More About Board Certified Plastic Surgeons

Plastic Surgeon, Plastic Surgery Comments (0)

While searching for a cosmetic plastic surgeon, you may find several who advertise they hold “board certification” or that they are “board certified” surgeons.

That should raise a red warning flag. Why?

There are many medical boards that are not recognized by the American Medical Association.  Such as:

• The Board of Headache Management
• The Board of Laser Surgery
• The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery

Actually, the American Medical Association only recognizes 24 medical boards, listed at the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS.)

Any computer user can surf to that website, register and look up the certification of any physician.

A potential plastic surgery patient would search for surgeons certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

Here’s a tip for sorting it all out:

When you are in the surgeon’s office, discussing, say, a breast augmentation or a tummy tuck, all you have to do is ask, “Is your board certification in plastic surgery?”

Or, if you are seeing a surgeon about a facial procedure like nose surgery or face lift, you can ask, “Is your board certification in something other than plastic surgery or otolargyngology?” (It’s pronounced  “Oh-toe-larin-gollo-gee” and deals with head and neck surgery.)

Those are the two specialties that are fully trained in cosmetic plastic surgery procedures.

Performing Plastic Surgery

You may also encounter a plastic surgeon who says he or she is “board eligible.”  That means the surgeon has met all the board requirements and will soon be tested for board certification.

It’s not disrespectful to ask about a surgeon’s background!

Think of it like this: you are hiring a plastic surgeon to enhance your appearance. It’s okay to ask if he or she has all the experience and training to do that.

Besides, fully trained plastic surgeons love informed patients and actively encourage you to ask about the surgeon’s training and experience as well as the procedure you want.

It’s also important to ask “which board?” because some physicians hold legitimate board certification in, for instance, gynecology or internal medicine and then start offering cosmetic plastic surgery procedures.

That means something may be missing from the equation necessary for a great outcome in your eyelid surgery, liposuction or other rejuvenation surgery.

In particular, what’s missing are those five to seven years of extra plastic surgery training! Remember, that’s five to seven years after obtaining the M.D. degree.

And if the doctor is board certified in plastic surgery or head and neck surgery, that’s probably another two to three years of experience.

admin @ December 19, 2008