Is there a part of your body that is not in harmony with how you feel and you would like to improve it? You want to do it but then you remember all the horror stories about plastic surgery with less than desirable results. After all, how you look is your presentation to the world, many times other people's interaction will be determined by your outward appearance; hence the saying "Well dressed and a good countenance, are mighty commendable". So, it's a big deal!

In this reading we will discover the three most important steps in choosing your doctor:

1. The most important thing is to continue with the good health with which you arrived.

2. After choosing the safest option to maintain your good health, it is necessary to choose the doctor whose results you like the most.

3. The price should always be considered, only you know how much you value your health and how much you value the result you want. That will guide you to make the best investment!

If you have a wedding or a job interview and you want to look your best, you won't go to the gardener to get your makeup done. He most likely won't have the experience to achieve the result you want. If you have a broken tooth and an awkward smile, you won't go to your hair stylist to have your smile fixed. Finally, if your car's brakes fail, you won't go to your favorite chef to get them fixed because you'd be risking your life!

Changes to your body are a much bigger issue than the examples mentioned above. You are probably in good health and it is understandable that you want to continue to enjoy good health with the benefit of looking better in a particular situation. It would be a tragedy to lose good health in addition to an unfavorable cosmetic result.

There have always been charlatans who claim to be "experts" or who claim to be able to help you achieve what you want. Because they lack real expertise  or real attributes to help you they are excellent sales people and very skilled with marketing. However now with the ease of social media it has become a real danger. Their reach can be much greater and people's health is at stake.The definition of charlatan is the person who talks a lot and without substance, is dedicated to the sale and loudly advertises its merchandise.

Plastic surgery since its inception has been the only medical specialty that has focused on making changes in the appearance of the body, and has existed to give inner peace or give satisfaction to those who do not feel comfortable with how they look. Whether it is because they lost their nose due to an accident, they were born without an ear, they were left without breasts due to an illness, they have excess skin after pregnancy, they have breasts that have lost the appearance they had in their youth, with age they have presented changes in their look giving them an angry or tired appearance which they are not, or they simply know that they can look more attractive.

As a medical specialty whose patients are healthy people, it is one of the specialties with the most demanding and rigorous training, since the motto of every physician is "first do no harm". It is easier to do no harm to a sick person than to a healthy person. This is why historically plastic surgeons have completed a specialty prior to entering the field of plastic surgery.

Training in plastic surgery corresponds to a minimum of 2 years of training in another surgical specialty and then a minimum of 3 years of training in the specialty of plastic surgery. Due to the importance for a country to take care of its population, those who have followed the complete training obtain a certification or a "board certification" by the guild of plastic surgeons of the country where they did their training.

Therefore all those self-styled "experts" who only show diplomas or certificates of courses whose duration is not at least 5 years in total, the wisest thing to do is to greet them cordially and run away. Then in order to verify that they actually have followed the training they say they have done the recommendation is to ask the society of plastic surgeons in the country where they claim to have been trained and verify that it is indeed true. This is very simple with the technology that exists today and with the interest of the countries to take care of the health of their population.

I will tell you about the case of our plastic surgeon Dr. Paul Ouddane. Since there was no plastic surgery training in Guatemala, he decided to go abroad for training. The opportunities for training in plastic surgery besides being very few in the world are very sought after (the most sought after of the medical specialties). He chose to train in Mexico, like most plastic surgeons in Guatemala, because of the proximity of the culture and physiognomy of the Mexican population with that of the Guatemalan population. This in order to be able to better serve his patients in Guatemala, since it is obviously not the same to perform an eye design on a Japanese woman than on a Guatemalan one.

In Mexico each year approximately 40,000 medical doctors (general practitioners) wish to train in this beautiful country. Of these, only approximately 9,000 will be selected to train in a medical specialty. Of the 9,000 places granted, only 72 are for doctors to perform their training in plastic surgery in one of the 17 hospitals where the training can be performed. Upon completion of this training, only 80% of those who have completed it are certified by their peers, the Mexican Board of Plastic Surgery, to practice the profession.

As you have just read, it is not an easy path and not everyone who walks it is fit to practice, so it is not surprising that there are so many "self-procalimed experts" or as they have been called throughout history: charlatans.

Now that you've chosen your board-certified plastic surgeon, to avoid putting your good health at risk, comes the hardest part: choosing the one who, in your opinion, can help you achieve the desired result.

For this purpose, ask the plastic surgeon to show you real, high quality, unaltered photographs of patients . Also schedule appointments with at least two plastic surgeons to see with whom you have more aesthetic affinity. Trust and a good understanding with your plastic surgeon are fundamental for a good result.

Finally, and of less importance, is the price. Here it is very important to ask your plastic surgeon what the quote you are given corresponds to. Generally you have to cover the laboratory studies that are requested before the procedure to make sure that you are in optimal conditions for the procedure. Then there are the plastic surgeon's fees, the surgeon's assistant's fees, the anesthesiologist's fees, the costs of the use of the operating room, the costs of the supplies used during the surgery, the costs of the medications you will take after the procedure, as well as the costs of the follow-up appointments. Having fulfilled the two previous points, each patient knows his budget to make this very important investment in his body, which is his presentation to the world. Always consider that there are financing options that will be presented to you after your generous listening appointment in order to obtain the desired result and not be limited by the least important point in this aesthetic experience.

We are dedicated to patient education, if you have any questions we invite you to contact us.