Board Certification: Dr. Parfitt received his medical school training at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. His first exposure to the field of cosmetic surgery was in medical school. The exacting precision required for cosmetic surgery of the face fascinated him, while some other aspects of general cosmetic surgery—breast surgery, body liposuction, body contouring, hand surgery, treating bed sores and doing tummy tucks—never really appealed to him. It was then that he made his decision to become a specialist in facial cosmetic surgery. The best board-certified specialty in which to train in cosmetic surgery of the face is Otolaryngology, since this specialty requires at least 4 years of intense surgical training ONLY in the head and neck region. Because of this specialized training, otolaryngologists perform the majority of elective facial cosmetic surgery procedures in the United States. Dr. Parfitt sought out further yet to obtain the best training program in Otolaryngology for facial cosmetic surgery. Much to his surprise, he discovered that military training programs perform the most facial plastic surgery. The reasons for this are as follows: 1) Facial plastic surgery was free-of-charge to military personnel and their families, 2) facial plastic surgery, even cosmetic surgery, is necessary preparation for treating war-time skin and scalp wounds as well as facial fractures and tissue trauma. Every approach used to repair facial trauma and fractures has a counterpart in cosmetic facial surgery and vice versa. Therefore, this training was considered necessary and essential for military war-time preparation. 3) Since the supervisory surgeons in military surgical training programs were on salary and were paid no extra for doing surgery themselves the training resident was allowed to perform almost ALL of the surgery themselves. Dr. Parfitt obtained his choice of military residencies at the US Naval Hospital--San Diego, completing his training in 1993. He became fully board-certified the following year.