Plastic Surgery - Keeping You Safe

Your safety and well-being need to be your foremost priority when you have plastic surgery, regardless of whether you are having breast augmentation, liposuction, rhinoplasty or some other kind of operation. Your choice of a plastic surgeon should figure prominently in your concerns about your safety. The only surgeon that you should trust with your health and your body is one who has received certification from the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS). A certified surgeon has had to go through intensive and exhaustive training that renders him to be at the very apex in his field. This is the person you want to be working on you!

To give you a little background on this, a plastic surgeon will not be certified by the ABPS until he has graduated from an accredited medical school. In other words, a school that has received the stamp of approval by the relevant academic organizations. He then must complete an internship and residency that ranges anywhere from five to seven years in duration. After that comes three to five years of general surgery training and then two years of plastic surgery training. Before certification will be granted the final step is a series of written and orally administered examinations. There is a lot of training and education involved but this is reassuring to all of the physician’s future patients.

Safety is also about where you have your plastic surgery performed. The options include hospitals, accredited ambulatory surgery centers or the private clinic of an operating physician. It is important to do your homework in this regard. The medical facility where your procedure is done should be certified by at least one of these health care agencies- the AAAASF, Medicare, the JCAHO or the AAAHC. If you decide to have your operation at a surgical facility that is not a hospital then make sure you choose one that has a transfer agreement with a hospital in your town or city. This is very important. It means that if complications arise that cannot be dealt with at the facility you will be transferred to the hospital to receive the care you require immediately.

Anesthesia, whether it be local or general is a matter of significance when it comes to your safety during plastic surgery. The anesthesiologist who administers the anesthesia to you before the operation gets underway needs to be the absolute best at his or her job.

Some facilities hire trained nurse anesthetists while others employ those trained as anesthesiologists. While the former may do their jobs very well, to guarantee your safety during your time on the operating table the superior choice is to be given anesthesia by an anesthesiologist who is qualified, well trained and experienced. Inquire if the anesthesiologist in the employ of the plastic surgeon is certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology. All patients should be monitored very closely once they have been given anesthesia. Any medical issues the patient has must be disclosed to the surgeon prior to the operation. Serious complications can arise if you choose to withhold pertinent information about your past medical history.