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The consultation kit

Print this page and take it with you. It holds what to check before you book, what to bring, what to ask in the room, and a table for writing two consultations down side by side. Three consultations later they blur together, so write the answers while you are still sitting there.

BeautyVetted does not give medical advice. Whether a procedure suits you, what it would involve for you and what could go wrong for you are questions for a consultation with a board-certified surgeon.

Before you book: check the certification yourself

A state license and a board certification are two separate things. A license is what a state requires before a doctor may practice medicine at all. Board certification is a further, voluntary credential a specialty board grants after training and examinations in that specialty, and the American Board of Plastic Surgery explains what its own certificate covers on its public page. The check below is free and it takes about a minute.

  1. Open the American Board of Plastic Surgery register and search the surgeon's surname and state. It is the American Board of Medical Specialties member board for plastic surgery, and its record is the primary source.
  2. Read what the certificate is in. A doctor can hold a real board certification in another specialty, such as otolaryngology or general surgery, and that is a different credential from plastic surgery. The American Board of Medical Specialties lists every member board.
  3. Open your state medical board and look for a physician profile. The Federation of State Medical Boards links to every state board, and some states publish the certifications a licensed doctor holds alongside the license itself.
  4. Look up license status and disciplinary history at DocInfo, the Federation's free national lookup. Ask the surgeon the same question in the room, because how somebody answers it tells you something the record does not.

What the badge on this site means

The gold BeautyVetted badge means we confirmed that surgeon's board certification against a primary source and the practice has claimed its page. It is free, it is never for sale, and a practice cannot edit it.

A practice that has claimed its page shows the line "Claimed by the practice." It says who runs the listing, and a claimed practice sorts ahead of one that has not. It is not a credential and not a badge, and no practice can pay for a place ahead of it.

Where we have not confirmed a certification, we say so plainly. That line records how far our reach went, and the register is linked so you can finish the check yourself. Our method is on how we verify, and the lookup is on the board certification check.

What to bring

  • Photo identification, and an insurance card if you carry one.
  • A written list of every medicine, supplement and vitamin you take, with doses.
  • Your medical history: past operations, conditions, allergies, and whether you smoke.
  • This page, printed, and a pen.
  • Photographs of results you like and results you do not.
  • Someone you trust, if the practice allows a second person in the room.
  • Your calendar, so you can plan around the recovery the surgeon describes.

What to ask

A consultation is an interview and you are the one conducting it. Six prompts, each with what to listen for and room to write the answer. The full set of twelve, with the reasoning behind each, is in 12 questions to ask at a cosmetic surgery consultation.

  1. Which board certified you, and is that certification current? Listen for: the board's name instead of the phrase "board certified", and a certificate that is current rather than historic.
  2. Does the procedure I want sit inside your residency training? Listen for: what the residency covered, and whether this operation was part of it.
  3. How many of this exact procedure do you perform each year? Listen for: a number for this operation instead of years in practice.
  4. What is your complication rate, and what is your reoperation rate? Listen for: a real number and a calm account of what drives it.
  5. May I see before and after photographs of your own patients? Listen for: their own patients, with a starting point like yours, including a case that did not go perfectly.
  6. What does recovery look like, week by week, and when may I drive, lift and work? Listen for: the honest timeline rather than the optimistic one, including how much help you would need at home.

The facility and the anesthesia

Accreditation is a separate credential from the surgeon's and it belongs to the building. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons requires its members to operate in facilities that are accredited, state licensed or Medicare certified. Three accrediting bodies come up by name, and each publishes a directory you can search: QUAD A, formerly known as AAAASF, the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, and The Joint Commission.

  1. Where exactly will the operation happen, and who accredits that facility?
  2. Who administers the anesthesia, and what are their credentials?
  3. Do you hold admitting privileges at a nearby hospital for this procedure?
  4. What happens if something goes wrong, in the operating room or after I go home, and who do I call at two in the morning?

A board certified anesthesiologist, a certified registered nurse anesthetist and the operating surgeon are three different answers to the anesthesia question. The Food and Drug Administration puts anesthesia risk on its own list of questions to raise before implant surgery, and the same logic covers any procedure done under sedation.

When to leave without booking

None of these is a verdict on anybody. Each one is a reason to take this sheet home unsigned and keep looking.

  • Nobody will put the quote in writing, or the itemized breakdown never arrives.
  • You are pressed to pay a deposit before you leave the room.
  • The person who examined you is not the surgeon who will operate, and you have not met that surgeon.
  • The office cannot say who accredits the facility or who will give the anesthesia.
  • They answer the board question by naming a society membership. Membership is not certification, and the register check above settles it in a minute.

Revisions and the total cost

Ask for a written breakdown covering the surgeon's fee, the anesthesia fee, the facility fee, implants or devices, garments, prescriptions and follow-up visits. Ask each office which of those lines its quote includes. Then ask who pays for a revision: the surgeon's time, the anesthesia, the facility, and whether a time limit applies. Get that answer in writing.

The cost worksheet lays those line items out with two columns to fill in, beside the national average surgeon fees we publish and where each figure comes from.

Two consultations, side by side

You are allowed to see more than one surgeon, and you are allowed to leave a consultation without booking. Fill a column in each room.

Compare two consultations
Question Surgeon 1 Surgeon 2
Date of the consultation
Surgeon's name
Board they named
Certification checked at the register (yes or no)
Facility, and who accredits it
Who gives the anesthesia
Procedures of this type performed each year
Complication rate they gave
Reoperation rate they gave
Photographs of their own patients (yes or no)
Written itemized quote (yes or no)
Revision policy in writing (yes or no)
Time off work they described
Who to call overnight
How the room felt

Sources

Every claim above that is not common knowledge links to one of these pages. Open them yourself.

When you are ready to talk to a practice, tell us the procedure and your city.

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