Ten Tips for Choosing a Good Plastic Surgeon in Colombia

If you wish to undergo plastic surgery in Colombia, we recommend following these steps:

1.- Verify your plastic surgeon’s training. The training of a plastic surgeon requires several stages that you should take into account:

A plastic surgeon is a doctor who has studied general medicine for six years. Subsequently, they have completed a specialization in Plastic Surgery, which can last between four to five years or more, depending on the place of training. This training may include one or two years of general surgery and three or four years of plastic surgery and can be completed at Colombian universities or abroad, accredited by the Colombian Ministry of Education.

It is very important to verify that your surgeon has completed this full-time training, meaning a minimum of eight hours per day, plus night shifts and academic training at different times, and not just weekend courses once or twice a month. To verify this, ask your surgeon to explain how their training was carried out and confirm that the university accrediting them has an affiliated hospital where plastic surgery services are provided. A quick way to verify this is through the website of the Colombian Society of Plastic Surgery, where you can find the names of surgeons whose résumés have been analyzed and approved by this society.

2.- Obtain references from patients operated on by your surgeon. Talk to patients you find in the consultation who have already undergone surgery and ask about their experience, especially how attentive the surgeon was after the surgery and whether the surgeon was available at all times to answer questions or concerns.

Also, ask how many times the surgeon attended to them after surgery and if they were attentive to resolving their doubts and concerns.

3.- Prepare all your doubts and questions before your first appointment with your surgeon. It is very important that the consultation is long enough for you to resolve all your doubts about the surgery, the procedure itself, its risks and how to avoid them, what results to expect based on your current body conditions, and what to expect after surgery, including recommendations and tips for a quick recovery. To do this, it is useful to prepare a list of questions so that nothing is forgotten during this crucial moment in selecting your surgeon.

If your surgeon has given you enough time and conducted an adequate medical examination by reviewing the areas to be treated, taking your weight and measurements, asking about your medical history, explaining the procedure, and what results can be obtained in your case, you can have greater confidence that they are a well-trained professional.

4.- Choose based on the trust the professional inspires. It is very important that there is empathy between you and your surgeon, as both of you will go through a journey together for several weeks until you complete your recovery.

The surgeon must be able to inspire trust, even if you have only interacted for a few minutes. Here, it is useful to assess how honest your surgeon is in explaining the scope and limitations of the techniques or if they merely tell you that everything you want is possible without considering the limitations that a particular procedure may have, which depend largely on the patient’s current conditions.

5.- Avoid low prices. Although plastic surgery in Colombia, especially in the city of Cali, has very competitive prices compared to other countries, these prices should not be too low, as they would not cover the cost of a high-quality clinic, an anesthesiologist trained in plastic surgery, and a full-time service.

Avoid low prices where the surgeon does not promise personalized post-operative follow-up but rather through a nurse. Do not choose a surgeon who offers you a clinic without sufficient backing, built in remodeled houses instead of facilities originally designed as clinics.

Remember that correcting or redoing a surgery that has yielded unsatisfactory results is much more expensive.

6.- Ask where you will be operated on. Before deciding to undergo surgery with a particular surgeon, investigate the conditions of the clinic where the procedure will take place. It is very important that this clinic is an established institution with all the necessary services to handle complications, such as an Intensive Care Unit, a Diagnostic Imaging Unit (X-rays and Computed Tomography at a minimum), a clinical laboratory, and a blood bank.

Ideally, the clinic should have a surgical unit dedicated exclusively to plastic surgery, separate from operating rooms for other specialties such as general surgery or gynecology. This ensures that surgeries are performed in rooms where contaminated or infected procedures from other specialties, mainly general surgery, have not been conducted.

7.- Do not trust surgeons who promise miraculous results. While it is true that plastic surgery can produce excellent changes in patients, there are limitations inherent to the techniques used and the patient’s body conditions. These limitations must be discussed with the surgeon so that if they promise results beyond what is expected or possible, you should doubt their honesty.

It is very likely that in this case, the surgeon is only interested in “selling” the procedure and not in helping the patient achieve harmonious results that make them feel better about themselves.

8.- Do not undergo surgery with a surgeon who suggests procedures you do not want or have not requested. One of the ethical principles and rights of patients is to freely decide on their care. When a surgeon suggests that a patient undergo a procedure they do not want or do not see as necessary at the moment, it is advisable to reject this proposal and consult another surgeon.

9.- Do not choose a surgeon based on advertising. While it is true that social media and advertising on the internet or physical media such as magazines or newspapers are valid ways to promote a service, it is also true that any doctor can advertise without necessarily being a certified plastic surgeon.

Considering this, it is advisable not to rely solely on advertising, especially advertisements on widely disseminated social media platforms like Instagram.

Nowadays, it is easy to find doctors without plastic surgery credentials making large-scale advertisements on these platforms, as well as on Google, where many fake plastic surgeons use “commercial” names or different terms from traditional plastic surgery procedures to give the impression that it is a new and more advantageous procedure than what a properly trained plastic surgeon offers. This is merely a marketing strategy to attract clients, which often leads to disappointment for patients. Therefore, do not trust procedures with unique names promoted on social media or the internet. The worst way to choose a surgeon is through social media without first verifying the previous steps.

10.- Consult with several surgeons. It is very useful to get opinions from different surgeons before making a decision. Consulting other surgeons helps you make a better decision based on the trust they generate and the information they provide, as it allows you to have a broader perspective on which procedure is most suitable for you and what to expect from the surgery.

You can choose the surgeon who has provided the best information, the one who has shown the most interest in answering your questions, the one who offers a realistic and non-exaggerated solution to your needs, the one willing to help you before and after surgery, the one who provides their personal phone number before surgery to answer your questions at any time, and the one who inspires the most confidence.

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Dr. Giovanny Alvarado - Plastic Surgeon
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