Why Board Certified?

Many of you have heard the term “Board Certified” and also been told that when looking for a doctor, you should look for one that is certified.  But what does that mean exactly?  And, why is it important?

Getting a license to diagnose and treat patients is required for all doctors.  However, licensure is not specific to a particular specialty such as Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.  When a doctor is Board Certified by the American Society of Plastic Surgery it indicates that he/she has had more than six years of surgical training with a minimum of three years in plastic surgery. More importantly, in order to keep that certification current a doctor makes a commitment to lifelong learning to keep current with new advances in the field through periodic classes as well as rigorous and challenging oral and written exams that are administered every ten years.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.abms.org/Who_We_Help/Consumers/importance.aspx

http://www.plasticsurgery.org/

So, “Why Board Certified?”  Well simply put, you wouldn’t take your one of a kind Rolls Royce to be fixed by a guy who is only trained to work on Volvos.  So why would you put your one of a kind face and body in the hands of someone who is not specifically trained for just that?