Legally, depending on the type of sedation used, any physician can perform cosmetic surgery regardless of their training. For example, a psychiatrist could perform a facelift, although it would be a bad idea.

Florida does have some safeguards. The Hospital Credential Committee ensures that surgeons on the hospital staff must be Board Certified and therefore, trained to operate in their hospital.

The office surgery regulations are vastly different.

Since there are no credentials committees for office surgery, the Florida regulation states that if intramuscular or intravenous sedation or general anesthesia is used, the surgeon must have privileges to perform the planned surgery at a nearby hospital or ambulatory surgery center.ย The loophole is that anyone with a medical license can do any procedure, regardless of training, in their office if the surgery is performed under local or oral sedation.

The take home message:

Ask the surgeon if he or she has privileges to perform the surgery you want at a nearby surgery center. Perhaps they are recommending wide-awake surgery only because they cannot legally use intramuscular or intravenous sedation or general anesthesia sedation in their office.

Dr. Viggiano is fully trained to do all the procedures he does at his registered and accredited office surgery center since he has privileges to perform them all at St. Lucie Surgery Center and Surgery Center at Jensen Beach. He is therefore licensed to use the safest and most comfortable-for-the-patient sedation available. Dr. Viggiano is not forced to subject his patients to the anxiety and pain of fully alert surgery.