Patients at Risk When Choosing Non-Board-Certified Plastic Surgeons
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has launched a public safety campaign to educate and warn the public about the risks involved in choosing a plastic surgeon without board certification.
In the following video posted on YouTube by the ASPS, you can learn about the experience of a woman who underwent breast augmentation surgery at the hands of a non-board-certified plastic surgeon and woke up to find that her implants had been merged together. Perhaps even more disturbing was the discovery that the doctor had also performed cosmetic surgery on her eyes without her permission, leaving her in pain and unable to fully close her eyes. The woman was able to have the botched breast surgery corrected by a board-certified plastic surgeon, but her eye surgery is irreversible. For the rest of her life, this woman will never be able to fully close her eyes. She will continue to suffer pain and discomfort and will be required to administer eye drops several times a day to keep her eyes properly lubricated.
What is so tragic is that all of this could have been prevented if the woman had chosen a board-certified plastic surgeon to perform her cosmetic surgery procedure.
The story has been repeated countless times in cities across the U.S. Once a doctor obtains his medical license, there is no law in the U.S. that prevents the physician from practicing medicine outside his field of expertise. As unlikely as it seems, in America general practitioners, dermatologists, pediatricians, even dental oral surgeons are all legally qualified to perform plastic surgery despite a lack of training or experience in this extremely complex medical specialty. Unfortunately, the unsuspecting public assumes that any doctor who offers to perform a cosmetic procedure must be qualified.
This is not always true and patients pay the price. When choosing a Cleveland Cosmetic Surgeon, be sure to choose a Board-Certified plastic surgeon.
Next time: What Cleveland cosmetic surgery patients need to know