hello dr. N i wanted to ask you what it the best school and what course do i take to become a plastic surgeon???
Answer:
Hi,
I am glad you are interested in the field. Its a long hard road but it is rewarding to be able to make immediate changes and improvements to people’s faces (or bodies) and increase their quality of life be it through cosmetic surgery or reconstructive surgery.
The first step is doing well in College. The name of your college is much less important than how well you do in your courses and MCAT examination.
All of the U.S. Medical schools that are open and accredited today can prepare you for a career in surgery. There are no bad medical schools any more thanks to the accrediting bodies that regulate these schools.
Again, it is more important how well you do in medical school than which medical school you graduate from. Obviously if you graduate at the top of your class from the prestigious schools such as Harvard or Hopkins, your chances of getting the residency of your choice is much higher.
You can enter plastic surgery from several routes. You can do a combined Plastics residency which is a program with 3 years of general surgery followed by 3 years of plastics for a total of 6 years. Some of these are now 7 years. The vast majority of general plastic surgeons do the traditional route whereby they complete a 5 year general surgery residency followed by 2 years of plastic surgery.
Facial Plastic Surgeons do a 5 year Head & Neck Surgery residency followed by 1 year of Facial Plastic Surgery.
Oculoplastic surgeons do a 4 year opthalmology residency followed by 2 years of oculoplastics.
These are the major routes but there are other options. What you want to avoid is what is becoming more and more common which is for none surgeons to take a few courses here and there and then call themselves “plastic surgeons.”
If you study hard and have good mentors and role models, you will do just fine.
Good luck and I hope to have you as a colleague some day in the future.
