What Education Does Your Plastic Surgeon Have?
My desire in writing this blog post is to sketch out the basics and not bore you. Really, I want you to read on. I think this is important and most people have no idea. In a future blog I will review the significance of “board certification”, but for now I just want to give you a glimpse of my background.
After college, I attended medical school at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA for four years. That was tough, but it was just the beginning.
Following medical school, I underwent residency training which was 9 years or about 43,000 hours. The first 7 years were in General Surgery at East Carolina University Hospital in Greenville, NC which included one year of bench (lab) research since this program was geared toward academic training in general surgery. General surgery training varies between 5 and 7 years depending on the program. Work hours during residency averaged about 100 hours/week.
Plastic surgery residency is a second residency (it’s not a fellowship) and was an additional 2 years at Albany Medical Center in Albany, NY. There is a debate about how best to train plastic surgeons and currently, the general surgery training has decreased and the plastic surgery has increased (3 years of each), but traditionally trainees completed general surgery first so it took a minimum of 7 years.
Other surgeons that lay claim to my specialty include “facial plastic” and “oculoplastic” surgeons. In essence, a facial plastic surgeon went to medical school, then did a 5-year residency in otolaryngology (ears, nose, and throat or ENT), then a one-year fellowship in Facial Plastic Surgery in an ENT program, not a plastic surgery program. They are taught by other ENT facial plastic surgeon. This is not a residency, but a fellowship. More on that in a future blog post about certification. Despite the clever name, this specialty is not a subspecialty of Plastic Surgery, but a separate and distinct path.
Oculoplastic surgeons have completed medical school, a residency in ophthalmology and then fellowship training in an ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive program. Again, this is a fellowship and not a residency.
Ultimately, the rigorous training plastic surgeons undertake to provide the best results in both cosmetic and reconstructive procedures is unparalleled. Although my path was a long one, it gave me an excellent foundation, and the last 18 years of practice have added to my abilities. In fact, I have come full circle since I am now involved in the training of plastic surgery residents from Penn State Hershey Medical Center who require cosmetic surgery training they cannot receive elsewhere!
– Dr. de Ramón
