I read a bit of Dr O's book and he mentioned that whole board certification thing as basically a reason so pick or drop surgeons and also as a reason to stay in the US for surgeries.
One has to understand that this is US specific. Europe is not the united States of Europe. Unil a few years ago, something like boards or certificates were only local. So maybe someone would be member of a german or spanish board. All of these boards have different kinds of guidelines and there is basically no unifying standard. So basically in Europe, people look much less at any board certifications as peole in the US do - it is just something much less common here. Surgeons who really do bad jobs will loose their allowance to do any surgeries, so surgeons will take care to fulfil some general standards.
So when it comes to Europe or other countries, I think it will be hard to select surgeons by board certification as in the US - in that case, only a US board certified surgeon can make it on that short list.
I believe internationally, some certification is more or less just the proof that someone is not going to butcher you because he is unqualified, but above that basic level, there is a lot more variation possible. So I would much more listen to the reports and stories about a surgeon than some paper that they got.
To the benefit of FacialTeam, I must say they do publish in scientific journals on the topic a lot, which is not quite common in the field, so they certainly have a good attitude about doing diligent work there. Also the surgery fee includes an insurance to cover expenses for surgical complications - they are operating in a proper hospital with other surgeons closeby if something really bad happens and it is covered financially.
That said, I think a reason to consider or reconsider FT may be their rather conservative approach. I feel, that sometimes they suggest too little or if they do some things, they do a bit less change than would have been beneficial. I love their foreheads, they do this great, same with the approach with the hairline with transplants. But I heard some people having complaints about more complex or aggressive rhinoplasties that they are not so happy with it - it seems to me that they do good rhinoplasties if the changes are little but are maybe again too conservative if a big change would be needed, like a big reduction in size or if a patient wants a clearly scooped nose - because they do not want to create faces that look surgically altered too much. The same seems to me to apply to the jaw and chin - looking at the gallery, the changes they do there are mostly subtle and many patients apparently were told they do not need chin or jaw change - or they opted out from it because of financial reasons - despite the post OP pictures showing that they could have benefitted from this surgery as well. I sometimes see much more radical changes in the facial shape with other surgeons, so if you want a radical change there, maybe make sure they would do it.
So my biggest fear with FT would not be certification or them messing me up, but rather that the changes would be too subtle and I would not see them and ask myself what I paid 30000 for.
I also have diMaggio as second on my list next to FacialTeam but he is so far away - I cannot just fly there easily and a remote consultation is just never the same. Email is not the best way to communicate everything needed for such a big decision...
