Board Certification- In what specialty? and by who?

If you are getting medical treatment, you deserve to have the best care. The first step is to identify your physician’s credentials. Is your physician Board Certified? In what? Is it in the specialty that you are being treated for? Furthermore, WHO is the organization deeming the Board Certification?

The dirty little secret is that there are various agencies who issue Board Certification. HOWEVER, there is only one agency, the American Board of Medical Specialties, the ABMS, who is considered the ‘gold standard’. Your physician or surgeon should be board certified in a specialty recognized by the ABMS.

There are 24 Member Boards recognized by the ABMS, the American Board of Medical Specialties. The list of specialities is detailed at their website. Note that in the field of Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery there is only one recognized specialty: Plastic Surgery. Missing from the approved list are specialities that appear frequently in advertisements that I see in glossy magazines. For example, there is NO ABMS approved specialty called ‘Facial Cosmetic Surgery’, or for that matter ’Board of Cosmetic Surgery’.

Thus, the following specialty and board certification is not ABMS approved:

American Board of Cosmetic Surgery –http://www.americanboardcosmeticsurgery.org/

The American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery–http://www.abfprs.org/ is not a member board, but its members are diplomates of the American Board of Otolaryngology (Ear , Nose, and Throat surgery) who have a subspecialty training in Plastic Surgery in the Head and Neck.

WikiAnswers has a good description of how these alternative boards compare to the Board of Plastic Surgery. In summary, the there is a HUGE difference in the training required. Surgeons who get Boarded by the American Board of Plastic Surgery have a much more rigorous and comprehensive training.

In the field of reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, there is only ONE ABMS recognized speciality: Plastic Surgery. Thus, there is only one recognized board certification: Board of Plastic Surgery.

So, if you are having elective cosmetic surgery–please check the credentials of your surgeon. Be sure he is Board Certified in Plastic Surgery! If he is Board Certified in a specialty or subspecialty not listed at the ABMS.org web site, beware!

Ricardo L Rodriguez, MD

Board Certified Plastic Surgery

Posted by Dr. Ricardo L Rodriguez at 06:41 PM

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Dr. Ricardo L Rodriguez
Plastic Surgeon

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4 Comments

Dr. Ricardo L Rodriguez wrote
September 18, 2009 at 2:17 pm

hello Mary Sue,

Thank you for sharing your experience. My opinion of the Lifestyle Lift is not a good one. I object to the behavior of the company and the procedure itself.

I wrote my negative opinion about the Lifestyle Lift right here on this blog about 3 years ago. Soon afterwards, I received two threatening letters from Lifestyle Lift attorneys objecting to my attitude about the technique. Here is my original post: http://www.cosmeticsurg.net/blog/2006/11/17/lifestyle-lift-minilifts-and-xyz-liftsmore-ranting/
The post was taken down for a couple of years just to avoid the aggravation of receiving more letters from them.

Then, in 2008 and 2009, life caught up with the Lifestyle Lift :-). Lifestyle Lift got slammed in a lawsuit by RealSelf.com and were ultimately fined by the NY Attorney General’s office. Here is the Attorney General press release: http://www.oag.state.ny.us/media_center/2009/july/july14b_09.html

And to sum it all up without getting into more gory details of what I think, only 28% of RealSelf.com participants think the Lifestyle Life was worth it:
http://www.realself.com/Lifestyle-lift/reviews
That is the lowest rating of any procedure on RealSelf.

Nuff said! Congrats on your due diligence and homework.
Dr. Ricardo L Rodriguez wrote
September 18, 2009 at 1:59 pm

The fact that this post is informal by no means detracts from the fact that it is 100% true.
Otherwise, a patient might be under the impression that a patient with Board Certification in Otolaryngology (Ear Nose and Throat surgery) has received surgical residency training and certification to operate in another part of the body, such as the buttocks.
The advantage of Board Certification in a certain area is not the diploma on the wall, but the years of specialized training it represents, the continued fund of medical knowledge exchange from your peers, and the effort it takes to remain in good standing with your professional society.
Mary Sue wrote
September 18, 2009 at 11:32 am

Hi Dr. Rodriguez, I am very grateful you posted this. I was doing some research about the Lifestyle Lift procedure, which I was considering because of its low cost. But I decided to do my homework after reading this post and I asked a Lifestyle Lift sales rep if the doctor who would be doing my procedure is board-certified. Boy am I glad I asked, because as it turns out, he isn’t!! I was shown a small list of credentials, but none of them included the American Board of Plastic Surgery! What’s worse is the rep went on to say, and I quote, that Lifestyle Lift doctors “perform more facial rejuvenation procedures in a year than most doctors do in a lifetime.” Now that’s scary. Thank goodness I checked up on these people.
Beverly Hills plastic surgeon wrote
September 17, 2009 at 4:28 pm

This is a very informal post and should not be overlooked by potential patients. The most important part of a surgical procedure is choosing the right doctor. A good surgery is only as good as the doctor performing it.