Choosing a Plastic Surgeon
The short answer
Choosing a Plastic Surgeon explains which credentials, facility details, experience, and communication practices patients can verify. It may suit people comparing surgeons before choosing where to have an elective procedure. A consultation at 5280 Plastic Surgery clarifies whether this is appropriate for you, for patients across the Denver metro.
The criteria, explained. Apply them to every surgeon you consult, including this one.
In short
What else should you know?
Four things are worth verifying before any elective operation: which board certified the surgeon, whether they hold hospital privileges for the procedure, where the surgery is performed and whether that facility is accredited, and who administers the anesthesia.
This page gives you the criteria rather than a recommendation. Apply them yourself, to everyone you consult.
Certification
Which board, not whether a board
'Board certified' sounds definitive and is not, on its own, informative. A number of different certifying boards exist, they cover different specialties, and the training behind them is not equivalent. A surgeon can be genuinely board certified in something other than plastic surgery and still say the phrase truthfully.
Certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery requires completion of an accredited residency training program in plastic surgery after medical school, and success in both written and oral examinations. It is maintained through an ongoing continuing certification process rather than granted permanently at the end of training.
So the question to ask is simply: which board, and is it specific to plastic surgery? You can verify the answer independently rather than taking anyone's word for it, including what you read on this practice's own page about Dr. John Samas, MD, FACS.
The checklist
What to verify, in order
Take this to every consultation. The answers should come readily.
- Which board certified the surgeon, and whether that board is specific to plastic surgery.
- Whether the surgeon holds hospital privileges to perform the specific procedure you are considering.
- Where the operation will be performed, and whether that facility is accredited by an independent organization.
- Who administers and monitors the anesthesia, and what their qualifications are.
- How many of this particular procedure the surgeon performs, and how often.
- What happens if there is a complication, who manages it, and where.
- What a revision would involve, and how that is handled.
Reading marketing
Claims that should prompt a question
None of these means a surgeon is bad. Each means you should ask what the claim is based on.
- A guaranteed result, guaranteed satisfaction, or a guarantee of safety.
- 'Scarless' versions of operations that necessarily involve an incision.
- A specific complication or success percentage presented as the practice's own outcome, without a source.
- Photographs with no indication of how long after surgery they were taken.
- Pricing pressure, limited-time offers, or a decision required at the first visit.
- Any suggestion that a procedure carries no meaningful risk.
In the consultation
What a good conversation feels like
A useful consultation spends more time on your anatomy than on the practice. You should hear what the operation can change, what it cannot, and where the scars will sit, before you hear anything about scheduling.
You should also hear the word no occasionally. A surgeon who agrees with every request is not doing the assessment. If you ask for an operation that does not address your concern, for example augmentation when the issue is position rather than volume, you should be told, which is what the augmentation versus lift comparison works through.
Be cautious about pressure to decide in the room, about guarantees of any kind, and about claims that a technique is the best or the safest. Superiority claims are supposed to be factually substantiated, and most of the ones patients encounter online are not.
Second opinions
Getting one is normal
Seeing more than one surgeon is a reasonable thing to do for an elective operation, and no reasonable surgeon objects to it. Different surgeons sometimes recommend genuinely different operations for the same anatomy, and understanding why is more useful than counting votes.
If you do consult more than once, take the same questions to each, and take the same written list of what bothers you. The consultation guide explains what a thorough visit involves so you can compare like with like.
FAQ
Choosing a surgeon, common questions
This page is general information. Candidacy, recovery and what to expect are discussed at your consultation.
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