How to Find Board Certified Plastic Surgeons

Plastic surgeons are doctors who receive special training in cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. Board certification is an additional tool for patients to use to prove that a specific doctor has undergone special training and passed additional examinations. Finding a board certified plastic surgeon is simple -- resources developed by professional organizations, certification bodies and administrative groups make the search easy.

Instructions

Find board-certified plastic surgeons

• 1

  Search resources developed by professional groups that represent plastic surgeons. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery both maintain searchable databases of board-certified plastic surgeons on their web sites (see links in References). Tools include the ability to search by location or by specific procedure, as well as information about what kinds of questions to ask your plastic surgeon and how to prepare for certain procedures. You may also call the ASPS (847-228-9900) or the ASAPS (1-888-ASAPS-11, or 1-888-272-7711) for their physician referrals services by telephone.

• 2

  Use tools created by the organizations that certify doctors. The American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Medical Specialties host online tools that you can use to find a board-certified plastic surgeon (links in References/Resources). Although both organizations offer these tools free of charge, free registration is necessary to use the ABMS database. These tools allow you to search the status of a specific doctor by name or search for a list of board-certified doctors within a particular city, state or Zip code. For those more comfortable with offline searching, look through the official ABMS Directory of Board-Certified Medical Specialists by visiting your local public or medical library and checking for a copy of this book in the reference section.

• 3

  Search for a board-certified plastic surgeon using the Administrators in Medicine DocFinder (link in Resources). The Administrators in Medicine represent all of the executive directors of state boards of medicine and osteopathy; its DocFinder tool not only allows you to search for doctors within a state, but it also provides links to the web sites of specific state boards of medicine, where you can do more research about the board-certified plastic surgeons in your area.