Finding Qualified Surgeons
Who Do I Call and Where Do I Go?
“All surgeons are not equally qualified. Board certification is an essential criterion, but even board certified surgeons vary widely in qualifications and skills.”
The phone book is not the best resource! And in this new edition, we can tell you that the Internet is also not necessarily the best resource. Unfortunately, much of the “information” on the Internet by surgeons is purely advertisement that is often not backed by any track record that verifies their “expertise.” You can certainly find names in both the phone book and on the Internet, but what you really need to know are 1) hard facts about a surgeon’s credentials: education, training, and board certification and 2) documented evidence of a surgeon’s experience—not just what the surgeon claims, but what the surgeon has published in respected scientific journals that document those claims.
Where did the surgeon train? How long? Is the surgeon board certified? By whom? What does board certification mean? What are the surgeon’s other important credentials? Which credentials are important, and which are not? What are some important red flags? All of these questions involve surgeon credentials. Before you ever call a surgeon’s office, you should check out the surgeon’s basic credentials. Otherwise, you are more likely to waste valuable time and money or, worse yet, make poor decisions. Here are some things you need to know to check out a surgeon’s credentials.
A Situation You’ll Find Difficult to Believe...
In most states in the United states, any physician who has completed four years of medical school and obtained an M.D. degree can legally advertise as a plastic surgeon or a neurosurgeon (brain surgeon) or any other type of surgeon without having obtained a single day of specialty training!
Any physician can call himself or herself a plastic surgeon! Legally!
Any licensed physician can advertise as a plastic surgeon without a day of specialty training in plastic surgery!
Any licensed physician can operate on you if you let them! Legally.
Can’t happen, you say? It happens every day. Patients see an ad or hear a name, go to a surgeon, and submit to a procedure that changes their bodies forever. They do this without ever investigating the surgeon’s credentials, without ever seeing more than one surgeon, without ever learning about the operation they’re considering, and without confirming a surgeon’s experience.
When a less-than-optimal outcome occurs (and less-than-optimal covers everything from not so good to complete disasters), unbelievably, many patients allow the same surgeon to operate on them repeatedly—often without ever seeking another opinion or researching the surgeon’s credentials! After the downhill slide (things often get worse with each reoperation), ultimately something or someone must get the blame. Incredibly, it’s usually the breast implant or the last surgeon who operated trying to correct the problems! I’ve seen literally hundreds of such cases in my twenty-seven years of practice. Rarely have I seen a patient take responsibility for her lack of homework in selecting a surgeon.
Many patients spend more time shopping for a car than they spend selecting a plastic surgeon.
It’s your body . . . you’ll be looking at it for the rest of your life.
It’s your job to select your surgeon. Don’t complain later if you neglect your responsibilities.
Selecting your surgeon is the single most important thing you can do to assure an optimal result.
So, how do you go about it? The first step is to understand how a plastic surgeon is educated and what various credentials really mean. What is board certification? What does it mean? Board certified by whom? Some credentials are meaningful; many are less meaningful. Once you understand basic credentials, you can assemble a list of surgeons who have meaningful credentials. Then you’ll need to shorten the list by looking past board certification to other useful information. After you shorten your list, you can begin calling surgeons’ offices and requesting information. Your final decision and surgeon selection should be a combination of 1) credentials, 2) quality of information you receive (written and spoken), and 3) your experiences during your consultations. This chapter will introduce you to surgeon credentials and other useful tools to help you begin your search for a surgeon.
Educating a Plastic Surgeon
After four years of college, most physicians complete four years of medical school to learn the basics of medicine. After medical school, most physicians who plan to specialize in a certain area then begin residency training. The length of residency training varies with the specialty. Plastic surgery and neurosurgery are among the longest residencies, requiring an additional six to eight years after medical school. Many board-certified plastic surgeons complete a five-year general surgery residency, then complete an additional two to three years of plastic surgery training.
Most plastic surgeons who are certified by the american board of Plastic surgery have completed six to eight years of specialty surgical residency training after medical school.
But remember! It is perfectly legal for a physician to set up a plastic surgery practice after four years of medical school without a single day of residency training in plastic surgery. Plastic surgery is an attractive specialty, and some physicians will shortcut the educational system any way possible. If a physician just skipped plastic surgery training (or some portion of it), the physician could begin doing plastic surgery six to eight years sooner—and could retire six to eight years sooner! It may be a great deal for the physician who may not even be aware of what he or she doesn’t know, but it may not be a great deal for patients. Would you take your car for repair to a mechanic you knew started yesterday with no mechanic school or experience?
General practitioners perform plastic surgery. Dermatologists perform plastic surgery. Gynecologists perform plastic surgery. Ear, nose, and throat physicians (otolaryngologists) perform plastic surgery. Dentists perform plastic surgery. General surgeons perform plastic surgery. And the list goes on. Every specialty listed above has residency training, but none are as long or as comprehensive as plastic surgery residency. None focus on plastic surgery as much as a plastic surgery residency. Does that mean that none of these other specialists can do good plastic surgery? Not necessarily. But it’s your job to decide how much training and experience you want your surgeon to have.