Just 29 of 8,000+ U.S. Plastic Surgeons Appear on All 4 ‘Best Of’ Lists by Newsweek

Compiled based on national votes cast by practicing plastic surgeons, Newsweek’s June 16, 2021 roster of “America’s Best Plastic Surgeons” is subdivided into four categories, mirroring the most profitable and commonly performed plastic surgery procedures in recent years.

Survey Methodology

Procedures that plastic surgeons were assessed on included breast augmentation, facelift, liposuction, and rhinoplasty.

Medical experts were asked to name “at least five and up to fifteen of the best plastic surgeons for each of the four procedures,” allowing for as many as 60 votes from each respondent.

Self-selection wasn’t possible.

“During the survey period, more than 5,000 national votes from medical experts in the field of plastic surgery were collected,” says Newsweek.

Survey Participants

Omitted is how many individual plastic surgeons and other experts participated in the survey.

If each respondent named the maximum-allowable 15 surgeons per category, 5,000 votes are reached after less than 85 people take the survey.

More realistically, if each respondent named the suggested minimum of five surgeons per category, or 20 surgeons total, the published lists represent the vote of just 250 surgeons.

But if we are to be charitable, let us assume each participant cast only two votes per category, for a total of eight votes per participant.

When 625 surgeons have taken the survey, we’ve reached 5,000 votes nationally.

If these ratios seem preposterously low, it’s because they may actually be.

Consider that to arrive at its official statistical figures for the year 2020, the ASPS National Clearinghouse of Plastic Surgery Procedural Statistics distributed an annual questionnaire to “more than 24,600” board-certified physicians and received back just 463 of them (1.88 percent).

Yet this relative handful of answers from physicians is one of the two key datasets used to extrapolate statistics that reflect 2.3-million plastic surgery procedures performed in 2020 at a cost of more than twenty-billion dollars.

That’s not to say that the awarded plastic surgeons aren’t among America’s best.

It is to suggest that a more sound methodology could have been employed by Newsweek.

It is to say, as Newsweek itself says, “The quality of plastic surgeons that are not included in the rankings is not disputed.”

Voted by Peers as in the Top 5 Percent of U.S. Plastic Surgeons

Plastic surgeons appearing in any one of the 650 total positions on Newsweek‘s lists are among the best 4.83 percent of more than 8,000 U.S. board-certified plastic surgeons, according to the survey methodology used.

A total of 387 plastic surgeons fill all 650 positions, many appearing on two or three of the lists.

But only 29 of them appear on all four lists, effectively acknowledging them as among “America’s best plastic surgeons” for all of the most popular plastic surgery procedures.

They are:

Surgeons That Appear on all Four of Newsweek’s Lists of America’s Best Plastic Surgeons

**23:** @buckyplasticsurgery \ Instagram

29. Dr. Robert W. Burk III • FL

#113 in Rhinoplasty
#101 in Facelift
#88 in Breast Augmentation
# 78 in Liposuction

28. Dr. Herman P Houin • MI

#86 in Rhinoplasty
#113 in Facelift
#89 in Breast Augmentation
#88 in Liposuction

27. Dr. Adeyiza Olutoyin Momoh • MI

#76 in Rhinoplasty
#136 in Facelift
#51 in Breast Augmentation
#77 in Liposuction

26. Dr. Douglas Forman • MD

#85 in Rhinoplasty
#134 in Facelift
#34 in Breast Augmentation
#33 in Liposuction

25. Dr. Christopher C. Jeffries • MI

#53 in Rhinoplasty
#111 in Facelift
#85 in Breast Augmentation
#35 in Liposuction

24. Dr. Malcolm W. Marks • NC

#35in Rhinoplasty
#41 in Facelift
#110 in Breast Augmentation
#74 in Liposuction

23. Dr. Louis P. Bucky • PA

#73 in Rhinoplasty
#30 in Facelift
#48 in Breast Augmentation
#109 in Liposuction

22. Dr. Sanjay Grover • CA

#70 in Rhinoplasty
#48 in Facelift
#23 in Breast Augmentation
#102 in Liposuction

21. Dr. George Pope • LA

#101 in Rhinoplasty
#51 in Facelift
#63 in Breast Augmentation
#18 in Liposuction

20. Dr. Anthony Youn • MI

#40 in Rhinoplasty
#32 in Facelift
#36 in Breast Augmentation
#124 in Liposuction

19. Dr. Jay Austen • MA

#36 in Rhinoplasty
#37 in Facelift
#116 in Breast Augmentation
#24 in Liposuction

18. Dr. Andrew Giacobbe • NY

#57 in Rhinoplasty
#42 in Facelift
#39 in Breast Augmentation
#69 in Liposuction

17. Dr. Jennifer L. Walden • TX

#115 in Rhinoplasty
#17 in Facelift
#28 in Breast Augmentation
#41 in Liposuction

16. Dr. Jason A. Spector • NY

#94 in Rhinoplasty
#35 in Facelift
#32 in Breast Augmentation
#34 in Liposuction

15. Dr. Adam R. Kolker • NY

#31 in Rhinoplasty
#102 in Facelift
#16 in Breast Augmentation
#32 in Liposuction

14. Dr. Bill G. Kortesis • NC

#26 in Rhinoplasty
#82 in Facelift
#22 in Breast Augmentation
#20 in Liposuction

13. Dr. Adam L. Basner • MD

#10 in Rhinoplasty
#63 in Facelift
#24 in Breast Augmentation
#22 in Liposuction

12. Dr. David Hidalgo • NY

#81 in Rhinoplasty
#20 in Facelift
#5 in Breast Augmentation
#13 in Liposuction

11. Brian V. Heil • PA

#14 in Rhinoplasty
#46 in Facelift
#43 in Breast Augmentation
#9 in Liposuction

10. Alfonso Barrera • TX

#21 in Rhinoplasty
#9 in Facelift
#37 in Breast Augmentation
#45 in Liposuction

9. Dr. A. Peter Salas • NY

#47 in Rhinoplasty
#18 in Facelift
#38 in Breast Augmentation
#1 in Liposuction

8. Dr. Garth Fisher • CA

#49 in Rhinoplasty
#10 in Facelift
#3 in Breast Augmentation
#40 in Liposuction

7. Dr. G. Patrick Maxwell • TN

#43 in Rhinoplasty
#25 in Facelift
#2 in Breast Augmentation
#27 in Liposuction

6. Dr. Roger Friedman • MD

#18 in Rhinoplasty
#16 in Facelift
#18 in Breast Augmentation
#42 in Liposuction

5. Dr. Aaron Stone • CA

#56 in Rhinoplasty
#11 in Facelift
#9 in Breast Augmentation
#8 in Liposuction

4. Dr. Alan Matarasso • NY

#11 in Rhinoplasty
#22 in Facelift
#30 in Breast Augmentation
#7 in Liposuction

3. Dr. James E. Zins • OH

#8 in Rhinoplasty
#4 in Facelift
#14 in Breast Augmentation
#16 in Liposuction

2. Dr. Bahman Guyuron • OH

#2 in Rhinoplasty
#6 in Facelift
#12 in Breast Augmentation
#15 in Liposuction

1. Dr. Rod J. Rohrich • TX

#1 in Rhinoplasty
#1 in Facelift
#11 in Breast Augmentation
#2 in Liposuction

Patients should never, ever, choose a plastic surgeon without doing extreme levels of personal due diligence.

Even if you fully understand how this survey was conducted and what market incentives potentially exist in it, please do not rely solely on this information.

Any of the best plastic surgeons in America would tell you as much.