Cosmetic surgery is one of the most specialised areas of medicine, and it is fast becoming one of the most attractive for trainee doctors and surgeons-to-be. Qualifying in cosmetic surgery is essential to practice, but it’s not necessarily a guaranteed process, and much is dependent on whether you can dedicate enough time to your specialisation and whether there are vacancies within your chosen medical niche. Nevertheless for any student aspiring to become fully qualified as a cosmetic surgeon, there is one main path towards achieving that objective.

Academia

Naturally, an essential aspect to the qualification process for cosmetic surgery is a study of general medicine. Before having the option of specialising as a cosmetic surgeon, one must complete a University degree in medicine, and complete the necessary on the job training and academic work associated with achieving said degree. By and large, this training process can take between 7 and 10 years depending on how directly you approach the training process. However, following on from this, there are still a number of stages to go in the qualification process before you will be able to practice plastic surgery.

Qualification

After studying the academic side of medicine en route to qualification as a physician, you must continue through professional tests and on the job training to progress from being a junior doctor into the ranks of general practitioner. For the student looking to progress into cosmetic surgery, it may be better to opt for experience within a surgical environment, rather than in general practice, where the opportunities for progression to surgery may be more limited

Experience

Beyond qualifying as a doctor, prior to specialisation, you will be required to serve your time and build up experience within the surgical and medical working environments. Usually, specialists are experienced surgeons that have a number of years of experience in their chosen field and in practice more generally, and this is the level of qualification you’ll need to achieve in order to have the opportunity to specialist in cosmetic surgery.

Thus the path to becoming a fully qualified specialist in cosmetic surgery is long and it requires dedication and a passion for cosmetic surgery to undertake. However, given the level of achievement qualification as a plastic surgeon marks, the rewards are there for the medical student determined to reach his goal.

Liposuction is often touted as a solution for the obese, and is frequently cited as one of the most popular cosmetic treatments an individual can have. It’s seen as an innocent procedure that can be conducted on an outpatient basis, and one that can be used as a fashion accessory to improve muscle definition and remove particularly stubborn fatty deposits.

What people don’t realise is that liposuction, like any surgical procedure carries its own breed of risks and associated problems. In fact, liposuction is quite a serious trauma to subject your body to, and it isn’t as simple as just sucking fat from under your skin. As the growing number of scarred, dissatisfied patients will testify, liposuction can and does go horribly wrong from time to time, and it is important to be fully aware of the risks before taking the plunge.

Let’s kick this off by saying that roughly one in 10,000 liposuction patients die as a result of the operation. Not such an innocent procedure after all, it would seem. Amongst some of the more common side effects and complications of liposuction are bleeding from the wound, which can pour from the hole, infection, damage to certain nervous tissues, permanent loss of sensation, puncturing the bowel or even heart failure.

The fact of the matter is, liposuction is a medical procedure that requires, more than many others, a highly skilled operative to conduct proceedings. The surgeon you opt for, if he’s worth his salts, will make sure you understand that this isn’t a fashion-only procedure, but is in fact a highly dangerous process.

The most obvious alternative to liposuction is the oldest and best in the book - it’s called dieting. Changing what you eat and improving your levels of exercise is the safest, most effective way to lose weight and to shift body fat, even from stubborn areas. A healthy balanced diet combined with a course of regular intensive exercise will not only help shift that excess weight and improve your appearance, but it will also leave you looking and feeling great in yourself without the need for expensive and dangerous surgery. With the help of a little common sense, the majority of liposuction cases could be avoided in favour of more stable weight loss, which can save you money and the major risks associated with any medical procedure.