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STEVEN M. DENENBERG, MD
Omaha, Neb

HOWARD W. SMITH, MD, DMD
New Haven, Conn

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1989;115(12):1480-1481.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply.—We would like to thank Dr Miller for his interest in the topic, and in our article. We appreciate Dr Miller's agreement with the main thrust of our article, that qualified physicians of different specialties perform plastic surgery, and that several boards recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties certify their diplomates to perform plastic surgery. We would like to discuss Dr Miller's comments on the definition of a specialist and, respectfully, take issue with his suggestion that governments should intrude into the board certification process to determine which physicians can list their practices in directories.

While Dr Miller's motives are commendable, we respectfully suggest that his proposed government regulation to restrict directory listings would harm patients rather than help them. The incumbent surgeon—let us call him Dr X—who is able to exclude his qualified competitors of other specialties from directory listings leaves the consumer with the impression that . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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