On Tuesday, 05/01/07 the AOL home page posted a very interesting item entitled “10 Things Your Plastic Won’t Tell You.” The most important point made that “any licensed doctor can put up a plaque and claim to do plastic surgery regardless of training, and that’s scary.” Many physicians with no formal training in plastic surgery will literally take a weekend course in liposuction, for example, and then start performing this quite tricky procedure. Real plastic surgeons have a minimum of five years of training after medical school and their training can be as long as eight years. Outside of an accredited hospital, there is almost no regulation about who can perform plastic surgery. So check your “surgeon’s” credentials!

Another important point in the story is that “Board Certified” may not mean much. Some boards are like mail-order diplomas. For plastic surgery of the face and body, the only meaningful board is the American Board of Plastic Surgery. So find out which “Board” certified your “plastic surgeon.”