Raleigh Plastic Surgeon Dr. Michael Law, board certified in plastic surgery provides guidelines for choosing a qualified plastic surgeon to perform cosmetic plastic surgery.

Raleigh Plastic Surgeon Dr. Michael Law, board certified in plastic surgery provides guidelines and new insights for choosing a qualified plastic surgeon to perform cosmetic plastic surgery.

July 9, 2004 -- Raleigh Plastic Surgeon Dr. Michael Law, board certified in plastic surgery provides guidelines for choosing a qualified plastic surgeon to perform cosmetic plastic surgery.

An individual can begin learning about a physician before ever meeting him or her. Start by visiting the American Society of Plastic Surgery web site at www.plasticsurgery.org. This will allow you to find board certified plastic surgeons in your area.

Before meeting a physician, you can learn a lot by visiting the office. A good plastic surgery web site will provide information about plastic surgery and the surgeon's experience and credentials. A web site should also provide the surgeon's philosophy on aesthetic surgery and patient care. The office environment can give you insight into a physician's aesthetic ideal. Is the office elegant, beautiful, contemporary and immaculately clean? Or are the furnishings outdated, mismatched or cramped? The attention to detail in a waiting area and other areas of the office can be representative of the way a physician looks at the world. Another thing to look at is the office staff. In many offices, staff members are warm and natural looking. In other cases staff members can appear to have very obvious unnatural looking plastic surgery. Staff members with large obvious breast implants not in proportion with the rest of the body, inflated unnatural looking lips, or eyebrows lifted to a postion where they appear to be perpetually surprised can also provide insight to the physician's aesthetic ideal.



Important Questions
When you are making the decision to have plastic surgery, there are a number of extremely important questions that must be answered. Chief among them are the following:
What exactly is it that I want to achieve?
Am I a good candidate for the surgery Im interested in?
Are there less invasive or even non-surgical techniques that could fulfill (or perhaps partially, but adequately, fulfill) my needs?
What is the best technique for achieving the result that I want?
Is my physician able to educate me about ALL possible surgical options?
Is my physician qualified to perform the surgery I am interested in?

An individual who is interested in an aesthetic enhancement should therefore seek a surgically-trained specialist that has knowledge of (and experience with) a wide range of both surgical and non-surgical techniques.

There is only ONE organization that is recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties http://www.abms.org/ which certifies plastic surgeons: The American Board of Plastic Surgery http://www.abplsurg.org/. Over the last several years there has been a proliferation of Boards with titles that include words such as Plastic and Cosmetic in them. Aside from The American Board of Plastic Surgery, NONE of these Boards are recognized by The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Visit the ABMS website to see which specialties have ABMS recognition.

Hospital Privileges?
A hospital has access to information and records that the general public does not. Hospitals also have tremendous exposure to liability for procedures performed within them. They therefore will only grant surgical privileges to physicians that can demonstrate appropriate training and experience.

Although many aesthetic surgical procedures are not performed in hospital operating rooms, the fact that a hospital has granted a surgeon privileges for a given procedure ensures that the surgeon has met an accepted standard of competence. It also means that your surgeon will be able to take care of you at a hospital should any complications from surgery arise.

If you are planning to have plastic surgery performed, you should do your due diligence to determine if your surgeon has the appropriate credentials. This issue can be settled by the following simple question: Does my surgeon have hospital privileges to perform my surgery?

Aesthetic Vision
If you are satisfied that your surgeon has the appropriate training, experience and credentials, then the next step is to determine if you and your surgeon are on the same page aesthetically. As you are about to undertake a permanent alteration to your outward appearance, you should be comfortable with your surgeon personally, feel like you communicate easily, and feel like you have the same vision for the aesthetic improvement ahead.

Adequate communication is invaluable, and you should be able to communicate clearly and easily not only with your doctor, but also with your doctors staff. Over the course of preparing for and recovering from aesthetic surgery, your doctors staff will have an important and active role. You must be absolutely certain that your surgeons aesthetic sensibility matches your aesthetic goals.

Before and After Photos
An experienced Plastic Surgeon will have before and after photographs of the specific procedure you have in mind. Professional looking before and after photos with consistent lighting and consistent patient position is imperative. Before photos showing patients frowning and wearing no makeup, followed by an after photo of a smiling, made up patient with a new hairstyle is not a good representation of a surgical before and after. Likewise, a before photo showing the patient's midsection with arms down by the hips or straight out to the side followed by an after photo with arms lifted in the air is not an appropriate representation of a surgical before and after photo.

Patient privacy is imperative, but in every practice there are some patients who are happy to share their experiences with others considering the same procedure. An experienced surgeon with satisfied patients should have many before and after photos and also patients who can share their surgical experience first hand.

Dr. Michael Law is the only solo practice plastic surgeon voted among the best in the Raleigh, NC area in 2003 and 2004. Patients from all parts of the country choose Dr. Law as their plastic surgeon to insure beautiful natural looking results. Dr. Michael Law has moved his Beverly Hills plastic surgery practice back to his hometown of Raleigh, NC. "I have always loved Raleigh" says Dr. Law, "now that I have a family of my own, I wanted them to be here. I want my son to experience all the wonderful things I experienced growing up here. I miss my practice and patients from Beverly Hills, but it is wonderful to be back home."

Dr. Law has been featured in many national magazines, news reports, and television programs although he has declined invitations to participate in plastic surgery reality shows.

Dr. Law's philosophy is that great plastic surgery should never look like surgery, it should simply look great. Dr. Law can be reached at e-mail protected from spam bots or by visiting www.michaellawmd.com