Choosing a Brow Lift Surgeon

Choosing a cosmetic surgeon is all about finding the right surgeon for the procedure. Having any kind of surgery is serious, including cosmetic surgery. Not only is this your most important choice, it is also the hardest one to make. One thing on your side is that this is elective surgery and totally non-urgent. If you make a pact with yourself to wait until you are 100% comfortable, you will have the breathing space to choose the right plastic surgeon for yourself.

To begin the process you must determine that the plastic surgeon is safe and well trained. Only after they have cleared that hurdle, can you look at other criteria, namely whether the doctor’s ability, aesthetic, style and approach is a good match for you.

To “clear” a doctor, you must do the following:

• Research the doctor's qualifications and his or her surgical experience. Ask about training and educational background.
• Contact the physician's office and speak with a nurse to obtain pertinent information about the practice and the physician. Does the surgeon see patients at all their post-operative visits? In some offices, you have relatively little contact with the doctor once the surgery is done. In some offices, surgical residents help with the surgery. Often the junior associate or residents take calls. Other surgeons take all their own calls even after hours and give their patients their home and cell phone numbers so they are easily accessible to them.
• Ask questions that are "procedure specific." For example, ask the physician how many brow lifts he or she has performed. You can even go one step further by asking how many brow lift surgeries he or she has performed on someone your age or skin coloring, etc.
• Ask if the physician has completed residency in a specialty related to cosmetic surgery.
• Ask about the physician's hospital privileges, such as the hospital where he or she admits patients and the type of privileges. Hospitals also monitor physician qualifications, and your cosmetic surgeon should have privileges for facial plastic surgery.
• Contact your local medical society or your local hospitals for names of board certified or board eligible plastic surgeons. After obtaining these names, check each doctor's credentials. You can do this by contacting the local or state medical society or The American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

After finding a “qualified” plastic surgeon it is important you recognize that there is no single plastic surgeon that is the "best" for all patients. You will need to go on consults, probably more than one, or enough until you feel comfortable with a doctor.

You might not be a doctor, but you should have the ability to realize who is making sense. Do not choose a doctor overly confident, eager or aggressive—but neither should you choose someone overly negative. There is somewhere a balance between hearing about risks and complications and hearing about the positives of surgery, and you should find a surgeon that explains things in a way that sounds realistic.

One doctor will emerge as your preference.