Choosing Your Seattle Plastic Surgeon

Choosing to have plastic surgery is a very important and highly personal decision. Patients always should conduct a thorough background check on their physicians.

Check the physician's credentials.

After reviewing the physician's background, a potential patient should have a personal consultation with the plastic surgeon(s) being considered. Find a Seattle Plastic Surgeon you feel comfortable talking to, and fully discuss your questions, expectations and concerns. Your plastic surgeon can help you learn about the risks as well as the benefits of plastic surgery and can help you develop realistic expectations and results.

During your consultation, you may want to ask the following questions of the Seattle Plastic Surgeon:

How much experience do you have in this field?
How many times have you performed the procedure and how recently?
How long will my recovery be?
Where will you perform my surgery?

If the procedure is going to be performed in an out-patient surgical facility, ask if is it an accredited facility? Even if the surgery is performed in the Seattle Plastic Surgeon's own surgical facility, the physician should be peer reviewed and have privileges to perform the procedure in an accredited hospital in the local community.

In making your decision, make sure the doctor answers all of your questions to your satisfaction. You should be well-informed about the anticipated outcome of your surgery and both you and the doctor should concur about your expectations for this surgery. You should discuss the alternatives and make sure you thoroughly understand the risks. If you still have unanswered questions or are not sure the procedure is right for you, we suggest that you obtain more than one opinion and consult with other board certified plastic surgeons.

Factors to Consider when Choosing a Seattle Plastic Surgeon

Trust your instincts! Judge a Seattle Plastic Surgeon and his staff the same way you'd judge any other person. The key is to be emotionally comfortable with your choice.

There's an old expression which says, “The best way to judge a man is to meet his dog.” If the man in question happens to be a physician, in this case a plastic surgeon, to whom you're entrusting your body, then this axiom would apply to his staff, his patients, his family, and anyone else who reflects his personality. If the people around him are unhappy or unhealthy, if they appear to be untrustworthy, cold or rude, then this should give you a good indication of what the doctor is like. Another consideration is whether the Seattle Plastic Surgeon and his staff seem truly interested in their jobs.

A Plastic Surgeon who loves what he's doing can help you feel more confident about your decision. Before you get to the point where you actually go to the office for a consultation, you can narrow your choices down considerably in one easy step: ask questions that are procedure specific. The Plastic Surgeon has a few procedures in which he is the most experienced. A good place to start is with a doctor who specializes full-time in cosmetic surgery (some do ordinary injury and surgical care as well). Ask, for example, How many liposuctions have you done? You might want to take it one step further and ask, How many liposuctions have you done on someone my age, with my coloring? If a cosmetic surgeon has done a thousand, but you're looking for a facial laser peel and he's only done 50, then he may not be right for you. Your best bet is to find an ultra-specialist. Some of these procedures (noses and liposuction in particular) have learning curves up to 1,000 procedures long. Experience is almost everything for a plastic surgeon.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a physician of any kind, but your own emotional response is the most critical index of how safe you're going to feel with this person.

Dr David Stephens MD, Plastic Surgeon - Providing services in botox, facelifts, liposuction and breast reduction, augmentation and implants to the areas of Bellevue and Seattle, Washington.