Plastic Surgery versus Cosmetic Surgery, Plastic Surgeon v Cosmetic Surgeon What is the "best"?
My name is Dr Les Blackstock. This is a long winded introduction but I encourage you to read it to the end and follow through the other pages of this site as it is an honest representation of myself for the world and any future patients to see and judge me against.
On this first page I would like to assist people by explaining terminology of Plastic Surgery and Cosmetic Surgery while at the same time outlining my passion.
I have a passion for changing how a person feels about themselves through the use of medicine and surgery. I am not a Plastic Surgeon. A Plastic Surgeon is a specialist doctor who has completed advanced training organised by a professional organisation after their medical training in such areas as tendon repairs, burns and reconstructive surgery of congenital defects. Then some, but not all Plastic Surgeons, then go on to do further training in the specific cosmetic procedures, the most popular being "breast implants", "tummy tucks" and "liposuction". The use of the title "Plastic Surgeon" should only be used by those who are members of the professional societies that represent the sub specialty of plastic surgery. I repeat I am not a Plastic Surgeon and I do not hold myself out to do Plastic Surgery.
But how do I identify my professional interest and why is there this confusion?. The other terminology is used often is "cosmetic Surgery" and "cosmetic Surgeon". This terminology has less affiliation with a specialist recognition by any government organisation and is do a collective terminology for those doctors who practice surgery related to changing the cosmetic appearance of the body. However, there are organisation of very noble and good men and woman who have banded together to form "Colleges" and "Association" or "Societies" with training aims in the field of Cosmetic Surgery. These people are good and enthusiastic practitioners wanting to both advance the field of medicine that deals with assisting people though what medicine has to offer to change a person appearance. With respect to these groups of people who in some instances are attempting to promote themselves and equals to the colleagues who have trained in the field of plastic surgery I do not feel it is appropriate for me to describe myself as a "cosmetic Surgeon" but other may choose to and I will leave that decision for them.
The reality is that some people believe that by using an entitlement of a name that the general public will be influenced to utilise one group over another and certain people would choose to disguise this marketing aim under the promise that it is in the interest of the public to be protected from less trained practitioners. From the inside I can tell you that often the training is very similar in all groups and the titles after a name or the years of training may not necessarily reflect the care for the patients of the clinical outcome of any person's particular procedure.
So I still find myself without a clear terminology to describe what I do for people. If I can be say that I am practicing "cosmetic surgery" or "plastic surgery" or that I an a "plastic Surgeon" or a "cosmetic Surgeon" how do people describe me and what I do? My solution has been to utilise another term. I am an Aesthetic Surgeon"
In the practice of Plastic Surgery or Cosmetic Surgery how do you choose a particular doctor to change your body shape?
When you search for someone to help you with changing your body shape you will clearly see the marketing hype I have indicated. It is common practice to portray any one doctor as the "best", an "expert", a "world renowned", the "leading practitioner", or a "pioneer in the field", or "has years of experience". I do not hold myself out to be any of those things. I just what to help people by what I do using medicine to help people change how they look.
All I am is passionate about what I do and I am constantly trying to learn to be better. I believe that I am not alone and would like to encourage people to look beyond the "credentials" of any one person in making the choice about allowing someone to help them with their appearance. Meet the person and then make your judgements on what you feel about how they want to help you.
"Trust", should be the key test for allowing someone to alter your appearance in Plastic Surgery or Cosmetic Surgery.
My philosophical position is that a person's psychological and physical well being can be strongly influenced by their distress, even if it may only be perceived to the individual, about the way they appear. I believe that most important factor in choosing who to help you, should be based on your trust in me as a person in addition to my skills as a surgeon. You can have a bad result from a good surgeon, the difference in the final outcome will be if you trust that the surgeon cares about you.
My guiding principal is to acheive a realistic outcome, as close as possible to a patient's desires as I can. If I can't do that I don't do the prccedure. I would hope that anyone who finds them in that situation of me saying I can't help feeling that I cared enough about them to have saved them from suffering false expectations from any procedure or even worse the possible adverse outcomes. Also, I hope that in my discussions during the consultation, I will have helped by bringing to your awareness the other options available.
Learn about me and what I may be able to do for you
I invite any one who has found this site by direction or searched to read about me to dive deeper into the site. I encourage you to tell others to do the same and link to this site. I would like to see a conceptual change towards "honesty" in this field and hope to lead by example.
