Breast Augmentation by a Board Certified General Surgeon?

Hello! Thank you for your question.  Cost will vary among plastic surgeons as well as with geographic location and what procedures exactly they will be providing to you.  Certainly, researching a board certified plastic surgeon well-versed in the procedure(s) you desire is recommended - checking the American Board of Plastic Surgery is a great start. Consult with two or more surgeons who you are happy with their postoperative photographs and those who you, most importantly, feel comfortable and confident with. Use the opportunity to ask questions as well as visit with staff and investigate the accredited facilities they work out of.  I believe fellowship-training, beyond the core plastic surgery residency to be important, as that surgeon has gone above and beyond to seek additional training specific to that area of interest and chosen to gain additional expertise in that area.   Experience should not be measured solely by the age of the surgeon or how many years s/he has been in practice.  Checking the education and training is more valuable - a Board Certified MD plastic surgeon who was accepted to and completed an integrated plastic surgery residency, in today's day and age, are excellent choices. Those are the top students who have superior training at top institutes.  Plastic Surgery is NOT a fellowship...it is a residency. Those surgeons who have actually successfully completed additional fellowship training beyond the plastic surgery residency are also passionate about that area and will likely have the most recent, innovative, and up to date techniques. These are usually the younger surgeons, who are still readily willing and competent to continue to strive for the newest material and remain up to date on literature and conferences. You must decide for yourself who you are most comfortable with and confident with who will meet your goals and expectations. Cost may differ just on expertise and the aforementioned additional training ad what that additional expertise training has afforded to his/her patients.  Hope that this helps!  Best  wishes!

Board certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery is very important. But in your particular case, I think the more important question is whether or not this surgeon has had plastic surgery training. It may be possible that the surgeon in question may be a general surgeon who has finished a plastic surgery residency or fellowship, but has not yet passed the board examination to become board certified. If the surgeon is a plastic surgeon and has finished a plastic surgery training program, then he might be completely qualified to achieve great results with breast augmentation. All of us were practicing plastic surgeons without board certification at one point and still achieving very good and safe results. If however, your surgeon does not have any plastic surgery training, then I would be much more cautious. Part of what is learned in the residency process is not only techniques to perform cosmetic surgery, but also how to deal with the complications that can be seen with patients of even the most experienced surgeons. I think that you are taking too great a risk if your surgeon has not at least completed a plastic surgery residency. And you are even more safe to put your trust in the experience of a board certified plastic surgeon. 

You may get lucky, beat the odds, and get a good result. I would think that a person planning to go into surgery on the only body they will ever have would at least go to someone who has been trained in that specialty. Breast implants are not as simple as making a hole and putting an implant in it. Size, placement, correction of asymmetry, as well as being able to take care of any complication may occur are important. Techniques to minimize capsular contracture and creating a breast that looks natural are also goals one should seek and find important. At least a board certified plastic surgeon has gone through the years of proper training to offer his patients the best chance for an excellent result, which is incidentally 5 years of general surgery plus 2 to 3 more years of plastic surgery.  I have never know what to think of a person who is unwilling to be trained in plastic surgery, but yet wants to perform the procedures. Short-cuts in education are not what I would look for when seeking surgery. Surgery is serious and a bad result can be devastating.