Make Sure Your Surgeon is Trained for Your Procedure

Updated 3/2017-- all links removed (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. 

Don’t simply look for a surgeon who is board certified.  Make sure they are trained to do the procedure you are having.  Yes, board certification is important, but the training is more so (in my humble opinion).

If you are having a breast augmentation, you don’t want a board certified maxillofacial surgeon or Ob-Gyn or neurosurgeon.  You want someone trained in plastic surgery.  It is a bonus if they are board certified.  By the same token, if you need brain surgery you don’t want a board certified plastic surgeon you want someone trained in neurosurgery. 

This rant was prompted by the USA Today article written by Jayne O’Donnell:  Lack of training can be deadly in cosmetic surgery

……….Sant Antonio is one of a soaring number of doctors who trained in other medical specialties, such as vision or obstetrics, but have branched into the more lucrative field of cosmetic surgery. Because state laws governing office-based surgeries often are lax, levels of training vary so widely that some doctors are performing cosmetic procedures after only a weekend observing other doctors. Sant Antonio himself has offered three-day liposuction training at his office for the last few years, according to interviews with doctors who have trained under him.

Some dentists trained in oral surgery now do breast implants; OB/GYNs perform tummy tucks, and radiologists are doing liposuction. The results can be disastrous, according to interviews with scores of victims, plaintiffs' lawyers and plastic surgeons, and a review of lawsuits. ………….