Setting the record straight on Facial Plastic Surgery:
The American Board of Plastic Surgery is the original and only board in plastic surgery. Over the years several subspecialties of surgery, most notably ENT (ears, nose, and throat) and Ophthalmologists have ventured into the cosmetic arena and have added one year of cosmetic training to their usual residency program and then they add the term "plastic" to the board that they originally qualified for. Please understand these off brand cosmetic surgeons are not plastic surgeons as they do not hold board certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.
Unfortunately these surgeons have decided to use language in their marketing which is very misleading to potential patients as they are limited in the scope of cosmetic procedures they can provide based on their original training. Therefore to us , the community of board certified plastic surgeons, these surgeons are "limited" surgeons. To them they use the term "specialists" in order to project an image of superiority which is the furthest thing from the truth.
Additional Reading
The overwhelming majority of aesthetic (cosmetic) procedures in plastic surgery , including facelifts, rhinoplasty, and surgery around the eyelids, were developed and described by plastic surgeons. I myself was one of the inventors of the field of endoscopic plastic surgery so every time a facial plastic surgeon does an endoscopic brow lift he is doing a procedure that I invented and published in 1992. A simple google search of Endoscopic brow lift with my name will verify that I was the first one along with Dr. Vasconez at UAB to do the first endoscopic brow lift and present it at a peer reviewed meeting.
Unfortunately the American Board board of Facial Plastic surgery has cooperated in this attempt to project superiority over plastic surgeons in the field of facial cosmetic surgery by allowing language on the national website that intentionally suggests that they wish to help potential patients find the "correct" surgeons to go to for facial cosmetic surgery.
Thus patients need to know the real deal which is that these so-called specialists are actually minimally trained in plastic surgery with only one year of cosmetic surgery training after their residency in ENT or ophthalmology, compared to 6 years in plastic surgery residency. Spending 5 years in the ears , nose, and throat or just around the eyes, does not substitute for 6 years of plastic surgery training, especially if a cosmetic fellowship was done afterward as I did and as I now teach.
Plastic surgery residency is the most difficult residency program to get into. Thus some people who cannot get into plastic residency may choose one of these other pathways so they can be called a "plastic surgeon". However, the reality is that they are not “plastic surgeons” in the same sense as those fully trained and boarded in the entire field.
Potential patients should be aware of the semantics used in advertising when selecting a surgeon for their procedures. If you owned a fine bar such as a BMW and you had a spark plug issue , would you take it to a guy who only knows about spark plugs or would you go to a guy fully certified BMW mechanic who knows the whole car?
Well your body is a lot more important than a BMW so my recommendation is that potential patients should choose a fully board certified plastic surgeon, the more experienced the better.
