity & Quality
After you narrow down your list of potential surgeons, a next step is to find out a little bit about their reputation in the area. The old saying, "practice makes perfect" is not that far off when it comes to medicine. The more experience a physician has in any given surgery, the better chance he or she will do an outstanding job during your surgery. In fact research has shown that physicians who perform more procedures encounter, on average, less complications and have better outcomes. It also reflects well on a physician who consistently sees a higher volume of patients since it is in indicator that former patients recommend and doctors refer additional patients to him or her.
You can also tell how specialized a physician is based on his or her formal medical training. Traditionally, doctors must go to medical school, complete an internship, complete a residency, and then they are free to practice medicine and become licensed. More and more, though, doctors are choosing to go an extra step in their formal training by completing a fellowship. A fellowship is the highest level of training available to a doctor in any given subset of medicine. In a fellowship, a doctor receives the most challenging medical cases and uses the most advanced technology to enhance their knowledge of their specialty of medicine. Although seeing a fellowship trained doctor is not crucial, it is definitely a bonus.
Go the Distance to Get the Best Care
The best plastic surgeon in your area may not practice right down the street from where you live. In some cases, you may have to drive a ways. If you are from a small town and you want the best care, you may have to drive a little ways to get to your doctor. Don’t worry. It’s worth the drive for the best quality.
