Is your plastic surgeon?

Is your plastic surgeon a plastic surgeon?

Earlier I wrote an article on eight questions you ought to ask your cosmetic surgeon. One was whether he was board certified. I mentioned that he should be certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. When you go to select your plastic surgeon you may notice that they have been certified by all sorts of boards and societies and do many trade marked procedures.

In the USA anyone can trade mark anything and anyone can form a board and give memberships and certificates. Thus, I could start the “World Board of Laser and Reconstructive Cosmetic Surgery” and charge membership and hand out official looking certificates from my home computer and design a logo that doctors could put on the websites, business cards and splater on their office stationary.

In fact such a board does not exist and I may form it as a gag. But when I searched for it the first doctor was: “Fellow of the prestigious American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and board certified in ophthalmology.” The question is: “Is this doctor a board certified plastic surgeon?”

And ladies and gentlemen the envelope please….

And the simple answer is no. As I mentioned the only plastic surgery board recognized by the The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), is The American Board of Plastic Surgery.

The ABMS is in their own words, a not-for-profit organization, which assists 24 approved medical specialty boards in the development and use of standards in the ongoing evaluation and certification of physicians. ABMS is recognized as the “gold standard” in physician certification, believes higher standards for physicians means better care for patients. Any so called board which is not one of the twenty four boards recognized by ABMS is not a real academic board.

And as far as the ABPS is concerned here’s their mission statement: The Mission Statement of The American Board of Plastic Surgery, Inc. is to promote safe, ethical, efficacious plastic surgery to the public by maintaining high standards for the education, examination, certification and maintenance of certification of plastic surgeons as specialists and subspecialists. The ABPS has strict training and residency requirements.

My recommendation is that you only have plastic surgery with a surgeon who has been certified by ABPS.

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