Board Certification and cosmetic societies. Who is a real plastic surgeon?

Posted on July 28, 2010

A woman came in who had a botched breast augmentation. She had three surgeries, with all sorts of issues, reoperations, finally ending in her implants being removed. She was told she was “allergic to gel implants.” She came to me for my opinion. What was done? Who did it? Then she showed me his card.

I knew immediately he was not a plastic surgeon.

How? It was a nice card, the back filled with accolades of his membership in socieites. He was a member of the “American Society of Cosmetic Breast Surgery,” “American Society of Cosmetic Surgery” among others. They sound very fancy. And he is a member of a lot of societies. But when I read the names of these societies, I know. I know he isn’t a member of a real society, a society with strong criteria where you are required to have done a residency and gotten board certification in that specialty.

When I looked him up online, he had a lovely website. Very professional. When I finally surfed through and found his training, my suspicions were confirmed. He is not a plastic surgeon. He is not even a surgeon. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. He never did a surgery residency. I complained to our breast implant rep, “How can you sell to this guy?” Her answer, “The company is required to sell to any MD.”

How can you know? As a patient, when you see a nice office and website and the staff is encouraging, how do you know??

So I have looked up these societies. Most are “open to doctors of all specialties.” I don’t mean to sound exclusionary. I am the kind of girl who has friends of all walks of life, and in general I feel the more the merrier. But not here. Deceiving patients is not okay. You, the patient should know there is a difference between the cosmetic surgery society VS. the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). Other societies are filled with nonsurgeons- dermatologists, internal medicine, family practice. Some you simply fill out a form, pay a fee, and walah you are a member. Others are more vigorous, and actually require one year of surgery training, though they consider oral surgery and derm surgery equal to general surgery.  I am sorry. I do not think they are equivalent.

My societies require much more- you have to train for a minimum of three years in general surgery residency, then plastic surgery residency (years of training in that single specialty), sit for your board exams, get references, and prove yourself to join. I am biased. I know I am biased. I think my general and plastic surgery training made me a surgeon to my core. I think it made me a better surgeon. I don’t think you can minimize the importance of that.

It is hard to filter through it all- these societies and boards- which are real? which are good? which aren’t? I have a hard time as a board certified plastic surgeon. I can only imagine how difficult it is as a patient. The simplest way?

That patient who went to the internal medicine doctor who operates out of his office operating room doing breast augmentation did not save herself money. She has now had three operations, has no impants in, and has scar and issues from her surgery.  I strongly suspect she would not have gone to him had she understood he was trained to treat blood pressure and pneumonia, not do surgery.

http://www.plasticsurgery.org/