What to Look for When Choosing Your Plastic Surgeon for Procedures
Your health is your most important asset in this life and when you’re considering any sort of medical treatment, it’s important to do your research and select practitioners you trust. Most individuals don’t realize that within plastic surgery, dermatology, facial plastics (ENT) industry, treatments can be just as significant as general health surgeries. Some of the most popular aesthetic surgery procedures including breast augmentations and tummy tucks are still major surgeries that should only be performed by experienced board-certified surgeons. It’s always important, when looking for the right surgeon, to invest your time in researching any surgeon and procedure you undergo, cosmetic, plastic, or otherwise!
The Unfortunate Reality of Trusting Non-Board-Certified Surgeons
There have been more and more stories of patients trusting surgeons who aren’t qualified to operate. Many of these patients travel to countries for medical services in search of low-cost options on cosmetic surgery at cosmetic surgery centers that seem legitimate. Patients who don’t want to pay for the full cost of a plastic surgeon, knowingly go to someone with fewer qualifications. Doctors caution that bargain shopping for plastic surgeries can be very risky. Many of these cases end in dire consequences with life-altering complications.
The Importance of Choosing a Board-Certified Surgeon You Can Trust
The right surgeon will have the skills and experience to do safe, aesthetically pleasing work.
With careful research and an understanding of your wants and needs, these steps can help prepare you to find the right plastic surgeon:
Access to Credentials
When putting your health in someone’s hands, you want to ensure those hands can be trusted. Ensure you have transparent access to education, residency information, work history—everything that makes that surgeon qualified to be a trusted provider of medical and plastic surgery treatments.
Certification by The American Board of Plastic Surgery
Confirm your plastic surgeon is certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery. This is the only board that is recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties to qualify doctors’ expertise and ability to perform plastic and reconstructive treatments and procedures. The certification is grueling, including residency and education requirements, as well as extensive testing.
You can search the ABPS website to confirm certifications.
Beware of claims to be Board Certified as a “Cosmetic Surgeon”
This term is very confusing for most of the public since it sounds credible, but it is not a medical specialty recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. There are no barriers to anyone making a claim to be a “cosmetic surgeon,” so be sure you investigate exactly what board they are referencing. For full plastic surgery skills, the surgeon should have the American Board of Plastic Surgery certification. Other qualifying surgical specialties include Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT)/Otolaryngology/Facial Plastics. For minimally invasive aesthetic procedures, Dermatology would be another qualifying specialty.
Positive Reviews
Search online for positive experiences and reviews, before and after shots, and even videos of procedures to ensure your surgeon is the real deal and produces positive, safe results for their patients.
Feel Comfortable with Your Surgeon
You need to feel fully comfortable with your plastic surgeon and their support team. Ask any questions or voice any concerns regarding your procedure without hesitation. Your medical history is important even if you’re seeking an aesthetic procedure. At Esana Plastic Surgery Center and Medspa, our founders and surgeons, Dr. Pan and Dr. Davila, always put patients’ health first. Transparency and experience are the forefront of their practice as they have both excelled through top medical schools and rigorous residency training programs, and continue to use their experience to educate others.
Remember that your health is your most important investment, and you need to choose a practitioner you can trust. Want to chat with our board-certified surgeons to ensure it’s the right fit? Make an appointment for your plastic surgery consultation today!
Love Your Nose!
Have you always had a love/hate relationship with your nose—the bump visible on profile pictures? Does the tip appear too wide head-on? Does it feel too long for your face? The size and shape that just doesn’t fit well? You are not alone! Millions of us have inherited a nose that erodes our self-image and drains our confidence as we go out into the world. However, unlike other family traits we inherit, this feature can be fixed!Continue Reading Love Your Nose!
Do It for You: Surgery When your World Turns Upside Down
Meghan was a very active mom with a very busy house. She loved exercise—from tumbling with her two toddlers to running the occasional 5K. Her world was turned upside down, however, when she had her twins in September 2013 at age 33. “I had four babies in three years, the last a set of twins 14 months after my last child—this time with a C-section,” says Meghan.
While the twins weren’t planned, she and her husband were happy to welcome them into the family, but her body showed the strain of not only having twins, but having four children so close together. When she had the twins, her two other children were ages three and one.
Continue Reading Do It for You: Surgery When your World Turns Upside Down
Plastic Surgery After Weight Loss
You succeeded in keeping your New Year’s resolutions, now what?
It’s late spring and you now have lost your goal amount of weight. You may have successfully completed a rigorous regimen of diet and exercise. You now focus on fresh fruits, vegetables, and healthy proteins. But despite your success you now notice extra skin that may sag around your face, neck, upper arms, breasts and abdomen. Or perhaps you have reached goal weight but there are a couple of stubborn areas such as love handles or lateral thighs that won’t go away. It is at this point that the right procedure can help you overcome the limitations of skin elasticity or resistant fat pockets. Prior blogs have been written about CoolSculpting and its indication for persistent fat, here we’ll focus on surgical procedures for skin excess.
The Hollywood Standard of Beauty
Hollywood has always set the standard for both feminine and masculine beauty since the dawn of the movie era. Actors made insecure by close-ups and unrealistic demands of physical perfection all have personal beauty secrets, from special cosmetics to diets, exercise programs, and plastic surgery procedures that help them to retain the youthful good looks they rely on to stay in the public eye—and employed.
Feeling Whole Again: Breast Reconstruction after Cancer Surgery
For many women who lose a breast or breasts after cancer surgery, breast reconstruction may be the best solution to feeling whole again. Using either implants or tissue borrowed from other parts of the body, the surgeon can work with the patient to restore one or both breasts to near normal shape, appearance, symmetry, and size. The reconstruction can begin at the time of the mastectomy or at a later date, depending on the type of surgery, follow-up treatment, and patient body type and state of health.
Continue Reading Feeling Whole Again: Breast Reconstruction after Cancer Surgery
Going With Your Heart and Gut: ESANA Surgeons Celebrate 10 Year Anniversary
For the last 10 years, patients of all ages, referred by friends, neighbors, and relatives, have made New Haven’s ESANA Plastic Surgery Center and Medspa a resounding success. The practice is led by surgeons Dr. Deborah Pan and Dr. Javier Davila, friends who met during their surgical training 19 years ago. Together, they have built a practice that offers the full panoply of cosmetic services in an environment that reflects their personal vision—making the patient comfortable from the second they walk in the door, effective communication with patients so their goals and desires are truly met, then achieving results that bring patients back, often at every stage of life.
Continue Reading Going With Your Heart and Gut: ESANA Surgeons Celebrate 10 Year Anniversary
Millennials: the New Face of Plastic Surgery
More young people are getting cosmetic surgery, according to a new report released by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The report states that in 2015, 64% of facial plastic surgeons saw an increase in cosmetic procedures in patients under 30. For example, requests for hyaluronic acid fillers were up by almost 10 percent, while Botox and chemical peels saw similar increases.
Continue Reading Millennials: the New Face of Plastic Surgery
Accepting the New Normal: Bringing Cosmetic Procedures Into the Mainstream
With more than 15 million cosmetic procedures performed yearly in the U.S., plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures have lost their stigma, says Joel Stein in Time magazine’s July cover story, “Nip. Tuck. Or Else.” His opening statement declares, “You’re going to have to do it. And not all that long from now…You’re going to get a cosmetic procedure for the same reason you wear makeup: because every other woman is.”Continue Reading Accepting the New Normal: Bringing Cosmetic Procedures Into the Mainstream
Nip. Tuck. Or Else.
Why you’ll be getting cosmetic procedures even if you may not really want to.
This month, in his TIME cover story, columnist Joel Stein looks at the growing plastic surgery trend and finds that procedures like fillers, Botox, rhinoplasty, liposuction, and butt lifts have become commonplace. In 2014, U.S. doctors performed 15 million cosmetic procedures. One in five South Korean women has had cosmetic surgery. And Iran, a country where women cover their hair and bodies but not their noses, leads the world in rhinoplasty. After over a year of research and interviews with plastic surgeons, patients, feminist scholars, and cosmetic consultants, Stein concludes that “cosmetic surgery is the new makeup.”Continue Reading Nip. Tuck. Or Else.