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.
