Center Cosmetic Surgery
Why are Osteopaths allowed to practice plastic surgery in Iowa?
I noticed a top plastic surgeon in Des Moines is a DO and not an MD. I thought Osteopaths were like Chiropractors. I don't understand how an Osteopath could be allowed to legally practice plastic surgery, i.e, perform breast reductions and put in implants, reattach fingers, give face lifts, liposuction, etc. That seems like an area of medicine that only a MD should be allowed to train for and perform.
Public Comments
- Alright, DO medical schools are accredited and I can assure you that they're not like chiropractors. They get largely the same training as MDs with more emphasis on preventative and alternative medicine. They're mostly trained to be family practice doctors, but some do specialize like your surgeon in Iowa.
- When I was visiting medical schools, I visited several MD and DO schools. DOs essentially take the same types of "in-school" boards and have the same education as MDs with the addition of learning manipulation (their chiropractic type treatments.) I dunno if it was a fad at the time or if they still do it, but many graduates of DO school in the early 90s took the MD boards in addition to their DO boards without any additional studying. I did end up doing my residency at a hospital where DOs were performing residencies in family practice, internal medicine, and radiology. There are good and bad DOs, just the same as MDs. To get board certified in a certain area like plastic surgery, the DOs and MDs share the same requirements and have to so the same things. P.S. My favorite endocrinologist and interventional cardiologists are DOs
- I work with both DO's and MD's. The schools are very similar, and many DO's train in residency programs side-by-side with MD's. It's a huge leap above chiropractic.
