- Faced with the proliferation of names that can confuse patients, professionals with the only official title of “Doctor Specialist in Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery” undertake an online campaign to clarify who they are, how they have been trained and why to resort to them.
Madrid, 4 October 2018
Spanish plastic surgeons, grouped around the Spanish Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (SECPRE), today began the online campaign #Pidenoseltitulo. Its objective is that all citizens who are going to undergo an intervention of this type or are considering it are aware of the existence of a single official title and approved in Spain with the name of “Medical Specialist in Plastic, Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery”.
In order to hold this degree, those who hold it have had to go through a long and demanding training period of at least 12 years: 6 to obtain a degree in Medicine, 1 for the MIR examination and -if, due to the mark obtained in this test, they obtain the desired position- another 5 as resident doctors in an accredited hospital.
As its name indicates, the specialty of Plastic, Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery has two aspects: Cosmetic Surgery, whose purpose is aesthetic or of form, and Reconstructive Surgery, whose purpose is also of function (correction of congenital malformations, sequelae of trauma or tumors, treatment of burns, etc.), so that most of the interventions corresponding to the latter are covered by the National Health System.
In this regard, it should be noted that, in recent years, doctors trained as specialists in Plastic, Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery in Spain are among the best numbers in the MIR exam and that the places for Internal Resident Physicians corresponding to this specialty are among the first to be exhausted.
For a simple matter of language economy, the holders of the title of “Specialist Doctor in Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery” usually refer to themselves as “plastic surgeons” or – if they perform, above all, interventions with aesthetic purpose – “aesthetic surgeons”. But this does not mean that there is either the “specialty of Cosmetic Surgery”, nor the title of “Doctor Specialist in Cosmetic Surgery”, nor so many other supposed specialties or titles that include, together with “Surgery”, the words “Plastic”, “Aesthetics” or “Cosmetic” in their denomination.
SECPRE – the only society that, within the Federation of Spanish Scientific and Medical Associations (FACME), represents the specialty of Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery – can only belong to doctors in possession of the aforementioned official title. Therefore, apart from asking for this, another option for citizens who are considering surgery for aesthetic purposes is to verify that the professional who attends them is a member of the Society.
Through the campaign #CirugiaPlastica #Pidenoseltitulo, the thousand members of SECPRE will use both hashtags in their social networks, from today and during a week, to explain to the citizens the different surgical-aesthetic interventions to which they can resort and why a professional with the title of “Specialist in Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery” is qualified to perform them with the maximum guarantees of safety and quality, having received specific training on all of them.
