This content is for general informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or other professional advice. Readers should consult a qualified licensed professional for advice about their specific situation. Reading this page does not create a physician-patient relationship. All surgery carries risk, and individual results vary. Seek immediate emergency care for severe or urgent symptoms.
Written by Michelle Hardaway, M.D., F.A.C.S., Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon.
Choose a plastic surgeon in five steps, in this order: verify certification with the American Board of Plastic Surgery, check the Michigan license, confirm where the operation happens and who administers anesthesia, use the consultation to test judgment rather than marketing, then compare your shortlist against the same criteria. The first two steps are free and take about five minutes.
Two surgeons can perform the same operation and produce very different results. The difference usually comes down to judgment and to how carefully someone listens before they ever pick up a scalpel. Work through the five steps below in order, and you will have narrowed the field before you book anything. The comparison table in Step 5 and the checklist at the end are yours to take into the consultation.
Steps 1 and 2 you can do right now for free without contacting anyone. When you are ready to talk to a surgeon, you can request a consultation with a board-certified plastic surgeon in Farmington Hills or call (248) 221-1957.
Step 1 — Verify board certification (three minutes, free)
Do this: search the surgeon’s name in the American Board of Plastic Surgery’s public verification tool. It takes a name, or a city and radius, and it is free to use.
What you are checking: whether they hold certification from the American Board of Plastic Surgery, one of the member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties. ABPS certification means a surgeon completed the appropriate training and passed comprehensive written and oral examinations covering all plastic surgery procedures.
Why this comes first: the American Board of Plastic Surgery is the American Board of Medical Specialties member board for plastic surgery. Titles such as “cosmetic surgeon,” “aesthetic physician,” and “board certified in cosmetic surgery” are not that credential, however similar they sound. A lookup settles in seconds what the title on a door cannot, and it is the one check that costs nothing.
A bad sign: “board certified” with no board named. If a practice is reluctant to tell you which body certified them, treat the reluctance as the answer.
Step 2 — Check the Michigan license (two minutes, free)
Do this: look the physician up through the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs on its Find or Verify a Licensed Professional or Business page.
What you are checking: that the Michigan license is active and whether any disciplinary history is attached to it.
Why it is a separate step: Certification and licensure are different things, issued by different bodies, and one being in order says nothing about the other. Step 1 tells you how a surgeon was trained. Step 2 tells you whether the state currently permits them to practice here and whether anything has been filed against them.
A bad sign: a surgeon operating in Michigan whose active license is somewhere else.
Step 3 — Find out where the operation happens and who gives the anesthesia
Do this: ask these four questions before you get into the procedure itself.
- Where will my procedure be performed?
- Is that facility accredited, and by which organization?
- Who administers the anesthesia, and what are their qualifications?
- What happens if I need hospital care during or after surgery?
What you are checking: surgeons operate in hospitals, in ambulatory surgery centers, or in accredited surgical facilities inside their own practice. Any of these can be appropriate. What separates them is accreditation, the qualifications of whoever is giving the anesthesia, and whether there is a stated plan for escalating a case that needs a hospital.
A bad sign: vagueness on any of the four, particularly the last. A surgeon who welcomes these questions is telling you something useful about how they practice.
Step 4 — Test judgment at the consultation
By the time you are sitting in a consultation, you have already seen the marketing. What you are there to assess is judgment.
Do this: take these questions in with you and ask them. Consultations move quickly, and it is easy to leave with half of them unasked.
- Are you certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery?
- How often do you perform this specific procedure?
- What are the material risks and complications for someone with my history?
- What does recovery realistically look like, week by week?
- What is your revision policy if I am unhappy with the result?
- Who will I be able to reach after surgery if something concerns me?
- Will you personally perform the operation from start to finish?
What you are checking: a useful consultation spends more time on your history and your goals than on the practice’s capabilities. You should leave understanding what the procedure involves, what recovery asks of you, where its limitations are, and what can go wrong.
A bad sign: risks skipped or waved away. That is information about the surgeon. You should also feel free to leave without booking anything. A consultation is an evaluation running in both directions.
How to read the before-and-after gallery while you are there
- Look for patients whose starting point resembles yours, rather than the most dramatic transformations.
- Check that photographs use consistent angles, lighting and distance.
- Look for natural-looking results rather than obviously worked-on ones.
- Notice how many cases are shown for the specific procedure you are considering.
Individual results vary, and no gallery predicts what will happen in your case. What a gallery can show you is whether a surgeon’s aesthetic sense matches your own.
Step 5 — Compare your shortlist against the same criteria
Do this: fill in the table below after each consultation, while it is still fresh, and compare only once every row is populated.
What you are checking: whether the surgeons differ on criteria that matter or only on how recently you saw them. If you are seeing more than one surgeon, comparing them from memory weeks apart is where the decision usually comes unstuck. The most recent consultation wins by being the most recent.
| What you’re checking | Surgeon 1 | Surgeon 2 | Surgeon 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABPS certified, confirmed on the ABPS lookup | |||
| Michigan license active, no disciplinary history | |||
| Facility, and the body that accredits it | |||
| Anesthesia provider and their qualifications | |||
| Stated plan if hospital care is needed | |||
| How often they perform your specific procedure | |||
| Risks explained plainly, without being pushed | |||
| Recovery described week by week | |||
| The revision policy stated | |||
| Who you can reach after surgery | |||
| The surgeon performs the operation start to finish | |||
| Gallery shows patients with a starting point like yours | |||
| No pressure to decide on the day |
A surgeon who scores well on the first five rows and poorly on the last five is a different problem from one who scores the other way around. The first is a credential you can verify with a judgment you have not tested. The second should give you pause whatever their qualifications say.
A bad sign: rows you cannot fill in. If you leave a consultation unable to name the facility, the anesthesia provider, the revision policy or who you would call at 2 a.m., that blank is itself the finding. It usually means the question was deflected rather than that you forgot to ask.
Warning signs at any step
Some patterns are worth taking seriously regardless of price or convenience.
- Pressure to decide during the consultation itself.
- Discounts that expire, or financing pushed before the plan is settled.
- A surgeon who points out things you never raised.
- Guaranteed outcomes, or any promise of a specific result.
- Reluctance to discuss complications or revision rates.
- Vagueness about who performs the operation, or where.
None of these are about cost. They are about whether a practice is organized around the patient or around volume.
The checklist to take with you
Print this or keep it on your phone.
Before you contact anyone
- Searched the surgeon on the ABPS verification tool
- Checked the Michigan license and disciplinary history through LARA
- Confirmed the certifying board is named explicitly, not implied
At the consultation
- Asked the four facility and anesthesia questions
- Asked the seven consultation questions
- Reviewed the gallery for cases with a starting point like mine
- Noted anything I was told without asking
- Filled in my row of the comparison table before leaving the parking lot
Before deciding
- Compared every surgeon on the same criteria
- Checked my notes against the warning signs
- Confirmed who performs the operation, and who I reach afterwards
If Dr. Hardaway is one of the surgeons on your list, you can request a consultation or call (248) 221-1957 to arrange one. All consultations are paid and appointment-based to ensure dedicated time and a personalized plan.
About Dr. Michelle Hardaway
Dr. Michelle Hardaway is a board-certified plastic surgeon with over 20 years of experience. She is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and in general surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Her plastic surgery certification can be confirmed through the Step 1 lookup and her Michigan license through Step 2, and we would encourage you to run both.
She was appointed Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Detroit Receiving Hospital, where she set departmental policy and standards and helped train the next generation of plastic surgeons. She also served as Director of its Burn Center, and has taught as an Assistant Clinical Professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine.
Her practice, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery & Laser Center, sits on Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills and serves patients across Oakland County and Metro Detroit. Consultations are conducted personally, every plan is tailored specifically to each patient, and the aim throughout is natural-looking results. You can read more about Dr. Hardaway, meet the team, or review patient feedback.
Frequently asked questions
Is a cosmetic surgeon the same as a plastic surgeon?
No. “Plastic surgeon” certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery is a specific credential with a defined training pathway, and ABPS is the American Board of Medical Specialties member board for plastic surgery. “Cosmetic surgeon” is not that credential and does not by itself indicate ABPS certification. Our guide to plastic surgeon vs. cosmetic surgeon covers the distinction in detail.
How do I check if a surgeon is board certified in Michigan?
Search the American Board of Plastic Surgery’s public verification tool for certification, then check the surgeon’s Michigan license status through the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs on its Find or Verify a Licensed Professional or Business page. Both are free and open to the public, and together they take about five minutes. These are Steps 1 and 2 above.
How many consultations should I have before choosing?
There is no fixed number, and seeing more than one is common. The useful signal is not how many you attend, but whether you leave one understanding your options, your risks, and your surgeon’s reasoning—and whether you recorded enough at the time to compare them properly afterwards.
What if a surgeon is certified but I did not like the consultation?
Both halves matter and neither substitutes for the other. Certification tells you a surgeon was trained and examined to a defined standard. The consultation tells you how they practice, how they communicate risk, and whether they listened. A verified credential does not oblige you to book, and a warm consultation does not make up for a credential you could not confirm.
Does a consultation cost anything?
At this practice, yes. All consultations are paid and appointment-based to ensure dedicated time and a personalized plan. We do not accept insurance.
Arranging a consultation
If you would like to discuss a procedure with a board-certified plastic surgeon in Farmington Hills, you can request a consultation, contact the practice, or call (248) 221-1957.
You can also review the procedures offered: breast surgery, body contouring, face and neck surgery, and minimally invasive treatments.
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