You’re smart, you’re prepared, and you’ve done your homework checking with friends as well as read all there is about your procedure and surgeon. In fact, on general review sites and plastic surgery specific review and referral sites, the accolades consistently rank the surgeon or doctor you are interested in as the ‘best’, the patient testimonials practically claim the specific procedure or surgeon as a near miracle/miracle worker, so why should you be concerned?

A couple of years ago www.surgeryinsder.com printed a fascinating article that placed a spotlight on Cosmetic Surgeon Review Websites, the article very much sent a loud message out: ‘BUYER BEWARE’ it concluded..

Why? Well it seems that more and more folks are becoming reliant and trusting of on-line review sites for various products and services. Within the article it was noted that the founder of a leading cosmetic surgery review site stated; ‘no site can effectively monitor consumer generated reviews’.

Surgery insider stated ‘Ask yourself whether the dozen or so (if there are even that many versus hundreds if not thousands for a product) reviews for a surgeon or procedure are sufficient to earn your trust, or are you being duped?’.

Take for example the Lifestyle Lift, a popular one hour surgical lift that promises you amazing results by any surgeon in its program with very little recovery time, sort of an ‘one surgery fits all’ approach. Heavily promoted in major media outlets on network and cable news, TV shows, radio, on-line search engines, as well as popular womens lifestyle magazines, the company garnered numerous favourable reviews by users in various reviews sites and blogs. Visit its website, and you would have found a prominent, official looking seal of ‘code of internet conduct and assurance’ next to pages dedicated to non-profit contributions to Haiti and childrens relief programs.

Too bad Lifestyle Lift agreed to pay $300,000 in costs and penalties to the State of New York for having its employees post fictitious reviews of its services. According to the New York Times on July 14, 2009,

The company had ordered employees to pretend they were satisfied customers and write glowing reviews of its face-lift procedure on Web sites, according to the attorney generals statement. Lifestyle Lift also created its own sites of face-lift reviews to appear as independent sources.

One e-mail message, discovered by the attorney generals office, told employees to ‘devote the day to doing more postings on the Web as a satisfied client’.

New Yorks attorney general Andrew M. Cuomo issued a statement that Lifestyle Lifts attempt to generate business by duping consumers was ‘cynical, manipulative and illegal’.

So what about your top ranked ‘QUALIFIED REGISTERED CERTIFIED cosmetic surgeon WITH LOTS OF FANCY INITIALS AFTER HIS/HER NAME’?

According to a 2009 article by Marie Claire magazine:

‘It’s easy for charlatans to market themselves as the real deal. Attorney Aronfeld had a case in which a sham plastic surgeon put up a spiffy website and papered his office walls with bogus diplomas, even fooling the Spanish version of Good Morning America on the Telemundo network into featuring him. Aronfelds client Victoria Arnaiz went in for liposuction and came out with crater-like indentations on her back and cottage-cheese-like lumps rippling across her abdomen’. ‘It turned out the guy wasn’t a doctor at all’ says Aronfeld. ‘With Photoshop and a website, I could turn you into a plastic surgeon overnight’. They’ve tweaked the game up so that it’s no longer just back-alley kind of stuff. They rent an office, it looks legitimate with the marble floors; it smells nice, and they’re wearing doctors jackets.

Unfortunately with the increasing prominence and reliance of review sites also comes abuse. Until someone develops adequate policing mechanisms, objective measurements such as formal medical accreditation, number of malpractice lawsuits, and other records of court ordered legal actions provide consumers your only means to quantify whether one surgeon is ‘better’ than another in terms of education and violations.

Do your research. Shop around, as a buyer protecting the interest and wellbeing of your life and health you have every right to be aware.

With kind thanks: Source of information: thesurgeryinsider.com, MarieClaire On-line