Have you ever had plastic surgery?

It depends on what you're having done.

I had a rhinoplasty at 17, and then ended up working for a well-known plastic surgeon for years. Let me know what sort of procedure you're talking about, and I'd be happy to go into more detail about prep, if there's any involved.

I have a friend who is a plastic surgeon and is in really big need of a nose job. He wants me to help him with his marketing, and I almost said, "Hey, get a nose job! Your deviated septum is bad for business." Alas, I held my original tongue .

For most surgeries, doctors will encourage you to eat healthy, etc, beforehand, but the BIG one (and the one that most people fail to do) is quit smoking. Smoking inhibits the wound healing process, and if you're having a major open procedure -- a tummy tuck or breast reduction -- smoking can really put the damper on healing. I've seen people with post-operative wounds that hadn't closed FOUR MONTHS after surgery, because they refused to give up cigarettes.

Researching doctors is a huge one too, and anyone considering any sort of plastic surgery needs to (a) consult with more than one physician and (b) make sure their surgeon is board-certified in plastic surgery by the ASPS. Anyone with an "MD" after their name can legally perform any surgical procedure, but the guy you want doing your boob job is the one who has done 400 of them, rather than someone who normally works as a podiatrist or a urologist and does some cosmetic work on the side.

The one that matters the most is ASPS, at http://www.plasticsurgery.org/. You have to be invited to join, it's a peer committee of other plastic surgeons, and you must have spent six years performing surgeries, with three of those years spent performing plastic surgery.

Consumers can search for doctors on the site at no charge, and find a specialist in their area. Although it won't indicate their particular track record, the ASPS will often decline to renew the membership of a surgeon who has too many malpractice suits against them.

If you want to look up a specific doctor's licensing information, you can go to your state's medical board for details. Some states, like Ohio, make licensure available online, so you can plug in the name of the doctor, see if his license is still valid, and find out whether there's any pending litigation against him.

PattiTheWicked said:

Smoking inhibits the wound healing process, and if you're having a major open procedure -- a tummy tuck or breast reduction -- smoking can really put the damper on healing.

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Well, looks like I quit smoking just in time then. I'm in dire need of both aforementioned procedures. *sigh* If only they were free.

I had mine done so many years ago that I don't think that anything I had to say would apply today. Back then, if you had surgery, you stayed in the hospital the night before and then stayed for five days after to make sure you were ok.

Today, even if you have major surgery, they've got their foot in your behind, kicking you out the door as soon as you can pronounce your name.