How can you avoid getting tricked when choosing your cosmetic surgeon in Sydney?

Your choice of plastic surgeon in Sydney should rest primarily with your trust of that surgeon. If you’re looking for a cosmetic surgeon in Sydney, recommendations from other doctors such as your GP are a good place to start. You should get a feeling from your initial consult with the cosmetic surgeon as to their level of care and commitment to ensuring a good result, and how they would deal with any problems that might arise. Surgery is not cabinet making – there will always be a complications in any surgeon’s practice even if they are the world leader in any procedure.

With procedures that are elective, there is always some competition for patients, and this especially so in cosmetic surgery.  Some of the common methods of presenting one’s status and results can be misleading. When looking for a plastic or cosmetic surgeon in Sydney, any of the following should be red flags.

1. Specialist titles

The Medical Board of Australia has encouraged doctors to use their nominated, protected titles that inform the public of their post graduate training. For example, only a surgeon that has completed training in plastic surgery can call themselves a ‘Specialist Plastic Surgeon’. Seeing this title is a good indicator of a quality plastic or cosmetic surgeon in Sydney. Other titles may sound similar, but do not require the same training. Check on your surgeon’s registered higher training here.

The Federal Guidelines for Registered Medical Practitioners who perform Cosmetic Surgery and Procedures that becomes law on 1st July 2023 states that:

10.2 Medical Practitioners must clearly inform their patient of their registration type, for example, general registration or specialist registration (including recognised specialty and filled of specialty practice if applicable).

This goes some way in providing patients with information as to if their cosmetic doctor has specialist recognition in surgery or plastic surgery, and comes into effect on 1st July 2023.

2. Dodgy credentials and associations

It looks impressive to see a long list of abbreviations and accreditations after a doctor’s name. However, some of those abbreviations might be intended to mislead you. Patients should check what each of those initials means, and if they are qualifications that are recognised by the Medical Board of Australia. Any society or accreditation that is not recognised by the Medical Board of Australia is not

International qualifications may not require training that is as rigorous as is required within Australia.

Many societies do not require any form of additional training to become a member. There is nothing stopping a surgeon from nominating themselves as the first, founding, presidential member of the Society of Awesome Cosmetic Surgeons, and adding a few extra initials after their name.

Are the initials and society memberships recognised by the Medical Board of Australia?

3. Honesty about articles and media

Patients that wish to understand the true ingenuity of their surgeon should check on the Impact Factor of the Journal that their articles were published in. Are their articles related to cosmetic surgery or something unrelated?

Articles in public media and magazines rarely have any scientific merit, and are essentially commentaries or paid advertorials. Interestingly, it is rare for the surgeons that most of us consider to be experts in their fields to actually be the people that the mass media request commentary from. An expert plastic or cosmetic surgeon in Sydney will likely have published articles in professional journals, but may never have spoken to the mass media.

4. Trick photography

When comparing before and after photos, patients need to check that the photos are standardised. Everyone is aware of the difference between their home snaps and what a professional photographer can produce. Some plastic or cosmetic surgeons in Sydney use photography tricks to make patients’ results look more impressive than they actually are.

The 2023 Guidelines for Registered Medical Practitioners who Advertise Cosmetic Surgery published by the Medical Board of Australia state that:-

Special care should be taken when using ‘before and after’ images in advertising a regulated health service as they have the potential to be highly misleading. These images may also cause a member of the public to have unreasonable expectations of a successful outcome. Use of ‘before and after’ images are less likely to be misleading if: 

• the images are as similar as possible in content, camera angle, background, framing and exposure 
• the posture, clothing and make-up is consistent
• the lighting and contrast are consistent 
• images are not altered in any way. 

Images that may increase unreasonable expectations of beneficial treatment includes: The use of single images of bodies, rather than before and after images to advertise cosmetic surgery. This includes stock images, and photos of patients, models, or celebrities. This is because in the case of images of patients, the use of single images does not allow for comparison to fairly show how cosmetic surgery has resulted in changes to the body shape. In the case of images of people who are not patients, including stock images, models, and celebrities, it is misleading as the person has not received any service from the practitioner. Any use of a single image of a person, or any part of a person, is misleading and may create an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment by promoting or presenting outcomes that may not be attainable for many people.

5. Breaking national advertising laws

As of the 1st June 2010, the Medical Board of Australia introduced guidelines for the advertising of regulated health services in an effort to protect the public from misleading medical advertising. High on the list of unacceptable advertising was the use of testimonials (paragraph 5d). These laws have been adjust several stems since then, and the current Federal Guidelines for Registered Medical Practitioners who Advertise Cosmetic Surgery come into effect on 1st July 2023

If your surgeon believes that it is OK to break the law, will they be ethical enough to stand by you if things do not go perfectly?

So to keep things fair, here is the dirt on me, Dr Gavin Sandercoe, updated for 1st July 2023.

AHPRA Registration – MED0001182300

AHPRA Specialist Field – Surgery, Plastic Surgery

Specialist Plastic Surgeon – Medical Board of Australia protected title

Professional Memberships

Royal Australasian College of Surgeons – the only college accredited to train surgeons by the Medical Board of Australia

Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons – professional society that requires training as a Specialist Plastic Surgeon by RACS

Australian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons – interest group within ASPS

Almost all of my published articles have been on facial reconstruction for trauma and congenital facial abnormalities. I have been co-author on several articles that have been published in the journal Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, which has the highest impact factor of any plastic surgery journal. Most of my teaching of plastic surgery trainees is on facial trauma reconstruction, the field that I spent my fellowship training in.

I have presented at National & International Conferences on cosmetic breast surgery and body contouring surgery techniques and results. Whilst training as a plastic surgeon, I also presented a paper on reconstruction after hand trauma at a few national and international conferences. I no longer perform hand surgery.

There is no list of my media commentaries because I have not made many. I agreed to comment on body contouring surgery in November 2010, and a half hour discussion with the journalist was cut down to a sentence that barely makes sense and is not completely accurate! From that point onwards, I decided to avoid media commentaries.

I do not advertise in magazines or newspapers. My patients find me through referrals and word of mouth rather than advertising. This also allows me to keep my prices lower than the competition as you are not paying for significant advertising costs.

My website before and after gallery is tightly controlled for consistency. For every before and after picture in the gallery, there is about 5 sets that do not make it – either through lack of patient consent, identifying factors such as tattoos, or inconsistent lighting or framing of images.

My website does not include any testimonials as the use of testimonials in medical advertising has been illegal since 1st June 2010. If you would like to speak to patients whom have had procedures performed on them by me, we would be happy to put you in contact with patients that have had the same procedure as you are seeking, so that you receive a relevant opinion.