Is it okay to get a breast augmentation & laser lipo by a board certified cosmetic surgeon?

There are many excellent surgeons that do excellent cosmetic work that are not board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. Cosmetic Surgery in fact was developed by multiple specialties and continues to be practiced with excellence by multiple specialties. Of course, there are surgeons who can substandard results who are not board certified in plastic and reconstructive surgery and there are s surgeons who deliver substandard results who are board certified. There are many factors that go into the quality of the surgery. Early in a surgeon career their residency and fellowship training is more important. Later the body of the surgeon work speaks for itself. Procedures and technology are constantly changing. Excellent surgeons are constantly honing their skills to give the best results and the fewest complications. A surgeon doing a procedure for 20 plus years will have more consistent and often better results than one that is new to practice. Many of the most popular cosmetic procedures were not around 20 or 30 years ago when many surgeons were trained. Training experience between surgeon can vary by the program. How you relate to your surgeon and how comfortable you feel about him or her is actually a good predictor. Also patient reviews also give a good indication of surgeons skill and complications. Studies have shown poorly reviewed surgeons often have poorer outcomes.

Hi, first of all someone who calls himself/herself a Cosmetic Surgeon has only a 1-2 years of academic and practice time before getting that degree, also that is not done through a Medical Residency. Instead of a Plastic Surgeon who has to have 2 years minimum of a General Surgery Residency, then another 4 years of Plastic Surgery Residency. In my experience, what you are able to learn from those 6 years treating all kinds of patients, different cases and procedures, as well as having different tutors and mentors gives you a specialized preparation for doing the reconstructive as well as the aesthetic procedures. My advice would be, go to a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon always so you know you are having the best possible treatments, but also looking for your safety first.

It does not matter what board certification an individual has. What matters is that they have completed an accredited Plastic Surgery program on top of general surgery training. You also need to make sure that the reviews, if they are good, are real. Also get referrals from other patients like yourself. I hope this helps and good luck from New York City Plastic Surgery.

Board certification 
This is an excellent question and a very important one.
My answers tend to be lengthy at times this may be one of those longer answers.
No single physician or medical specialty has a monopoly on any one procedure or treatment. Legally a radiologist can do heart transplants. In reality that is usually not the case though. 
Most major surgeries are done in operating rooms. To get access to an operating room in a hospital or surgery center the physician has to have privileges. Privileges are only granted to physicians with appropriate qualifications. Unless a physician owns their own hospital or surgery center they are required to have appropriate training and background.  There are many physicians who do own their own surgery center or do substantial surgeries in their offices.
Since the scope of practice cannot legally be limited there needs to be some mechanism to protect the public. These include state medical boards and other regulatory agencies as well as board certifications. Protecting the build needs to be balanced agains trade restrictions or the individual physicians right to earn a living.
The great majority of medical board certifications are overseen by the American Board of medical specialties.
Their website is
certificationmatters DOT org
That's an excellent place to start if you want to get some further background on board certification.
All the different medical specialty boards overseen by the American Board of medical specialties require some type of residency or fellowship training or proof of competencies. The great majority of practicing physicians in the United States belong to one of the many boards overseen by this agency.
Just as physicians cannot be legally limited to their scope of practice neither does the American Board of medical specialties have a monopoly on creating medical boards.
As such, there are medical boards that are not recognized by the American Board of medical specialties.
One such board is the American Board of cosmetic surgery. There is not technically a residency in cosmetic surgery(there are fellowships in cosmetic surgery done after a residency).  The great majority of training in cosmetic surgery is done in plastic surgery residency. Other specialties that also include some forms of cosmetic surgery during their training are ear nose and throat or otorhinolaryngology and dermatology.
You would think the majority of the members of the American Board of cosmetic surgery would be plastic surgeons. They are not. Very few plastic surgeons are members of the American Board of cosmetic surgery.   The majority of their members come from different backgrounds like general surgery OB/GYN dermatology internal medicine emergency medicine etc.etc. etc.
I am not going to go on and on about which board is a real bored and which board is a fake board. I will let the consumer figure that one out. I will say that both the American Society of plastic surgeons and the American Board plastic surgery which are the main political organizations that oversee plastic surgery have spent much time and effort trying to educate the public as to what certification means and why it is important. Some would argue more could and should be done in terms of educatingbthe public regarding board certification.
So why does it matter if a doctor is certified?   Being board-certified is no guarantee that a physician is going to be of the highest caliber. But it is a very rigorous process that is very difficult to achieve.  For starters it requires that you've completed residency or fellowship training. Anyone can practice medicine as long as they have a medical license which generally requires finishing medical school and completed one year of internship. That's generally five years of training. To put things in perspective most plastic surgeons have had 10-13 years of training.
One note on facial plastic surgery. There is a recognized board called the American Board of facial plastic surgery. Most of their members are trained in ear nose and throat or otorhinolaryngology and have completed a fellowship in facial plastic surgery.
The great majority of surgeries done on the face and in the head and neck were developed by plastic surgeons. Over the years otorhinolaryngologists and other specialties have evolved and incorporated many of those procedures into their own specialty.
The first Nobel Prize given to a surgeon was to Joseph Murray, MD, a plastic surgeon who performed the first kidney transplant.  Today a plastic surgeon would most likely not be given privileges to perform kidney transplants in any major hospital in the United States. At the time Plastic Surgeons were doing pioneering work on tissue transplantation.
Who is best qualified to do what procedure? I've tried to explain why board certification is important but that still leaves choices of which type of doctor.
Here are my criteria.
If a physician can offer all of the alternative procedures, can take care of the any and all complications, did not learn the procedure by experimenting on people after weekend courses and has privileges to do the procedure in a hospital they are qualified to do the procedure.
There are many competent dermatologists , otorhinolaryngologists etc.. who do liposuction. Few if any of them are trained to do tummy tucks, mini tummy tucks, brachioplasties(arm lifts) etc...
You may have heard the expression if you're a hammer the world looks like a nail. 
Unfortunately if someone only performs liposuction, and not the other procedures, they are probably less likely to recommend a tummy tuck or arm lift even if those may be the better procedures.
One of my favorite teachers used to say if you want to be a plastic surgeon you should go to plastic surgery school.
Cosmetic surgery in general pays significantly more than any insurance based procedure. Call it greed or just a desire to earn a good living, many physicians from different specialties want in on the action. 
As such, cosmetic surgery, which at one point was synonymous with plastic surgery, has been picked apart and gobbled up by many sometime talanted and sometimes not so talented physicians from different backgrounds.  
So, do your research look for board certification, understand the scope of practice and limitations of different specialties.  
My last recommendation is choose as surgeon who has a lot of experience, good reviews, excellent before and after pictures and who is a patient advocate looking out for your best interest. That may be easier said than done but that's what we should all be shooting for.
Another one of my professors used to say "don't look for bargains when buying parachutes or cosmetic surgery"
This is in the end a situation of "Caveat Emptor( buyer beware)"
The most talented plastic surgeons I know are very busy and make good incomes. None of them pay for advertising. They do not have strong social media campaigns.
I hope I was of some help.
Good luck,
Mats Hagstrom M.D