It's early in the morning. You're laying on a gurney in the pre-op holding area. You're cold and nervous. Nurses move about at a frantic pace. The anesthesiologist who you've just met for the first time hovers over you rattling questions one by one, the same questions a nurse had just asked you a few minutes ago. And then your surgeon appears - the first familiar face you've seen all morning. Thank god. And that's when it suddenly hits you: how well do you really know your doctor?
All doctors were not created equally. Well, that's an exaggeration, but they certainly don't end up the same. They all walked down the same path before they branched off to become cardiologists or brain surgeons or family practioners: college and then medical school. So what happens after medical school? They take their licensing exams to practice medicine and begin their specialty training. This is where the differentiation starts. Future internists start their residencies in internal medicine, future obstetricians start their residencies in obstetrics and gynecology and future surgeons start their residencies in surgery.
But you specifically want to know about your own cosmetic surgeon's training. It's not that simple. Why? Because any doctor can bill himself or herself as a "cosmetic surgeon."
There's no such thing as a state license to practice surgery or a state license to practice family medicine or a state license to practice pathology. States allow physicians to hang out their shingle once they've obtained their "license to practice medicine," and once they've got that, they are legally allowed to perform surgery even if they weren't trained as surgeons. Depending on the state, a physician may be eligible for a state license with as little as one year of training in any discipline.
Simply stated, there are physicians out there who were trained as family practioners that perform surgical procedures like breast augmentations and liposuctions. Why would they do that? Well, the most obvious reason is the all important dollar. Cosmetic surgery procedures are elective procedures not covered by insurance - so doctors are paid in full prior to surgery.
