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Plastic Surgeon - Career Profile |
Career OverviewReshaping and restoring the human body is the medical specialty of a plastic surgeon. A plastic surgeon performs reconstructive surgery often caused by medical problems such as injuries, tumors, disease, developmental problems and birth defects that cause abnormal body structures and infections. They also perform cosmetic surgery that not only restores and reshapes normal body structure but helps improve a patient’s self-esteem and also appearance.
Plastic surgeons are also very instrumental in treating emergency cases such as people with burns, facial lacerations, trauma, and bite wounds.
Plastic surgeons perform cosmetic surgery such as breast augmentations, nose jobs, facelifts and liposuction. Reconstructive surgeries performed for medical reasons, by a plastic surgeon, are cleft palates, breast reductions, lesion removal, and laser surgery among others.
Trauma cases due to accidents are emergency cases operated on to repair damage to a patient’s face or other parts of their body. A person involved in a work accident where a piece of steel lodges in his or her face, requires a plastic surgeons reconstruction skill and expertise to bring the patients face back to normal.
A plastic surgeon moulds and reshapes skin so they have to be extremely meticulous and creative because the work completed by them is visual. Many plastic surgeons now specialize in areas such as scar removal, nose jobs, and breast reductions as either reconstructive or cosmetic surgeons.
Plastic surgery has come a long way over the years and now the surgeons have the knowledge and ability to work with practically every body tissue from muscles and fat to nerves of the skin. They are able to replace unhealthy, injured or cancer damaged tissue with healthy tissue from another part of a patient’s body.
In cosmetic plastic surgery, a patient may choose to have unwanted fat, from various parts of the body, removed by liposuction or their wrinkles removed by laser surgery.
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Career RequirementsAs with other surgical professions, a plastic surgeon has many years of education ahead of them. After completing four years at medical school, there is internship for another three years in general surgery with an addition two or three years of plastic surgery training. Some programs offer combined programs comprised of three years plastic surgery and three years of general surgery.
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Job OutlookPlastic surgeons are always in demand and the need for them will continue to grow over the next many years. The opportunities in rural areas are very high as many physicians and surgeons prefer the larger cities where they have control in the amount of hours they choose to work.
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Career TrackMost cosmetic plastic surgeons choose to stay within their field as it takes a long time to build up a great client base but may decide to go into private practice or into partnership with other plastic surgeons or manage a clinic.
A reconstructive plastic surgeon may choose to work as an administrator in a hospital or medical school, scientific research, educator or even publish medical and scientific journals.
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CompensationFor a plastic surgeon in the first year, their median base salary is approximately $274,000 and increases to over $361,000 after three or more years. Many plastic surgeons in private practice earn over $500,000 per year.
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