Plastic Surgery by Radiologists and Dentists? It happens!
Bad Plastic Surgery, Plastic Surgeon, Plastic Surgery Risks Comments (0)
Would you allow a dentist to do a breast augmentation on your daughter? How about letting a doctor trained in reading X-rays do a liposuction on you? (See our post on the liposuction doctor who was really a radiologist.)
Or worse yet, would you let that radiologist supervise another untrained person – who is not even a physician — doing that liposuction?
Probably not! At least, if you knew those facts upfront.
But due to the way our medical system works, anybody with an M.D. degree can refer to him-or-herself as a “cosmetic surgeon.”
Compare that to a board-certified plastic surgeon that has at least two years of training in general surgery and another three to five in plastic surgery procedures.
That radiologist doctor? He eventually closed shop and moved to South America.
When the Seattle Post-Intelligencer looked into the dentist/cosmetic surgeon, they found ten lawsuits and one dead patient. (Read more about the dentist’s botched plastic surgeries.)
Here’s the really scary thing: untrained cosmetic surgeons outnumber surgeons fully trained in plastic surgery.
So before putting money down on a face lift, rhinoplasty, tummy tuck or any other surgery, go to the website of the American Board of Medical Specialties at:
Register and click the heading on the left side, “Is Your Doctor Certified?”
Then, type his or her name into the query box.
The system should return your doctor’s name, city, state and nation. Double click on the doctor’s name and you will see another screen that lists the doctor’s degree and certification, if any.
Patients in-the-know only accept certifications in “plastic surgery” and “otolaryngology,” (head and neck surgery.)
How did you find the doctor who did your plastic surgery?
admin @ March 17, 2009