The Justification

It is not uncommon for patients to casually ask us as residents what our plans are for the future. Many of them ask simply because they don't understand the process and think that we are there in the eye clinic for just a rotation and may eventually become a neuroradiologist. So following, a conversation ensues usually beginning with an explanation as to what it is I'm doing there and that I am, in fact, old enough to do their eye surgery and that is what I plan on doing for the rest of my life.

Then they might want to know more about what my plans are. I may then decide to go into further detail regarding my fellowship plans and desire to become an oculoplastic surgeon. The problem with this is there is a stigma associated with plastic surgery. Much of the general public automatically jumps to boob jobs or face lifts when you mention plastic surgery. The reality is that this field goes much further than this. So before the patient starts to form opinions about how I am simply in the field to make money and not actually help patients, I tell them even more. I explain how I want to go into academics and primarily focus on functional (non-cosmetic) surgery. I tell them I want to work with trauma and tumor patients.

The reality is, if you are putting some one's face back together, you still want a good cosmetic result. And after having been on a few interviews, I have realized that plastic surgery is actually fun in some case. Yes, the strictly cosmetic practice takes a special kind of doctor for a special type of patient population with lots of hand-holding - things I am not willing to make a career for myself doing. But I would like to know how to do this stuff, and maybe even be good at it enough to do it once in a while.