Why should the consultation be with a surgeon, not a non-medically trained assistant?

Only the surgeon has the training to fully assess the problem and discuss all the options for treatment of it. An assistant will only discuss what you have requested off a pre-prepared list, and this may not be the correct procedure to address the problem. For example, a lot of patients request breast augmentation to correct loss of breast volume post-pregnancy. If they have significant drooping of the breast, they may actually require mastopexy to lift the breast either with or without an augmentation – the surgeon will pick this up and discuss all the options, whereas a non-trained assistant will only discuss augmentation because that is what the patient requested. The surgeon will also give the patient a much better perspective of the likelihood of any specific complications in their case as determined by an assessment of their age, skin type, weight, body build, medical health, and smoking history. The assistant will just go through a pre-prepared list and give equal weight to ...  more