Top Doc / Top Plastic Surgeon

Like many of his colleagues, Dr. Nachbar is among those listed on the Top Doc / Top Plastic Surgeon lists appearing in a number of publications. For example, the Consumers' Research Council of America, which has trademarked the name "Top Plastic Surgeons", has him listed, as you can check for yourself in the Guide to America's Top Plastic Surgeons. Scroll down to the Top Plastic Surgeon Search Engine link to enter his name and the state of Arizona and see for yourself.

Of course, as any such publication will tell you, you should never solely rely on such a listing, and should still do your homework, as explained at Picking A Plastic Surgeon. There you will find techniques and tools for checking out a prospective doctor of any specialty, including a link to the Arizona Medical Board.

You will also want to check whether your doctor is board certified, and by which board. We have included a link to the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), which can tell you which ABMS board (if any) has certified your doctor.

We recently found an error on the Arizona Osteopathic Board website, where the Arizona State website claimed that a doctor was certified by an ABMS board, even though we knew that he was not. We called them, and they told us that 1) they knew the Arizona State website was providing incorrect information, that it was a very complicated problem, they did not know how to fix it or when it would be fixed, and they really were not too concerned that the Arizona State website was wrong because 2) they don't verify the self-reported board certifications anyway, so members of the public should not be relying on the Arizona State website for board certification information.  Good to know!

So you clearly need to check board certification for yourself, since your Arizona State government does not.  Fortunately, it is very easy to check ABMS board certification, using the links here

While Dr. Nachbar is proud to be listed as a "Top Plastic Surgeon", he cautions you not to put too much faith in those listings. For example, as an established expert in the community, he is often asked to review problem cases from other plastic surgeons. In one case, he saw a lovely woman whose face was terribly burned by another Phoenix, Arizona area plastic surgeon (who is, fortunately, no longer in practice) who obviously did not know how to properly adjust the laser for that patient's fragile skin. Since Dr. Nachbar had only seen her badly burned face, it broke his heart when he saw what she had looked like before surgery. You can imagine how Dr. Nachbar was horrified to see that same plastic surgeon subsequently named one of Phoenix Magazine's "Top Docs", in spite of the settled malpractice case.

Magazine listings relate more to the church groups and country clubs that a doctor belongs to than anything related to actual surgical ability. Indeed, Phoenix Magazine itself only claims to check "the state's medical board to determine if the doctor has been convicted of [sic] or has settled in a malpractice lawsuit," a check you can (and should) do for yourself from this link.

The bottom line: don't rely on anyone else's research, do your own!