About Face

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About Face

Choosing a Surgeon

Introduction The Surbery of Happiness Choosing a Surgeon Are You a Good Candidate

Various types of surgeons in Canada are qualified to perform plastic surgery. Now, Otolaryngologists spend a minimum of five years after internship learning anatomy, pathology (the study of any deviation from normal, healthy conditions) and cosmetic surgery in the head and neck area. Some, like myself, get further training doing one or two years of fellowship in facial plastic surgery. Plastic surgeons, on the other hand, spend five years learning the art of plastic surgery on all parts of the body, so they tend to be generalists. Some generalists’ training programs involve little exposure to cosmetic or aesthetic surgery. For example, a plastic surgeon might be able to remove a bump on your nose, but an otolaryngologist is trained to remove the bump, narrow the tip and improve your ability to breathe, all at the same time. If a patient has to choose between two plastic surgeons, one of whom has pursued training in the subinterest of cosmetic surgery, and the other, who has not, it would be wise to choose the first surgeon for reconstruction of any king.

Just as the plastic surgeon is a generalist practicing on all parts of the body and an otolaryngologist is a specialist of the head and neck, there are other surgeons qualified to do plastic surgery who are even more specialized. Ophthalmologists, for example, are eye surgeons, and often they subspecialize in ocular plastic surgery, or plastic surgery of the eye and some adjacent areas, such as the eyebrow. Dermatologists spend four or five years learning all about the skin - some of them develop expertise in performing hair transplant surgery. But before you choose a surgeon for facial cosmetic surgery of any kind, it’s important to learn if your surgeon has studied and continued to upgrade skills in the relevant subspecialty of cosmetic surgery. Don’t be afraid to ask. In the case of Otolaryngologists, those who specialize in facial cosmetic surgery usually belong to two organizations: the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Canadian Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

There is another reason for what I hope is a forthright explanation of my profession, and that is to encourage you to choose a facial cosmetic surgeon with whom you can comfortably communicate. I have attempted to make this book easy to understand; be sure that the surgeon you choose is equally understandable. This sounds like simple good sense, but facial cosmetic surgery is like no other surgery in that it sometimes necessitates a long- term relationship with you doctor. An appendix might be removed in an hour, but a face-lift might take a year before the scars are fully healed and mature. Happily, most surgeons get along with their patients - even for reconstructive procedures that take years to complete - but there is some interesting research available on the subject of patients who make poor candidates for facial cosmetic surgery.

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