Going into the medical field can be difficult. It takes a number of years to finish your training, and some may never feel like they are finished. Becoming a plastic surgeon is very much like becoming a doctor in other medical fields, especially in the initial years of training. Medical students begin by having a bachelor’s degree. this degree can be in any field, but it must include subjects such as chemistry, physics, and biology.
From there an individual will go on to a medical school for their preclinical time in which they learn the general medicine subjects. Following these two years, a medical student will go on to do clinicals, of which surgery is a part. Some schools may offer this specialized area as an option in this.
Residency will be the next step for a medical student looking to be a plastic surgeon. There will be a couple of options available for someone pursuing a doctorate in this field. you can spend six years with a combination of this specialized surgical training and general surgery. There is also an option to do a general surgery program followed by an independent residency in this more specific field.
After residency, if a plastic surgeon would like to specialize in an area, they can do so by committing to completing up to year-long fellowships, where they will be learning about the specialties.
A doctor in this field, just as in any medical field, must be licensed. they will have to take an exam about general medicine in order to be licensed. What they do not have to have is a board certification. this is something that is definitely wise to have in order to be a well-regarded professional.
If you have considered being a plastic surgeon because you think the training will be simpler than becoming general practitioner, you are mistaken. when you are finally licensed to practice, your workload may be less stressful, but you will still have a lot of schooling to get through before you get to this point. when someone is called a doctor, it usually means that they have worked hard to get to where they are.
Do not let the number of years of education scare you away from this medical field. It will be well worth your time when you are able to help so many individuals. Knowing about the education of a plastic surgeon may also be encouraging to those looking into surgery. If you have thought that those in this field are called doctors, but they really only know about their specialty, this should be encouraging. just make sure that the one you choose is board certified in this type of surgery.
It turns out plastic surgery really does make you look younger, one study has found – on average, in the case of one Canadian doctor’s patients, 7.2 years younger.
Some plastic surgeons “tend to use the terms more youthful and more refreshed, but precise quantification of these attributes has remained elusive,” a team of cosmetic surgeons wrote in a study published Monday in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.
Hoping to come up with “an objective measure of surgical success,” the researchers, from the University of Toronto and the NorthShore University Health System in Evanston, Ill., asked first-year medical students to view pictures of 60 patients (54 women and six men, age 45 to 72) upon whom one of the physicians, Dr. Peter a. Adamson, had operated. Of the surgical patients, 22 had facelifts and neck lifts only, 17 also had surgery on their upper and lower eyelids and 21 had the first two procedures as well as forehead lifts.
The 40 medical-student “raters” were divided into four groups of 10. Each group viewed the same set of randomized patient photos – 30 pictures for each group, including photographs from before and six months after surgery – and provided estimated ages for the patients. on average, the med students estimated that the patients were 1.7 years younger than their actual chronological age before surgery and 8.9 years younger than their chronological age after surgery.
Patients who had more procedures generally looked younger, the raters reported. For patients in the first group, who had facelifts only, perceived age fell 5.7 years; in the facelift and eyelid group, it fell 7.5 years and in the group that also had forehead lifts it fell 8.4 years.
Many people like the idea of becoming a doctor in some capacity. Indeed, there are many different medical branches that a prospective medical student could join. some of these branches include pediatrics, obstetrics, cardiologists, and internists.
Then, there are the people who decide that they would like to become a plastic surgeon. This is an area in the medical profession that only really started becoming prevalent in the early part of the twentieth century, and even then just mainly in Hollywood. Indeed, being a plastic surgeon is something that has definitely evolved over the years. To be a plastic surgeon means that it is best to specialize in a certain area, since there are many different kinds of corrective surgeries. Although Hollywood made these kinds of surgeries popular, they are done all over the world.
More than other areas of medicine, this kind of surgeon is going to have to be able to set acceptable limits for his clients. for example, if a woman decides she wants to come in and have large butt implants put in, it is up to the surgeon to gently suggest a more moderate approach to implants, if indeed he or she determines the woman to be a good candidate for them in the first place. This kind of surgeon will also gain the satisfaction of helping people with not just various cosmetic annoyances, but also those who have been hurt in accidents such as fires. Above all, a plastic surgeon is going to need exceptional people skills.
Okay, so i am a freshman in high school and i want to figure out what to do with my life. I know i want to help others and the human body interests me, and so do eyes especially. I know medical school is required for dermatology and radiology, and optometry school is for optometrists. I have a 4.0 in high school and go to one of the top 10 high schools in the U.S. I also am very social. so my question is a few things. first off, it medical school worth it? it is a lot of schooling and would i just be wasting my twenties studying? also at my school there is running start, where i can cut off two years of undergrad getting high school and college credits at the community college for Junior and Senior year. So I would get two years ahead and not have to pay for that. my parents will cover 4 years and im on my own for the rest. so i would have less dept then a regular medical student. So would it be worth it to do that? i would not have a social life really because you lose your friends and i dont know if it would be worth it to do that. So that is another thing i dont know what to do. also in medical school you have to cut into dead bodies, which creeps me out. would i get used to it? or would i be unfit for being a doctor if i dont know if i could handle it? I know dermatology and radiology pay a lot, but i am more interested in helping others and possibly saving their life. it would be interesting looking at X-rays figuring out what is wrong with the patient, also i think i would like helping others with their acne and skin problems because i have empathy for those people because i have acne. also in optometry it is less school, 8 years, and my dad sells eye equipment to eye doctors and has connections and could help me set up my own practice because he knows the ropes. So should i do that? he said he supports whatever i do and would be happy to help me out. I have bad eyesight so i would like helping others with theirs and i want my own buisness. also eyes dont have much blood, and i dont think i could handle slicing into people and things like that. also i want flexible hours and to have a family. I dont know what to choose! please help me and answer all my questions. thank you.
MavistheMaven Answered:You're just in your first year of high school, so you have plenty of time to reach a decision! All of your choices mean that you should take math, biology, chemistry and physics, so it'll be the same path for you in high school and college.
First, to straighten you out about optometry: Optometrists are not doctors. They basically fit people for glasses and contact lenses. They screen for a few common diseases, but they don't treat them. At that point, they refer the patient to an eye doctor, an ophthalmologist. Definitely being an optometrist takes fewer years of school and won't cost as much, but you also won't earn nearly as much in your career. you may want to consider being an ophthalmologist instead, although this does mean looking at eye diseases and doing eye surgery for things like cataracts.
Radiologists and dermatologists both go to medical school, then do internships and residencies. Radiologists work more with the x-ray (or CT scan or MRI scan) films than with patients. Dermatologists do more than treat acne. They may treat psoriasis, they may treat burn patients. some do cosmetic surgery.
About dissecting dead bodies in medical school. almost all med students are frightened of this, but they get through it together. there are a lot of memoirs written by doctors of their experiences going through medical school. you should read some of them – all of them start out worried about the dissecting.
You will not be unfit to be a doctor just because you're worried that you can't handle certain things. you would learn to cope. One way to ease into this is by working or volunteering at a hospital during high school and/or college (and if you do, it looks great on a med school application to have hospital experience). you could work as a unhit clerk, a patient transporter, a lab assistant or whatever. the important thing is that you'd get to meet patients with all kinds of conditions and get used to a hospital. however gross or frightening a patient's condition is, you learn to face it. you remind yourself that there's a person in there and the person is counting on your to help. Realize that many people start out needing to work on this. it doesn't make you unfit to be a doctor.
Is med school worth it? if you want to be a doctor, it is. Yes, it's a huge commitment of time, yes it costs a lot, but in the end, you're a doctor. you will never lack for work, you will always be respected and you will earn a very good living. you can still have a social life, but you won't be partying every week.
But there are a couple of other options. you could be a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner. Both practice medicine under the supervision of a doctor. you can of course work for a specialist in dermatology. There's a lot less schooling. Both of these are growing fields. Read up on them to understand the differences and see if either occupation appeals to you.
Donald B Answered:Very few future doctors make the decision of what they will specialize in while they are just barely in high school.you have many years of education before you make your decision.you have 4 years of high school, 4 years of college and 4 years of medical school before you must decide.the other students that you will competing against for a spot in medical school may not take the fast path that you are envisioning.Those extra years in school may make it easier for them to get higher grades in their pre med courses and the MCAT.Fastest is not necessarily the best.Got a better answer? Share it below!
February 22, 2012 in Nation/World Eryn Brown Los Angeles Times
