Board certified vs Board eligible - what's the difference?

Hi & thanks for your question!
A board eligible surgeon has completed everything he/she needs to and is now eligible to take his boards. He/she has likely performed many surgeries leading up to this. Give your surgeons office a call and schedule another consult to discuss your concerns. Best wishes!

Board certification is recognition of one's competency in a chosen specialty by their peers. The process involves rigorous evaluation of the surgeon's work which may include various kinds of tests over a period of time. Dr. Ted Eisenberg, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon and Author. RealSelf Distinguished Hall of Fame Inductee. Philadelphia, Pa., USA

Dear jasminemarline,
finding the right Dr. is extremely challenging especially with the number of online platforms and resources available. There a lot of great Dr's available. Make sure he/she is a board-certified plastic surgeon. Definitely check to make sure your choice specializes in the procedure you want and spend the time to read through patient testimonials. There is a number of different sites where you can check for reviews (Realself, yelp, google, etc.).You can always pick up the phone and call around also, find an office you feel comfortable with and set up a few consultations.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Board certified means that the physician has had all the required training and has passed the certifying exam that sets specific standards of excellence. Board eligible means that the surgeon has taken all the required training and now is eligible to sit for the exam. Not all surgeons pass this exam, which is both written and an oral questions, and involves, for plastic surgeons, review of surgical cases performed.

Very good question.
Board certified means that your surgeon complete an accredited Plastic Surgery residency/fellowship, passed both his written and oral board exams.
Board eligible is a surgeon who completed their approved residency and who has not yet passed both written and oral exams or has not accrued enough solo cases to be considered for their oral exams yet. Many surgeons take two or three years to complete enough cases to qualify for both exams. Some exams were delayed by Covid as well.
Best wishes.
Dr. Taranow

Great question, one that was asked of me many times by my own patients not so long ago, until I myself attained Board Certification.
I will answer your question with the assumption that you are referring to plastic surgeons only, and not surgeons in some other, "non-core" specialty:
- You become a Board-Eligible Plastic Surgeon when you complete both medical school and a plastic surgery residency. This can involve doing another residency first (typically general surgery for five (5) years), followed by three (3) years of plastic surgery. A "faster track" option is to do six (6) years of dedicated or 'integrated' plastic surgery residency. Others still might complete other residencies in Otolarynology (ENT), Oral Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS), Orthopaedic Surgery, Neurosurgery, or even Urology before moving on to do their Plastic Surgery training. Folks that train in disciplines other than General Surgery before training in Plastic Surgery are quite rare.
- THIS IS IMPORTANT: Board Eligible does NOT imply inferiority compared to a Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon. It just means that the BE surgeon still needs to complete (1) the Written Examination and/or (2) the Oral Examination for the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS). We have a deadline of several years to do so after graduation from residency, otherwise one has to appeal and apply for a new eligibility 'clock'. Even the number one plastic surgery resident with perfect test scores, gifted hands, and nerves of steel coming out of Harvard or Johns Hopkins needs to go through this 'rite of passage' of Board Certification.
- To be able to sit for the Oral Examination, one has to submit a portfolio of 'major' plastic surgery cases (a breast augmentation and an abdominoplasty both count), including all relevant clinical documentation, preoperative and postoperative photographs, with sufficient follow up (minimum three (3) months when I went through the certification process). The rules for the Oral Exam can change annually, but this applied when I underwent the process 2-3 years ago.
- Once both the Written and Oral Exams are successfully completed, then you are considered a Diplomate of the ABPS and thus, a "Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon." To maintain certification, one has to stay up to date in the field and nowadays complete several online test questions annually, along with payment of fees to keep the certification current. In the past, individuals who got through their Boards were ABPS Certified FOR LIFE (grandfathered in), but nowadays our certifications last for ten (10) year cycles.
You are fortunate to have two (2) surgeons working on you! It will make for a more efficient case with less operative time, which is better for your overall recovery. If the Board-Eligible plastic surgeon is collecting his or her cases to submit to the Board, then performing the breast augmentation will count toward meeting his or her minimum case numbers. You will have the more senior, Board-Certified plastic surgeon in the room to supervise and assist if necessary, which adds an extra layer of safety and oversight.
With the usual breast augmentation taking anywhere from one (1) to two (2) hours, having that second surgeon there will enable him or her to assist the Board-Certified one with the tummy tuck, which involves a lot of suturing at the end. Again, the more skilled hands in the room, the better for you in terms of getting out of the OR and off General Anesthesia as quickly as possible. More sets of eyes in the room also allow for the team to evaluate your 'on-table' result and be satisfied with it before finishing up the case. For breast augmentation, you are often sat up while asleep, and everyone from the surgeon down to the circulating nurse and scrub tech all weigh in and offer their opinions about how your breast implants look.
I always look up the education and training credentials of any physician or surgeon with whom I network or become connected. Doing so can give you a sense as to whether the Board-Eligible individual underwent rigorous residency training. But without knowing much more about the situation, the very fact that the surgeon is Board-Eligible is a VERY GOOD thing! It means he or she is on the cusp of becoming Board Certified. Plastic Surgery is arguably one of the HARDEST fields in medicine in which to become Board Certified, and on a "good" year 80%+ will pass the Oral Exam (meaning up to 20%, or 1 in 5, can fail). I have several colleagues this past year alone, all of whom are very smart and talented, who did not pass and will have to try again...it by no means implies that those individuals are BAD people or BAD surgeons. We exist in a competitive profession with exceedingly high standards of safety, efficacy, and ethics.
Many plastic surgeons in practice take longer than 1-2 years after residency graduation to become Board Certified, particularly if they completed further advanced fellowship training. Someone who became certified one (1) year after residency graduation, without having done any fellowships, might have less extensive experience or confidence in a particular operation than someone who did advanced training in plastic surgery (among the subspecialty fields are craniofacial surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery, aesthetic surgery, and burn surgery). For all of the above reasons, it is important to DO YOUR HOMEWORK and know as much as you can about the surgeon(s) who will be doing your operation, and importantly, whether you TRUST them. Personality and rapport are huge in our profession in establishing and building trust with patients.
I encourage you to go to the ABPS website to determine your surgeon's Board Certification status and to learn more about what "Board Eligible" means.
[Having been Board Certified by the American Board of Surgery (ABS - dealing with General Surgery) is NOT the same thing as being Board Certified by the ABPS (Plastic Surgery). Many surgeons out there will either lie by omission or try to give a false impression of what their "Board Certification" means, so be very careful in judging a surgeon's credentials!]
I hope all of this information helps you feel more at ease! Best wishes with your upcoming body transformation! I hope you have a smooth operation and even smoother postop recovery.

Board Eligible means that the surgeon has not fully passed his/her written and oral exams to become Board Certified. Usually that means they are younger and less experienced but it doesn't mean they might not be good. Remember that all surgeons were Board Eligible at one time in their careers.