Is a “Resident” Clinic a good idea for difficult- ish case?

Hello, thank you for your question. A breast augmentation is a straight forward surgery. It still has its risk factors. Most of the time even a resident would be highly trained of course capable of doing the surgery. If this is something you are uncomfortable with then you choose someone else. Its your decision.

Thanks for your inquiry, all board certified plastic surgeon's start as residents. Residents care is supervised by senior staff, you might do more research on who is is the senior staff to find out their expertise. Good luck.

Dear mamabear226,
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

Resident clinics will be very much hit or miss depending on who the resident is. Simple procedures like breast implants fine. A lift with implants is on a whole other skill and experience level

All of us have trained in that type of environment and to your advantage, the fees are usually somewhat cheaper. The residents will have the guidance of a senior surgeon present. Do ask to have the senior surgeon present during the consultation to verify what should be done. Also, most of these resident surgeons have already completed 5 or more years of general surgery training first, and many have excellent skills now.

Hello from Vancouver
The resident clinic at UBC works as you have described, and every year the residents show the before and after pictures of the cases they have done, with commendable outcomes, as far as I am concerned. You save the surgeon fee and usually implants are donated by the implant company, so savings are significant. With that said, the more complex the procedure, the more experience and judgement play a role in your result. There are two extra variables in having surgery by the residents. You won't choose the supervising surgeon and their judgement/skill as applied to your particular case. And you won't know much about that particular resident's skill and judgement. Some are excellent ( remarkable, given their inexperience) and some are less so.As you note, your case is not straight forward, so you need to consider whether the savings in fees are worth the extra uncertainty.
Best wishes
Benjamin Gelfant MD FRCSC