As a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon, my practice at Yager Esthetics is mainly one of surgery. In order to keep my patients safe and pain free, I need to provide anesthesia. This is a topic even the most educated patients neglect to ask about.

Some patients do have strong feelings about the type of anesthesia used, and if they have had bad experiences in the past, will prefer not to use the same technique. General anesthesia, monitored sedation, regional anesthesia, and local anesthesia are all used in my AAAASF accredited outpatient surgery center.

General is a type of anesthesia where the patient is totally unconscious and usually requires a breathing tube. Monitored sedation is a technique where IV medicines put you in a twilight sleep where you do not see, feel, or hear anything. Regional is most commonly epidural in my practice, where the lower half of the body is numbed with an injection in the back (as in c-sections and labor).
Local is when you are awake, and an injection numbs the area, like at the dentist.
But who is giving the anesthesia? Anesthesia is the most important thing for safety, and in my practice it is only given by a Board Certified Anesthesiologist. I am a Plastic Surgeon, and for me to supervise a Nurse Anesthetist is not the safest thing for my patients. I have to concentrate on surgery and beautiful results, not worry about blood pressure and heart rhythms. That is why I pay much more for a doctor to do that for my patients.

So when you go on consults for plastic surgery, after you know that your surgeon is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, find out where the procedure is done, make sure it is an accredited facility, and that a Board Certified Anesthesiologist will be there 100% of the time.