Is Plastic Surgery Really Less Regulated Abroad than in the US?

Many of our visitors to this site ask themselves this exact same question.
We are told frequently that surgeons in america are better trained, qualified and controlled than in any other country on the planet. But, we are usually told this by plastic surgeons operating in america, or professional bodies representing the plastic surgery industry in america.

We don’t seem to hear this quite as often from non-biased sources. This is just because as a statement, it is very misleading.
The truth is that in the US, plastic surgery is basically unregulated. A harsh truth, and lots of people won’t want to believe it.
But I’ll repeat it again.
Plastic surgery in America is unregulated.
Sure, you will find voluntary organizations that you can pay to become listed on, that give a veneer of regulation.
A surgeon could be Board Certified, but doesn’t need to be.
Any doctor with a licence to rehearse medicine can legally perform any method that the patient would like to have done. Since plastic surgery is lucrative, and also, since it is elective, and therefore not interfered in by medical insurers, many doctors have selected to move into the field of plastic surgery.
Even if a doctor says that they are “Board Certified”, this really is fairly meaningless. There is several board, and boards are merely assembled so that their members know that they are “Board-Certified”.
President of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, Angelo Cuzalina (himself originally a dental surgeon who switched to cosmetic surgery) is on record as stating that of the AACS’s members only around 8% are board certified, estimating that in america there are between 50,000 to 100,000 doctors performing cosmetic surgery procedures who aren't board-certified plastic surgeons.
Even more shockingly, many of these plastic surgeons were trained by doctors who aren't, themselves board certified plastic surgeons.
Regulations change from State to State; but nonetheless very few regulators appear prepared to restrict the freedom of doctors using their company specialties ”having a go” at plastic surgery. It's more left to the doctor’s personal ethics and discretion to determine whether he is sufficiently skilled to carry out a cosmetic procedure.
Until this stops to be the case, the plastic surgery industry in america really has no claims to being anymore regulated than any other country.