In Mexico, to become a plastic surgeon one must first study to become Medical Doctor or Physician (In Mexico known as a Medical Surgeon or a General Physician). Then one must study three of four years of General Surgery and finally three more years of Plastic Surgery.

After practically living in hospitals during those formative years, and at the end of his or her specialization or residency, he should request certification of his professional capacity by the Mexican Board of Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery formed mainly by professors of the different recognized postgraduate programs in this field. The newly graduated Plastic Surgeon presents, for this special purpose, a highly demanding written and oral exam. Only once the applicant passes these difficult exams, does he become certified.

Once certified, and with the desire for continuing education, many specialists apply for additional training with a prestigious and recognized national or international Plastic Surgeon in a specific field of interest.

Plastic surgery is very vast and is composed of various areas such as Aesthetic Surgery, also known as beautifying and rejuvenating surgery, which deals with surgery for baldness, surgery of the face including forehead, eyelids, nose, mouth, cheeks, ears and neck; surgery of the breasts (augmentation, lift or reduction); body contouring where liposculpture and the correction of the flaccid abdomen are involved, as are the buttocks, the thighs, and the legs. 

Nevertheless, Aesthetic Surgery is only a part of our Specialty, because our professional practice also includes surgery of congenital malformations (birth defects), surgery of the skull, the hands, and of the genitourinary tract, among others. A fundamental part of our Specialty is the treatment of burn patients and of craniofacial trauma patients, treatment of the superior extremities, and in general of the musculoskeletal system, as is the reconstruction of defects secondary to the resection of tumors (onchological reconstruction), and microsurgery which requires the use of a microscope to reconstruct structures (such as veins and arteries) as small as 1 millimeter in diameter. 

Common procedures having to do with microsurgery are for example the re-implantation of amputated segments and also transplantation for the anatomical and functional reconstruction of diverse parts of the human body. 

Of course, all the problems related to normal or abnormal healing, are also competence of a Plastic Surgeon.

Happily, modern medicine can count on Plastic Surgery as an important element which benefits the human being in need of solving specific problems related to Body Image and Social Relations.