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Can a plastic surgeon do cosmetic procedures but also specialize in like surgery of the hands or feet?

Well I am thinking of becoming a plastic surgeon and I was just wondering if they can do the regular cosmetic stuff but then also specialize in plastic surgery of the hands or feet. And also how much extra time it would take to specialize in the hands or feet. Please answer if you really know the answer

Public Comments

1. A plastic surgeon is a plastic surgeon if you specialize in something then that is basically what you will be doing because that will take up most of your time, but if you are a general plastic surgeon certified by the board then you can do any type of plastic surgery, there are people who specialize in only cosmetic surgery and that is all they do basically, that doesn'tt mean they are not capable of other things but their time is so consumed with their specialty, so it will be very difficult to find the time for anything else.
2. Actually I was sent to a cosmetic/plastic surgeon to remove a misshapen mole from the palm of my hand. The dermatologist told me that they were the only ones that could remove it because of how tight the skin is on the hand and all of the nerve endings and capillaries in the hand.
3. I cut my hand really badly and I had to have a skin graft on some fingers. Dr Boynton did my surgery and he is a plastic surgeon who specializes in hand surgery. I dont know about feet. He told me he took special training to be able to do hands. He has a HUGE practice here in my city. Maybe you can learn some things about the company and the training by looking at his website.
4. I know for a fact that a plastic surgeon did micro-hand surgery on one of my employees when his thumb was cut off from a high powered machine. So the answer to your question is yes. It would only be obvious to me that a plastic surgeon would be able to reconstruct parts that include nerves and many other parts of the body involved in plastic surgery. Yes, feet would be the same, they are metatarsals like hands are metacarpals.
5. Hand surgeons are generally either plastic or orthopedic surgeons. It's very much the norm. Most people think of plastics only in terms of the cosmetic part of the practice, but the specialty also includes a lot of reconstructive surgery.
6. Plastic surgery is one route to becoming a hand surgeon (orthopedics being the other). After completing a residency in either plastics or ortho, a hand surgery fellowship is done. Adds another two years, I think, to the training process, although different programs may vary in length. I know plastic surgeons who would like to do more reconstructive and/or hand surgery, but the pay for those stinks, so they have to supplement their income by doing cosmetic procedures.
7. Congratulations, I think personally you are choosing the most gratifying career in medicine. Plastic surgery training (residency) is broken down into three components: Cosmetic surgery, Reconstructive surgery, and Hand surgery. Various training institutions put a different emphasis on any one of these, but every plastic surgeon is trained in all three. Part of the process of board certification involves written and oral exams. A large portion of these exams deals specifically with surgery of the hand. I have many patients who see me for cosmetic surgery whom find it interesting that I also do hand surgery and viceversa. In fact, if a "plastic surgeon" were never trained at all in hand surgery he/she probably took an alternate direction of training and is not a "real" plastic surgeon in the true sense of the word. You should leave your residency training with a good grasp of hand surgery but if not you can do an additional fellowship in hand surgery lasting 6 months to 2 years.