How to choose your plastic surgeon
Five things you can verify yourself before you ever sit down for a consultation — and one warning sign almost nobody mentions.
Choosing a surgeon is the most important decision in the whole process, and it is usually made with the worst information: photographs on social media, prices out of context, and a recommendation from someone who was happy with hers. None of that is useless, but none of it answers the real question: is this person qualified to operate on you, specifically?
1. Verify the certification, not the claim
In Mexico, a certified plastic surgeon is registered with the Mexican Council of Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery. The council publishes a directory: you can look up the name and confirm it yourself, without asking anyone's permission. "Aesthetic specialist" is not the same as board certified, and plenty of similar-sounding titles are not either.
2. Ask who operates
It sounds obvious, but it is worth asking out loud: who performs the surgery, and who follows you through recovery? In some practices one person gives the consultation and another operates. No answer is automatically bad; what matters is knowing it beforehand rather than afterwards.
3. Notice how the risks are explained
Every surgery carries risk. A surgeon who raises it before you ask, and explains what they would do if something did not go to plan, is giving you information. One who plays it down to close the sale is taking information away. That difference is the best signal you have.
4. Read the photographs more carefully than you think you need to
Compare the before and after slowly. Are they taken at the same distance, in the same light? Is the person wearing makeup in one and not the other? A change in lighting or hair can explain a good deal of what you see. Honest photographs tend to look less spectacular, and that is exactly what makes them useful.
5. Listen when someone tells you no
A surgeon who tells you that you are not a candidate, or who proposes something smaller than you asked for, is not losing a sale by accident. They are doing their job. A willingness to say no is probably the strongest indicator of clinical judgement you will encounter in a first consultation.
The warning sign
Be wary of urgency. Offers that expire, dates about to fill up, pressure to leave a deposit the same day. Surgery is not an impulse purchase, and no serious practice needs to rush you to fill its calendar.
