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Be Careful When You Select Your Surgeon!
August 1, 2012Your read and hear about plastic surgery gone wrong at least monthly. Patients unassumingly undergo plastic surgery procedures with unqualified or untrained surgeons and when something goes wrong it costs the patient both financially and physically.
Why does this happen?
Although state medical boards regulate who can obtain a license to practice medicine, they don’t restrict doctors from performing procedures outside of their training or specialty. Once they are licensed, there is no law against doctors performing any medical procedure they want to, as long as the patient consents to it.
As a board-certified plastic surgeon, I can legally perform a knee replacement or hysterectomy, procedures for which I am completely unqualified. This lack of regulation has allowed an increasing number of doctors of all types — including gynecologists, general surgeons and even emergency medicine physicians — to perform tummy tucks, liposuction, facelifts and breast enhancement.
These procedures are almost never performed in real hospitals. Hospitals typically vet their surgeons and allow them to practice only within their field of training and expertise. Doctors get around this by performing cosmetic procedures in their own in-office operating rooms or at ambulatory surgery centers, where the credentialing requirements may not be as strict.
So why do so many doctors reject their chosen specialty and remake themselves as plastic surgeons?
One word: money.
Declining physician reimbursement has resulted in more physicians looking for ways to enhance their income. And plastic surgery is one of the only fields of medicine that is shielded from insurance companies.
So an increasing number of doctors are closing their traditional medical practices and opening cosmetic surgery centers. These physicians learn the basics of plastic surgery through weekend courses, shadowing other doctors and even online webinars. This influx of poorly trained cosmetic surgeons has caused “bad plastic surgery” to become more common.
If you are considering having plastic surgery, I implore you: Do your homework. Find a plastic surgeon who is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, the only plastic surgery board that is recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties.
Both of our Surgeons are Board Certified by the ASPS and perform cosmetic surgery only at approved and certified surgery centers, like the Atlantic Surgery Center. Call us today to schedule a complimentary cosmetic consultation.
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