CHOOSING A SURGEON

What is a facial plastic surgeon?

A facial plastic is a surgeon who focuses on aesthetic and reconstructive surgery on the head and neck.. He/she has undergone five to six years focusing on surgery of the head and neck during residency and then undergoes an additional year of training in a fellowship focused solely on the face.

What is the difference between a plastic surgeon and a facial plastic surgeon?

A plastic surgeon is a surgeon who focuses on plastic surgery of the entire body. He or she has trained for two to five years in general surgery (surgery of hernias/ breast/ gallbladders) and then spends and additional two to three years focused on plastic surgery of the entire body, which includes burns, breast, microvascular, hand, etc.

Who is better equipped to operate on the face?

With obvious biases asided, it depends on the training of the individual. Some facial plastic surgeons will have excellent experience as residents and as fellows, while others may not have had much experience as residents and or fellows. A similar deduction can be made from plastic surgery residency. A patient seeking surgery should recognize there are differences not only between specialities but amongst specialities.

Plastic surgery is a very broad field and very difficult for a surgeon to be an expert in all arenas.

How important are surgical mentors in the process?

I think they play a major role amongst surgeons. Surgeons amongst themselves will often ask with whom did you train. The old mentor/mentee relationships play a big impact on where someone learned a particular set of techniques and influenced a career focus.

How do you chose a surgeon?

Short answer: the more people ask me the more I tell them I don't know.

Long answer: many patients ask would I chose a surgeon. The most important factor is the surgeon who is going to deliver consistent, quality results.

The rules have changed, some surgeons spend money for pay for click ads, while others will spend thousands on being first with SEO tools. Do you chose the first person whose website you click on in Google?

Some patients rely on chat rooms and web boards, however, factual reliabliity may be very difficult to decipher as well.

Word of mouth is highly effective for many procedures such as face lift, etc. If your friend looks amazing and she had a face lift, you are a witness to a first hand great result. However, there are variablities in every face, nose, chin, etc. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer for many patients.

Should the physician have a university affiliation?

Unviersity affliation will probably have no impact on result. It does mean that the surgeon is interested in teaching and educating other surgeons.

Who is better young or old surgeon?

It is often assumed that a younger physician will have less experience than an older physician. But patient should research every surgeon carefully. Some young surgeons have tremendous experience early on, while some older surgeons may not perform a procedure as often as their age may indicate. A recent study examined this in prostate cancer surgery. (Vickers AJ, Bianco FJ, eta al. The surgical learning curve for prostate cancer control after radical prostatectomy. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2007 Aug 1;99(15):1171-7.) Surgeons who performed an operation more commonly had better outcomes than other surgeons. The surgeons with better outcomes were independent of age. Many other studies have come to the same conclusion. The take home message is that surgeons with good experience (good experience= good technique performed many times) are likely to have better results than surgeons with less experience.

Thankfully, I have had the opportunity to perform many procedures in facial plastic surgery at a young age and also teach them to other surgeons. I also selected specific individuals to study specific techniques to reduce my learning curve and I have evolved and continue to evolve my current techniques to what I feel are improved methods.

Do I need to connect with my surgeon?

This question may be asking will he understand my postop issues or does my surgeon need to understand my view point? I think the answer is a big yes. I would not be able to buy a shirt for someone if I did not understand their viewpoint, let alone operate on someone. I also see more and more revision patients from outside surgeons who tell me that he/she did not listen to their needs and that he/she was rude and inattentive after the procedure.

Is location important for my surgeon?

The surgeon is the most important variable in the equation. That being said, I have an office between Fifth Avenue and Rockefeller because most of my patients enjoy this area and it is what I consider the epicenter of Manhattan.