Thank you for your question!
You’re asking if there is an age after which plastic surgeons should not operate.
And you describe in your question that you met a very nice oculoplastic surgeon who is
in their 70s and you’re concerned about the surgeon operating around your eyes as
you stated as the eyes are so delicate.
Well, I can certainly give you some perspective as an insider in the field of oculoplastic
surgery.
A little bit of background, I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon and fellowship
trained oculoplastic and oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
I’ve been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years and I specialize
in delicate eyelid surgery every day in my practice.
So I think that your question in many ways has certain obvious relevance but I would
say age is probably not the limiting factor when it comes to making this type of decision.
Throughout my career, many doctors who are well in their 70s in different specialties,
not only in oculoplastic, but general surgery, otolaryngology, dentistry who are very good
at what they do and I think that when someone feels that they’re just not able to do what
they once did very well, they will naturally start to slow down.
You know, I think reality is that the person who is in their 70s and is still practicing
and is comfortable practicing, if you feel comfortable with this doctor, then I don’t
think you should have that concern.
If you don’t see any signs that the doctor’s not going to be able to do the operation the
way you like, then of course, you should ultimately make a decision but I have many colleagues
who I personally know who are very good who are operating in their 70s.
You know, it’s kind of a funny thing.
There is a time in one’s career where people may feel that you’re too young to operate
on them and then there is of course the time when people are too old to operate but I think
that yes, there are going to be the occasional doctors who are still operating and their
skills are not where they should be or where they were.
I think that doctors who are ethical and who are real masters of the craft will know when
there’s a time to make this decisions.
And a lot of times, it’s not just about age.
Sometimes you feel that you just don’t want to do certain procedures because where’s
there’s the physical stress of whether it’s the time that it takes to do a certain procedure.
I think that one of the things you may want to do is just talk to the office staff.
Most of the time the office staff, you’ll be able to read them and be able to feel if
they feel that the doctor is very confident and comfortable.
In my practice, many of my office staff, many of them I have operated on, not just once
but several times for different reasons over the years and even when new employees come
in, very often, I end up doing procedures for them or procedures on their family members.
That’s a real vote of confidence.
It’s very meaningful to me that the people who work with me in my practice, have that
level of confidence in me and want me to be their doctor for themselves and their family
members.
So you may want to ask somebody who works at the office if he or she was going to operate
on your family member, would you be comfortable with that.
And if you read the reaction being unquestionable, then I don’t think you have to worry about
it.
Like I said, I think that, as we are getting older but with age, there is a significant
group of people who still are very healthy, very strong, very sharp and very inspired
to keep working in their chosen profession then I don’t think that you have to be concerned
based on the age alone.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question!