People choosing a surgeon abroad often ask whether younger is better because of steadier hands and new techniques, or older is better because of experience. Some also assume male surgeons do better. The research does not support any of these shortcuts. This guide shows what large studies found, what they cannot tell you, and what to check instead.

Key takeaways

  • In a US Medicare study of about 892,000 patients, operative mortality was slightly lower with older surgeons (6.3% at 60 and over versus 6.6% under 40), and it did not differ by surgeon sex.
  • Experience in the specific procedure and verified training predict more than age or gender; ask how often the surgeon performs your operation.
  • These studies cover major non-cosmetic surgery in older Medicare patients, so they do not measure rhinoplasty results.

Does a surgeon’s age predict results?

Not strongly. A 2018 BMJ study followed all fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 to 99 who had one of 20 major non-elective surgeries between 2011 and 2014: 892,187 patients and 45,826 surgeons. After adjustment, operative mortality was 6.6%, 6.5%, 6.4% and 6.3% for surgeons under 40, aged 40 to 49, 50 to 59 and 60 or over. That is a difference of 0.3 percentage points between youngest and oldest, in favor of the older group.

Earlier work found a more mixed picture. A 2006 study of about 461,000 Medicare patients having one of 8 procedures in 1998 and 1999 found that surgeons over 60 had higher mortality for three of them: pancreatectomy, coronary artery bypass grafting and carotid endarterectomy. The effect was largely limited to surgeons with low procedure volumes, and age was not an important predictor for most procedures. Surgeons aged 40 or under did as well as those aged 41 to 50.

So the claim that surgeons are best in their 30s and 40s, and decline after, is not supported, and neither is the opposite. Both studies concern older US patients having major, mostly non-elective operations. They say nothing about rhinoplasty or other cosmetic work.

Does a surgeon’s sex matter?

The same BMJ study found no evidence that operative mortality differed between patients of female and male surgeons: 6.3% against 6.5%, an adjusted odds ratio of 0.97 (95% confidence interval 0.93 to 1.01). A 2017 Ontario study of 104,630 patients compared matched groups for 25 procedures and found a small advantage for female surgeons: a composite of death, readmission and complications occurred in 11.1% against 11.6%, and 30-day death had an adjusted odds ratio of 0.88. The authors called the difference small. Neither study found men doing better.

Old claims that male surgeons do better because of stamina, spatial skills or video games came with no sources, and I found no study supporting them in plastic surgery, so I do not repeat them. Skill is learned and varies between individuals.

What does predict results?

Experience in the specific operation. A 2016 BMJ analysis of Medicare data for eight procedures found that a surgeon’s degree of specialization, meaning how much of their work was that procedure, predicted lower mortality for several of them, independent of how many they performed. The authors suggested patients consider procedure-specific volume and the degree of specialization. Again these are major operations, but the logic is a useful question for any procedure.

How do you check a surgeon instead?

Training and credentials are verifiable; age and gender are not shortcuts to either. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons says members are board-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery after at least six years of surgical training, including at least three years of plastic surgery residency, and warns that there is no ABMS-recognized board with “cosmetic surgery” in its name. For overseas care, the NHS advises asking about training and qualifications, organisations they belong to, years in practice, and how many procedures like yours they have done, whether they speak a language you understand, and having two consultations.

Questions that matter more than age:

  • How many rhinoplasties do you perform each year, and how many like mine?
  • Which board or register can I check myself?
  • Can I see results at one year, not only at one week?
  • Who handles problems after I leave?

Our guides on finding the right rhinoplasty surgeon, ENT or plastic surgeon, why a dedicated specialist matters, the influencer trap and safety in Turkey go through verification step by step.

Sources

All pages were opened and checked in October 2026.