lifestyle of a plastic surgeon

[boardsbandit524]

Can anyone give me a ballpark lifestyle description of your average plastic surgeon? (One that would be willing to be totally cosmetic and has no interest in academics).

I have researched extensively on this topic and have read that sometimes one must work 60+ hours a week to establish a practice. Other sites have reports of plastic surgeons working like 3 days a week.

I would dream of a plastics job where I could work 40-50 hours a week and make 400K+. Is this possible? Am I dreaming? Just wondering...

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[boardsbandit524]

ps what is average call like?

 

[bananamed]

You can't ask us. You have to ask winners. See above.

Alternatively, you can catch a glimpse of the true plastic surgery lifestyle on Mondays. 10 Eastern/9 Central. Only on E!

The super new season is bigger than ever. And I'm not just talking about the funbags.

 

[boardsbandit524]

ROFL, seriously though, I realize this is a noob post but couldn't you throw me a bone?

 

[JaggerPlate]

You can't ask us. You have to ask winners. See above.

Alternatively, you can catch a glimpse of the true plastic surgery lifestyle on Mondays. 10 Eastern/9 Central. Only on E!

The super new season is bigger than ever. And I'm not just talking about the funbags.

I think his appearance gets more and more absurd each time I see him.

 

[iBeast]

You can't ask us. You have to ask winners. See above.

Alternatively, you can catch a glimpse of the true plastic surgery lifestyle on Mondays. 10 Eastern/9 Central. Only on E!

The super new season is bigger than ever. And I'm not just talking about the funbags.

He can't dress. Look at his pants and ugly makeup lolll

 

[boardsbandit524]

anyone, please?

 

[...to_the_OR!]

PRS is a really diverse field. 12 hr dieps, complex osteotomies, and replants. These can make for weeks much greater than 50hrs.

Realistically most docs, no matter what field, don't work 3 days a week. It just really doesn't work with overhead for your office (ie you still have to pay for insurance, electricity, etc... whether you work 1 or 7 days a week). Once you get some experience with surgeons you'll find out that most of us like to be operating. Therefore 50-60+ hrs as a private practice attending is fairly average. Those that are hardcore will work 12-13 hr days all week and cover ED for face trauma and face lacs and usually get paid better than the guy working 8 to 4. Even for 100% cosmo guys, those who are doing facelifts at 6pm will make more than the guy who knocks off at 2pm.

Moral of the story... PRS is not 8 to 4 cosmo. It's possible I suppose, but many work on building their cosmo referral base for years. Any surgical specialty is a lot of work. The PRS residents at my program work just as many hrs as the GS guys.

 

[Rogue990]

To the original poster - if that is your dream, I highly recommend you do not pursue plastics. I am not passing judgment on your aspirations, but this highly competitive field requires an intense drive beyond a desire to have a kush job. With rare exception, all plastic surgeons are hard-working. In order to compete, you will have to be too. Building a practice takes years of commitment and long days/nights.

If you want 9-5 with good money I'd recommend anesthesia, derm, or rads.

 

[badasshairday]

To the original poster - if that is your dream, I highly recommend you do not pursue plastics. I am not passing judgment on your aspirations, but this highly competitive field requires an intense drive beyond a desire to have a kush job. With rare exception, all plastic surgeons are hard-working. In order to compete, you will have to be too. Building a practice takes years of commitment and long days/nights.

If you want 9-5 with good money I'd recommend anesthesia, derm, or rads.

And ophtho.

 

[Mariah246]

If you want 9-5 with good money I'd recommend anesthesia, derm, or rads.

If you want 9-5 with good money, you want a time machine.

Nothing pays good money with 9-5 hours. Not in medicine. Not in business. Not in sanitation disposal. Even baseball players put in more than 9-5.

There's call in anesthesia.

There's a mountain of reading in derm.

There's call in radiology.

There's falling reimbursement in ophtho.

And on and on down the list.

It's trite, I certainly hated hearing it, but the older I get, the more I see the wisdom in "choose the field you love"

If you love something, you'll work at it. If you work at it, you'll be good at it. If you're good at it, you will be fairly reimbursed for your efforts.

I'll concede that everyone's notion of fairly reimbursed is highly subjective. But if you came to medical school with the idea that an MD degree would net you millions, then you probably want to go back to the 1st point of my post. You need a time machine to go back to that era.

 

[andexterouss]

If you want 9-5 with good money, you want a time machine.

Nothing pays good money with 9-5 hours. Not in medicine. Not in business. Not in sanitation disposal. Even baseball players put in more than 9-5.

There's call in anesthesia.

There's a mountain of reading in derm.

There's call in radiology.

There's falling reimbursement in ophtho.

And on and on down the list.

It's trite, I certainly hated hearing it, but the older I get, the more I see the wisdom in "choose the field you love"

If you love something, you'll work at it. If you work at it, you'll be good at it. If you're good at it, you will be fairly reimbursed for your efforts.

I'll concede that everyone's notion of fairly reimbursed is highly subjective. But if you came to medical school with the idea that an MD degree would net you millions, then you probably want to go back to the 1st point of my post. You need a time machine to go back to that era.

Sad but true. I shadowed a 70 year old DO family doctor who worked till 11pm some days!!
It's disheartening sometimes when you think about all the other career options one could have followed. I guess the one good thing about medicine(besides saving lives) is that we don't get laid off.

 

[MOHS_01]

If you want 9-5 with good money, you want a time machine.


It's trite, I certainly hated hearing it, but the older I get, the more I see the wisdom in "choose the field you love"

If you love something, you'll work at it. If you work at it, you'll be good at it. If you're good at it, you will be fairly reimbursed for your efforts.

1. Very true.

2. Also very true, with the caveat that even doing "what you love" ultimately becomes a job sooner or later. The luster will wear off....

3. Came out of the gate good; finish was less stellar -- fair reimbursement seems to be a very fluid target, and is definitely headed in the wrong direction for providers.

 

[Mariah246]

1. Very true.

2. Also very true, with the caveat that even doing "what you love" ultimately becomes a job sooner or later. The luster will wear off....

3. Came out of the gate good; finish was less stellar -- fair reimbursement seems to be a very fluid target, and is definitely headed in the wrong direction for providers.

2. The luster will wear off but if you're already struggling to digest the material from the start due to lack of interest, that's a bad sign.

3. I agree it's headed in the wrong direction myself but you won't find too many people who will feel pity for physicians. Heck, in this economic climate, everything is headed in the wrong direction. Want to get rich? It seems like the only option left is to do immoral or even illegal things.

That is, short of having a cannon as a left arm.

 

[Long Dong]

Can anyone give me a ballpark lifestyle description of your average plastic surgeon? (One that would be willing to be totally cosmetic and has no interest in academics).

I have researched extensively on this topic and have read that sometimes one must work 60+ hours a week to establish a practice. Other sites have reports of plastic surgeons working like 3 days a week.

I would dream of a plastics job where I could work 40-50 hours a week and make 400K+. Is this possible? Am I dreaming? Just wondering...

My father is PRS/hand and does only reconstruction half the time at Kaiser the other half at a VA pulls ~400k/year, ~50hours/weak, on call from home about 1-2 nights/weak.

 

[GSresident]

If you are willing to take the risk and start your own practice in an area that other people might not be as willing to live in you can work little and make a buttload of money. I don't think I put in nearly 40 hours per week. I've never once been out of my house after 5:30PM or before 7:30AM since I started my practice in July. I take no ER call.

I take time off whenever I want it. I have plenty of time to spend with family. When I finish work today at 3PM (a long day for me) I am going home to carve pumpkins with my daughter. My wife will take her trick or treating tonight and I will stay home to watch the baby and hand out candy. Also tonight my sister, her husband and their daughter are coming up for trick or treating and dinner. Tomorrow my friend is flying his airplane into my town. I'll probably go up for a little ride. Tomorrow night I'm having dinner at my father's house. Sunday I am going to go up and help my second cousin and great uncle harvest corn. Life is good. I will collect an outrageous amount of money during my first year of practice and I am in negotiations currently to make that amount laughably ridiculous. I am doing all of this with a 95% reconstructive practice. As my cosmetic practice grows the numbers will be approaching obscene. There is no better field in medicine than plastic surgery.

 

[Mariah246]

If you are willing to take the risk and start your own practice in an area that other people might not be as willing to live in you can work little and make a buttload of money. I don't think I put in nearly 40 hours per week. I've never once been out of my house after 5:30PM or before 7:30AM since I started my practice in July. I take no ER call.

I take time off whenever I want it. I have plenty of time to spend with family. When I finish work today at 3PM (a long day for me) I am going home to carve pumpkins with my daughter. My wife will take her trick or treating tonight and I will stay home to watch the baby and hand out candy. Also tonight my sister, her husband and their daughter are coming up for trick or treating and dinner. Tomorrow my friend is flying his airplane into my town. I'll probably go up for a little ride. Tomorrow night I'm having dinner at my father's house. Sunday I am going to go up and help my second cousin and great uncle harvest corn. Life is good. I will collect an outrageous amount of money during my first year of practice and I am in negotiations currently to make that amount laughably ridiculous. I am doing all of this with a 95% reconstructive practice. As my cosmetic practice grows the numbers will be approaching obscene. There is no better field in medicine than plastic surgery.

Posts like this make me want to drop everything and consider going through the rigors of a general surgery residency in order to secure that plastics fellowship