Hi @kangaroosnack
1. I first would like to ask how you determined that these plastic surgeons are “famous?” I imagine it's pretty subjective and potentially heavily influenced by lots of money thrown towards marketing. But I could be wrong. I mentioned it briefly before but there are doctors doing plastic surgery that are not board certified plastic surgeons, but are doctors nonetheless. A board certified ENT Doctor might have opened a clinic and is doing rhinoplasties. He/she is experienced with that space and making cosmetic changes - though might not have been initially his/her area of expertise, expanded their skill set and is now doing those cosmetic procedures. Not necessarily a bad thing and with enough experience and they may be really good at aesthetic results. But when/if that doctor expands into breast augs, v-line, other more complicated operations that’s where - personally - I would hope the doctor is a board certified plastic surgeon.
In regards to looking up board certified plastic surgeons - are you searching for the doctor here - plasticsurgery.or.kr/eng/search ? And they’re not listed? Play with the spelling of their name. If you can type in Korean and you have their Korean spelling, it might be easier… but just for example… Park can be sometimes spelled Pak, Paik, Baek. Play with the spelling of the names, maybe only try the first name and cross reference locations. Or check the hospital/clinics website and look at the doctors’ credentials. See where they trained, fellowships, what area they were trained, what papers they wrote. This will give you an indication of their specialty sometimes. If they have an English website, try that. If they also have a main korean website - use google translator in Chrome. Usually Korean websites have a lot more thorough and updated information. Or just ask the doctor/clinic if the doctor is a board certified plastic surgeon. It’s a yes/no question.
2. Cost. In a smaller clinic where it would be too expensive to hire an anesthesiologist full time, some may contract one for the day if available, or as you mentioned, the doctor may have trained and learned how to administer it themselves. Depending on the scope of the operation it could be ok… but it also does present an additional risk. Just like how non “PS board certified” doctors are doing plastic surgery, there are non “anesthesiology board-certified” doctors administering anesthesia. All doctors (including PS) are cross trained during their residency, so administering shots of local anesthesia and/or sedation isn’t too far out of scope of their experience.
3.Sedation vs. General anesthesia. Why? Simple. Cost. General anesthesia is expensive and requires another doctor to monitor. If the cost of the operation is less, patients can be charged less and/or the clinic’s profit margins can be improved. From what I understand, patients under general anesthesia are easier to work with for the surgeon. The patient is in a more relaxed state and knocked out. Depending on the type of procedure - larger/more invasive, it is usually always preferred. However, some larger procedures can be done with local anesthesia and sedation. It’s a little more difficult for the surgeon (again, depending on the operation), and the patient’s body isn’t as relaxed. However, I’m not sure about the post-op experience for the patient, but the patient is knocked out in both cases during the operation. Perhaps others can chime in. I would be really curious to hear. But again, to answer your question - it’s cost saving. So while clinics are pressured to lower prices, due to various factors, in order to stay competitive and in business, they have to figure out ways to reduce costs while maintaining the quality and prices that attract patients. If you really want general anesthesia - tell the doctor you’d prefer to go under and ask how much more it would cost if they were able to hire an anesthesiologist for your operation. After I finished writing this, I found this on Realself.. And thought it was helpful - https://www.realself.com/question/maui-breast-augmentation-general-anesthesia-iv-sedation
Hope that helps!!! Again - please feel free to chime in if anyone would like to add or share!
