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  • Board Certification Process and Importance Explained
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I'm often asked what does board certification mean? What does it mean to be a board-certified surgeon? And perhaps, why is that so important in looking for when we're searching for a facial plastic surgeon to do any procedure? Well, let's quickly review how doctors become trained.

Obviously, there's four years of medical school. There's four years... I'm sorry, there's four years of college, four years of medical school. And then, they graduate and go to either an internship or a residency. After completing a residency - there are thousands of individuals completing residency - how does formalized medicine determine whether or not those individuals are really up to par? If they're really exceptional? And so, organizations were developed, and those organizations are simply called boards. And the boards create tests, both written and oral, to determine whether or not those who have finished their residency are indeed... Or indeed meet a certain level, a certain standard, a certain excellence of both knowledge and ability to provide care. So, those who, in a term, are sitting for the boards, those who sit for the boards and actually complete the board examination and pass the examination, are considered board-certified. So, those are individuals who are deemed by their colleagues to have met a standard of excellence, who can proceed in the area of specialty that that board oversees.

So, for example, I am double board-certified. I am board-certified in otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, and I am board-certified in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery. So, I hope that explains what board certification is and the importance of getting a board-certified facial plastic surgeon when you seek your surgeon.

Board Certification Process and Importance Explained

Dr. Philip Miller explains what it means for a medical professional to be board certified and in so doing, exemplifies how important that status is when a consumer is researching plastic surgery.