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May 5, 2026 15 mins
In this episode of Plastic Surgery Uncensored, Dr. Rady Rahban takes on one of the most important—and most dangerously misunderstood—topics in aesthetic medicine: the real difference between plastic surgeons, cosmetic surgeons, and the confusing web of titles patients are expected to decipher.
In today’s world, “board-certified” doesn’t always mean what patients think it means. Marketing can be polished, credentials can sound impressive, and yet the actual training behind those titles may be vastly different. Dr. Rahban breaks down the realities of surgical education, board certification, scope of practice, and how this lack of transparency continues to mislead patients every single day.
This isn’t about ego or professional turf—it’s about patient safety. Because when you’re trusting someone with your face, body, and health, understanding exactly who trained them, what they were trained to do, and whether they are truly qualified matters.
This episode is a direct call for patients to do their homework, ask better questions, and stop assuming all surgeons are created equal. In aesthetic surgery, what you don’t know can absolutely cost you—and informed decisions are everything.

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✔️ Share this episode with someone considering plastic surgery—the right knowledge can save a life. 🎙️ Plastic Surgery Uncensored: Real talk. Real patients. Real results.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to another episode of Plastic Surgery on Censor. As always,
I'm your host, doctor Roddy Raban, and this week's episode
is yet another one of my usual rants. This time
it's about the distinction between cosmetic surgeons and plastic surgeons. Now,
for those of you who've been listening to my podcast
now for five years, know that we have we record

(00:29):
this several times in the past because it's such a
big topic and instead of just re recording it, I
like to record instead of just reposting the old recordings
re re recorded because well, I feel like it's fresh
and it's got new energy. At any rate, it pisses
me off so much that I want to rerecord it
myself every once in a while. So hope you enjoy
the show and pay close attention because we're going to

(00:51):
go through a lot of very sticky information. So in
the past, if someone wanted to do their breast, their
nose any type of esthetic, I'm going to use the
word esthetic right now, so you understand any type of
esthetic surgery, you would go and find yourself a plastic surgeon.
The end. That was the end of it. At that point.

(01:13):
If you really wanted to do your homework, you'd say,
is this plastic surgeon board certified or not? And what
that would mean is that that plastic surgeon, after they
finished their plastic surgery training, they sat in front of
the American Board of Plastic Surgery, they got tested, and

(01:33):
that board deemed them, according to their standards, to be certified,
and they would certify you as like super, top, notch excellent.
In my humble opinion, there is a zero and I
mean zero reason for you to ever be operated on
anyone that is not a board certified plastic surgeon. There
just isn't. There's so many of them, and there's so

(01:57):
many great ones all over the country. So that's that
the confusion started years and years ago when other surgeons
who were doing other specialties. Let's just take for example,
I was a general surgeon removing gallbladders. I removed gall bladders,
I did hernias, I did intestinal surgery. Many years ago.

(02:21):
Those surgeons there, and this is my opinion, their reimbursement,
the money they were getting for their surgeries was getting diminished,
and that's the fault of the American public. And what
happened is that their insurance payments for a gallbladder removal
went from ten dollars to eight dollars to seven dollars

(02:42):
to five dollars to three dollars, and so it became
less desirable for them to do your surgery, take on
the risks, etc. And while they were operating, doing your
gallbladder for three dollars, in the operating room next to
them was their friend who was a plastic surgeon, doing
a breast dog for ten dollars. And they were thinking

(03:03):
to himself, Hey, what the hell this is bullshit? Why
am I getting three dollars for your gallbladder and that
guy is getting ten dollars for your breast dog. I
can do a breast dog. And enough of them decided
that this is bullshit and they can do it that.
They literally decided, let's make our own specialty. Did you

(03:26):
hear what I just said? They all decided, let's make
our own specialty. What are we gonna call it? Cosmetic surgery?
Oh wait, that's tricky. They didn't call it plastic surgery.
They call it cosmetic surgery. And they call themselves cosmetic surgeons.
So who are these people? None of them are plastic surgeons.

(03:49):
None of them went to plastic surgery school. These are
all people who went to obdyn general surgery or compedic surgery,
urology whatever, and then decided, f this crap. I want
to do boob jobs and fatifs and rhinoplasty and tummy tucks.

(04:09):
So then over time this group created their own alternative
universe called the Cosmetic Surgery Board. They actually made their
own board. In other words, we all got they all
got together and said, I'm good, let's make our own board.
And they made up their own training, and they made
up their own parallel universe. It's literally the equivalent of

(04:33):
the regular web and the dark Web. And then they
started giving themselves certificates. So they're like, okay, so you're
a general surgeon. You went to general surgery school, you graduated,
you got pissed off, you went to the cosmetic surgery group,
got some, in my opinion, hokey pokey training. You now
call yourself a cosmetic surgeon, and that board, which is

(04:55):
not the accrediting Board of America that everyone on respects
their own self board, gives them board certification in cosmetic surgery.
Now you can begin to understand how goddamn confusing this
is and why so many patients get screwed. So you're
online and you're doing homework, and you're coming across surgeons

(05:18):
that are so called cosmetic surgeons, board certified. If you
don't know any better, ninety nine point nine percent of people.
Sounds great. They go so far as saying that they're
specialists in cosmetic surgery, and me, as a plastic surgeon,
I'm general, I was trained in burned surgery and hand

(05:38):
surgery and whatnot. That's how crazy they double down. And
then if you dig and dig and dig, none of
them went to plastic surgery school. And if you dig,
they're board certified usually in obgyn, they're Board certified in
general surgery, they're board certified in orthopedics. And so this

(05:58):
is really problematic. Once more patients are in disbelief, there
is just no way this is true, doctor Rabond, How
is it possible that in America do you have this
group of doctors doing things they weren't really well trained
to do. Isn't the government involved? No? Isn't the DADA

(06:21):
DA board involved? No? They you think that there's some overriding,
arching governmental agency something watching out for you, making sure
that people are doing what they're trained to do, And
the answer is no. In America, if you get your
medical degree and you do two years of any basic residency,

(06:44):
you can go and practice any damn medicine you want. So,
if I, doctor Roddy Rabond tomorrow wanted to do and
affected me or remove your kidney or gallbladder or whatever,
I could, now, how is that possible. Here's the here's
the cornerstone, here's the here's the this is this is

(07:07):
how they get around it. If I go tomorrow to
Cedars Sinai Medical Center, one of the top hospitals in
the country, and I told them that I, doctor Roddy Rabon,
wanted to do brain surgery, they would not allow me
to do it. Why because I, doctor Rody Rabond, have
no privileges, no right to do that at Cedars. Cedars

(07:31):
would then check my training, how many of them I've done,
get peer reviews, and Cedars would decide if I'm allowed
to or not, And clearly they won't let me do
it because I have no right doing that. If, however,
I go to a private surgery center, one that has
nothing to do with the hospital, let's say even better,
my own surgery center, who is the medical director of

(07:53):
my surgery center, me and I doctor Roddy Rabond decides
who gets to do what in my surgery center. I
am the one that is giving accreditation to people. So
the reason this is happening, and the reason this is
possible is because ninety nine percent of esthetic surgery, Notice

(08:13):
I didn't say cosmetic surgery is being done in private offices,
in private surgery centers. So doctor Joe Smoe, who's in
Obduin can do your tummy tuck advertise as a cosmetic surgeon.
Confused to shit at you call them self board certified
and pow you have a complication, and you are scratching

(08:33):
your head going, what the fuck? How did this happen
to me? Who is the one that has to carry
this burden? You? You are the one you need to
do the homework. You And I'm telling you it's super confusing,
so much so that I have had other doctors come
to me for surgery and when I ask them who
all they've seen, they give me the name of one

(08:54):
or two people. I'm like, wait, wait, I don't I've
never heard that person. Because I obviously know everyone in
the community. We google them and we dig and dig
and dig and dig and dig into their website only
to find out this mother Effort is not even a
plastic surgeon, and this is a doctor who got confused,
let alone a regular patient. Now, between plastic surgeon and

(09:15):
cosmetic surgeon, there is two other specialties that fall in between,
e and t ear, nose and throat. I went to school,
I trained, and I do you know, ears and sinuses
and throat surgery and things like tonsils. They go on
to additional training and then they come out and they

(09:36):
do facial plastics. So I want you to listen very carefully.
They go on to do facial plastics means they come
out and they start doing cosmetic surgery rather excuse me, sorry,
esthetic surgery of the face. They do those jobs, facelifts, eyelids, etc.
Is that okay, Yes, that's okay. Because they're well trained

(09:59):
and they got additional training and they're staying within their lane.
They and plastic surgeons are allowed to do those jobs
and faceless and eyelids. But what they shouldn't do, and
what they do all the time is drop the word
facial call themselves plastic surgeons, which is misleading. And then

(10:22):
in addition, many of them go on to do things
that they shouldn't be doing, like breast dogs and tummy tucks,
which they have no training to do. In addition to
this group, you have optomologists, guys that went and trained
about the eye and they go on to do extra
training and then they go on to do cosmetic surgery
of the eye, eyebrow, eyelids, cause blepheroplastics, et cetera. Is

(10:46):
that okay? Yes, because they're well trained to do eyelid surgery.
So that means that if you decide to do your eyelids,
you can go to an oculoplastics, facial plastics or plastic surgeon.
All fine, But when you go see an oculo plastic
surgeon doing a facelift, we got a problem. They're outside

(11:09):
their lane. And for all of you who feel overwhelmed
and wow, this is so goddamn confusing, you have every right.
This is a very confusing subject matter and as a result,
patients every day in this country, and frankly this is
happening globally, are going to wrong people with chitty training,

(11:30):
assuming that someone else is going to help them. You
need to understand the alphabet soup I just said to you,
and you need to do your homework, so I'm going
to review it for you one more time. Plastic surgeons
go to plastic surgery residency. Plastic surgeons can then be
board certified in plastic surgery. They are, in my opinion,

(11:51):
the Grand Puba of esthetic surgeons head to toe. Then
you have e and ts who go on to do
aesthetic training in face and neck, and if they decide
to do face lives and noses and things, no problem,
well trained. What they ought not to do is advertisize

(12:11):
themselves as plastic surgeons. That's misleading, nor should they do anything,
as we say, south of the clavicle. Then you have
optomologists who go on to do aesthetic training, and they
should and can one percent do cosmetic surgery of the eye,
but should not eliminate the word oculo and call themselves
plastic surgeons that specialize in eyes and absolutely should do

(12:33):
nothing other than eyelids. And the last and by far
the most misleading, in my opinion, inaccurate group of people
are cosmetic surgeons who are obgyns and general surgeons and
everyone that has no right doing this, who created the
alternative universe, give themselves their own boards, and frankly in

(12:54):
my opinion, are really confusing patients and in my opinion,
misleading them. Now, as long as you know everything I
just said to you, and you decide that, hey, I
found a cosmetic surgeon. This person was an obgyn by training,

(13:15):
went on and did whatever additional training they like, and
I like their work, and I know that that's who
they are, all the power to you. That's called an
informed decision. That's called informed consent. You know who you're
dealing with, and in that respect, no problem. I'm all
for it. If you go to an optomologist and do

(13:37):
a facelift and they told you their training was an optomology,
all the power to you. Why I am pissed is
this is done to mislead people. And I have pushed
and pushed and pushed and pushed for academic transparency forever
and ever. That means every single website should have your

(13:57):
training as clear as English so that pay can decide
for themselves rather than all this misleading information. And we'll
frankly no legislation like that even comes close to existing.
So I leave this with you. You're on your own. So
my recommendation to you, as it has always been, is
do your homework. Do your homework. Do your homework. And

(14:20):
I hope this episode helps clarify a little bit for
you the alphabet soup of esthetic surgery. And yeah, just
be careful. All right. That's it. That's a wrap. That
is this week's episode of Plastic Surgery and centered as
always to requests. One, go and write us a happy review.
Go write us something nice. If you have nothing nice
to say, don't write any And secondly, if you know

(14:42):
anyone that you think may might sort of be considering
plastic surgery, send them our podcast. The last thing you
want to hear is that they do surgery. They got
boughts and you're like, God, I wish you'd listened to
this episode. Well, how do they know that this existed?
So those are our two requests at any rate, Signing off,
as always, doctor Riter Ramon on this week's episode of
Classic Surgery. See you next week.
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