How does one evaluate surgeons and their practices for corrective and/or cosmetic surgery?
April 1, 2010 11:06 AM

How does one evaluate surgeons and their practices for corrective and/or cosmetic surgery?

I am not bad at ferreting out who does what procedure locally (I vacillate on the issue of surgical tourism abroad). However, The Goog does generally not provide clues as to lawsuits and such.

How can you find out what malpractice suits a given surgeon has had? Do you just hit the county courthouse and hope they haven't moved here from, say, a troublesome past in Indiana? How do you determine an acceptable noise level of malpractice suits? (Obviously, you would shoot for none, but that's not a realistic expectation. Plus, every procedure has a non-zero failure rate, some of which is entirely out of the physician's hands. And the surgeon who has had two malpractice suits may have done a procedure a thousand times, versus someone with someone with one suit who has only performed that operation three times.) The general information pages on cosmetic surgery do not go into this level of detail.

Are there services for these evaluations, and if so, how well have they been gamed, shamed, and sued into submission?
posted by adipocere to Health & Fitness (4 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
I'm afraid I don't have an answer to the 'how do you find out a doctor's malpractice history' part of your question. My father's a doctor, so, I tend to think of malpractice from his side of the fence. It's my understanding that when a malpractice suit is lodged, the lawyers name every doctor involved in the patient's care in the lawsuit, even if the connection to the specific incident/outcome is tenuous (not sure if it's the patient's lawyer who names everyone, or the doctors' malpractice insurance lawyers). And, since a trial would be extremely costly/time-consuming/reputation-damaging, most doctors will settle out of court regardless of whether or not they are guilty of actual malpractice. So, I generally assume that anyone who has been in practice for a while has been sued at some point.

As far as how to choose a surgeon - when I had my jaw surgery (here's my before & after pics) I went with the surgeon that my dentist recommended. That particular dentist had been treating me since I was a child (he & my dad were doing their residency together when I was a baby), so, I trusted his opinion. And when I met the surgeon for the consultation, he showed me before & after photos of people he'd performed similar operations on, so, it seemed clear that he knew what he was doing. He was able to answer all of my questions, he'd been in practice for 20 years, and, ultimately, I just got a good vibe from him.

So, I think the best way to choose a cosmetic surgeon is to get a recommendation from another doctor (that you trust), or from a friend/co-worker/mefite/family member (either their recommendation of a cosmetic surgeon, or, their recommendation of some other doctor they trust to recommend a cosmetic surgeon), as that will lessen the likelihood of getting Dr. Dodgy. And then see if that surgeon makes a convincing case for themselves - they should be able to show you photographs of their successes, and they should be able to explain the possible complications.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:38 PM on April 1, 2010


Wow ... in a strange coincidence, it looks like you had the sort of procedure I was looking into myself! Thank you!
posted by adipocere at 10:12 PM on April 1, 2010


Definitely ask for before and after pictures.

I once heard that if you're choosing a cosmetic surgeon for a face lift or whatever, look at a picture of his wife...that will tell you how realistic or plastic-y he favors!
posted by radioamy at 9:01 AM on April 2, 2010


Glad to be of use - I think for this kind of surgery, you have a lot longer to evaluate the surgeon than you would for some other cosmetic/corrective procedures, since, even when/if you make the decision to go ahead with it, there can be a pretty long prep period. If you have any of your wisdom teeth still, they would have to be removed, which gives you a chance to see how the doctor handles an actual procedure. And then you'd probably have to get braces to get everything in the right alignment, which can take a year or more. So, by the time you hit the point of no return decision-wise, you'd have something to base that decision on beyond your first impression from the initial visit.

I would give a lot of weight to the orthodontist's opinion of the surgeon -- the orthodontist is going to be treating the patient longer than the surgeon is, and a good one isn't likely to keep partnering with a surgeon who does consistently lousy work.
posted by oh yeah! at 12:06 PM on April 2, 2010


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