Finding a surgeon
Choosing who operates on you is the decision with the largest effect on your outcome, and the one where marketing is loudest. Here is how to assess someone yourself.
By state and province
State pages cover licence verification, what that state requires of surgical facilities, and where coverage applies. They exist where we cover more than one city.
United States
Each city page carries the licence verification route for that state, what the local market looks like, and any surgeons we have verified there.
Canada
Canadian pages carry the provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons for licence verification, and set out where removal may be covered by the provincial health plan — which is a materially different question from the one American patients are asking.
We publish a surgeon only after checking board certification against the relevant state board and confirming the entry with the practice. We will not populate this by copying practice websites — that produces a list of who ranks well, not who operates well, and it would be worth nothing to you.
Surgeons: listing is free, and placement is not for sale.
Claim a listingVerify credentials yourself
“Board certified” means little without knowing which board. In the United States, the relevant certification for this surgery is the American Board of Plastic Surgery, verifiable through the American Board of Medical Specialties. In Canada it is fellowship in plastic surgery with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada — the FRCSC designation — alongside a licence from the provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons. In the UK, the GMC specialist register.
These are two separate checks in both countries. A licence means someone may practise medicine. Certification means they completed a plastic surgery residency and passed the examinations. Plenty of physicians performing cosmetic procedures hold the first without the second, and that is legal in most places.
Check the licensing body in the surgeon’s jurisdiction for disciplinary history too. This is public information and takes a few minutes.
Volume and specialisation
Explant with capsulectomy is a different operation from augmentation, and experience is not transferable in the way marketing implies. Ask directly how many they performed in the last twelve months. A surgeon who does this weekly will answer immediately.
Be careful with “explant specialist”
It is not a protected term and it is not a recognised subspecialty. Anyone can put it on a website. It tells you about positioning, not qualification. The same goes for lists of “top explant surgeons” — on most sites those placements are purchased.
Questions worth asking
- How many explant procedures did you perform in the last year?
- Will you remove the entire capsule, and what will you do if it is adherent to my ribs or lung?
- What would make you change your plan once you are operating?
- Will the capsule be sent for pathology?
- What is your complication rate, and how do you track it?
- What does the quoted price include, and what happens if revision is needed?
- Where will this be performed, and is that facility accredited?
On the capsule question specifically, our page on whether you need en bloc explains why the answer you want is about completeness and judgement rather than a promise of a technique.
Warning signs
- Guaranteeing that your symptoms will resolve.
- Promising a specific technique before examining you or reviewing imaging.
- Selling supplements or detox protocols alongside surgery.
- Pressure to book, or a discount that expires.
- Unwillingness to discuss complications or give numbers.
- No named accredited facility.
Get more than one opinion
Two or three consultations will tell you more than any amount of reading, including this page. Where surgeons agree, you have found the reasonable range. Where they differ, ask each why — the reasoning is more informative than the recommendation.
Nothing on this site is a substitute for that. See our medical disclaimer.