Within the medical field, surgeons are considered to be the highest paid positions. Due to their line of work being very risky, their residencies tend to last a year or two longer than physicians because they need to make sure that they have enough experience before practicing surgery on their own. Surgeons discuss a patient’s medical needs with the physician to determine if surgery is the right course of action for treating the patient. Sometimes it is a quick decision because the patient is in a life or death situation where surgery is the only viable option. At other times, surgery is only one of a few options that could treat the patient, so it is up to the physician and the patient to decide if surgery is the way to go.

Average Salary

The average surgeon makes between $100,000 to upwards of $300,000. A surgeon’s salary is highly dependent on quite a few things, such as number of years working in the industry, the location of the facility, and the type of the facility.

Experience

Naturally, those who have been working in an industry for a long time make significantly more than somebody who is just starting out in the workforce.  Although starting off making around $100,000 is very impressive, surgeons know that the longer they stay in the industry, the more money they will make. In addition, being a chief surgeon is a very sought-after position. This requires many years of experience in addition to receiving a doctorate, and this person makes a salary that is on the higher end of the payment scale.

Location

Geographic location is another major factor that is considered when salary is involved. When living in a large city, the cost of living is higher than in a smaller city. This is because economic growth is higher and more stimulated in a bigger city, meaning that there is more money to be paid to employees.

Type of Facility

In addition, the type of facility where the surgeon works is also an important factor.  Those who work in trauma settings in emergency rooms will make more money due to the riskier procedures involved. Surgery is often the chosen procedure for treating patients who are entered in the emergency room. Emergency surgeries are a lot more expensive and riskier than other surgeries, which means that surgeons get paid more for their efforts.

The medical field one of the most lucrative industries to work in, and surgeons are among the highest paid individuals within this field. Surgery is often seen as a last-resort to doctors if medication and other forms of treatment have not worked for the patient. This is because it is such a risky procedure, no matter how minor the patient’s injury is. There are many complications that could arise with surgery; paralysis, nerve damage, the surgery could not work, and the patient could possibly die in the middle of the surgery.  With so much responsibility, it takes a person who has a lot of education, experience, discipline and patience to become a surgeon.

Become Pre-Med

Becoming a surgeon starts with education. It is necessary to have an undergraduate degree in pre-med. This degree sets the foundation for the rest of your extensive education career. This degree involves taking science classes such as biology and anatomy, among other classes. It is important to keep a high GPA because your undergraduate GPA determines whether or not you are accepted into a medical school.

Medical School Acceptance

Once an undergraduate degree is obtained, the next education level is medical school. During the end of your undergrad career, you will be looking and applying for different graduate schools for medicine. Once admission is accepted, the program will last four years, just like undergrad. During medical school, there will be tougher classes in the subjects of biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology, and many others.

Residency Program

Keeping high grades in medical is just as important because high grades will get you accepted into residency programs. These programs last around five or seven years for surgeons, and are where you determine what specialization of surgeon you want to focus on. There are many different types of surgeons; plastic, emergency room, and brain are just a few examples.

Fellowship

After residency is completed, most surgeons gain experience by completing a fellowship, which is comparable to an apprenticeship. This essentially involves shadowing a surgeon in your chosen specialization. In addition to this fellowship, you’ll need to obtain licensure and certification before practicing surgery.

Necessary Skills

All of this education is necessary to complete before licensure will be able to be obtained. It is not an easy occupation to prepare for, and even after the requirements are fulfilled, the job itself is a very difficult one. It requires working long and unknown hours, especially when working in an emergency specialization. Those who are emergency surgeons must be on call 24 hours a day, even when they are not scheduled to work. Having motivation in addition to patience and dedication are all important factors when considering surgery as a permanent occupation.

Job Description

Oral surgery can range from extracting teeth all the way to jaw reconstruction. It is the practice of diagnosing diseases, injuries, and disorders that pertain to the mouth and mouth area. The people who perform these surgeries and diagnoses are oral surgeons, and they must go through an extensive education and training program before being able to practice oral surgery.

Education Requirements

They must have a four-year undergraduate degree before attending dentist school. After attending dentist school, they must become licensed and certified to become an oral surgery, in addition to getting an internship that will allow them to study the typical workday of an established oral surgeon. They have the background of a general dentist, but they study and get more experience with a specialty oral surgery. They generally work in dentist offices, but they can also work in college universities and military medical facilities.

Average Salary

The salary of an oral surgeon depends upon many things, such as experience and location. With that being said, the average salary of an oral surgeon living in the United States ranges from a little under $100,000 to upwards of $300,000.

Experience

Experience is the key factor in the oral surgeon salary equation. When a surgeon has just finished his internship, he will be earning on the lower paying end of the salary scale, whereas a surgeon who is quite seasoned in his profession will be earning upwards of $300,000. This is due to the fact that the higher paid surgeon has more experience under his belt.

More experience for a surgeon means that they are an asset to their employer, and their employer will want to compensate the surgeon properly for the work that is being accomplished. In addition, patients feel more comfortable with having a surgeon who is more experienced rather than a surgeon who has just finished his residency.

Location

Location is the other key factor when evaluating an oral surgeon’s salary. Just like any other occupation, these surgeons get paid more when they live in an area that has a high cost of living, such as Los Angeles. To compensate for everything being more expensive (food, rent, gas, etc.), employers must pay their employees a bit of a higher salary.

Job Description

Brain surgeons (also known as neurologists), diagnose and perform surgery on patients who have conditions that deal with the brain, spinal cord, and surrounding structures and nerves that affect the brain in any way. They must go through at least 14 years of vigorous education, training, and residency in order to even get near a person’s brain. They must have extensive knowledge of the human brain and all factors that can affect the function of it so that they can properly diagnose their patients prior to surgery. On any given day, they can be found either performing surgeries or consulting with patients.

Average Salary Range

The average salary for a brain surgeon living in the United States can range anywhere from $100,000 to upwards of $700,000 per year. The wide-ranging salary scale is caused by many factors, two of which are experience and location.

Experience

Having extensive experience is one of the major factors that affects a brain surgeon’s salary. When a surgeon has finished his required 14 years of education, training, and residency, sometimes he will go back and earn his doctorate. But, in a specialty field like brain surgery, having an extensive education gives the surgeon more understanding of his field.

Also, patients often feel better knowing that the person who has their life is his hands went through a lot of loops in order to be holding that scalpel. In addition, surgeons who have their master’s will earn significantly more money than a person without an advanced education. This also holds true for a surgeon who has been practicing brain surgery for upwards of 20 years compared to a surgeon who has just finished his residency.

Location

Location is another very important factor to take into consideration when analyzing a brain surgeon’s salary. Surgeons who perform their business in a bigger city that has a higher cost of living will earn more money than a surgeon living in a smaller city. This is because everything from food to rent is more expensive in bigger cities, therefore citizens have to be compensated more to be able to survive in the city.

In addition to geographical location, the type of facility where the brain surgeon also determines how much a surgeon makes. In a private practice or hospital, surgeons get paid more because the procedures are more expensive in these facilities than in public hospitals. Brain surgeons get paid by the surgery, and when the surgeries are more expensive, brain surgeons get paid more.

Job Description

Cardiothoracic surgeons are in charge of performing surgeries on the chest cavity, lungs, heart, and blood vessels. Along with other physicians, they diagnose patients and determine what type of surgery and treatment plan is needed in order to make the patient feel at their very best.  These surgeons perform reconstructive surgery or transplants on body parts in the chest cavity area after they have consulted with other physicians to determine that surgery is the best treatment plan for the patient.

Education

With having a career that involves life or death situations, cardiothoracic surgeons must have a lot of education and experience behind them. Like other surgeons, they must attend undergraduate school with a pre-med major, then go on and excel in medical school, complete a residency program, followed by obtaining a license to practice medicine. During the residency program and medical school, surgeons get to choose what path of surgery that they want to take. Those surgeons who want to specialize in cardiothoracic surgery will shadow the fellow cardiothoracic surgeon at the place of residency and gain experience that way.

Average Salary

The average salary for this type of surgeon ranges from $150,000 all the way up to $500,000. The surgeons who are making a salary on the lower end of the pay scale have not been in the workplace for very long, and they are also working at facilities that do not pay very high. In addition, those whose salaries are on the higher end of the salary spectrum are more experienced and are working for companies where they pay is higher for surgeons . In addition, obtaining a doctorate for medicine will also boost the annual salary. Also, earning a Ph.D. will also increase salary.

Location

Geographic location also plays an important role in the amount of money being deposited into these surgeon’s bank accounts. Those who are living in wealthier cities such as Manhattan will make significantly more money than those who live in smaller cities where the cost of living is lower.

What is Plastic Surgery?

Plastic surgery is a subfield of general surgery, and is a procedure performed for either cosmetic or reconstructive reasoning. These surgeons mostly work in private practices that they own themselves, or they work for a large plastic surgery company. Plastic surgery procedures range from breast augmentation to facial reconstruction after an accident, and the procedures are very expensive. Therefore, plastic surgeons are among the highest paid professionals.

Average Salary

The average plastic surgeon’s salary is generally between $175,000 and upwards of $450,000. This is due to many factors, such as location, experience, and the type of facility the surgeon is working in.

Location

Location is one of the most important factors that needs to be taken into consideration within this career field, as well as many other industries. Geographically, those who are living in big cities that have a higher cost of living will earn more than those who live in small cities. This is because in bigger cities, the economy is more stimulated and therefore has more money to pay to its working citizens.

Experience

Especially in the medical field, having more experience means a higher income. A plastic surgeon that has just graduated from medical school and completed his residency will be on the receiving end of a lower salary. This surgeon will not have as much experience as a surgeon who has been practicing surgery for 10 or more years. With more experience, the skill of surgery is perfected, which means that the surgeon becomes more of an asset to the facility in which he works. His employers will want to pay him more in order to keep him on staff and not risk losing him to another facility.

This holds especially true if the surgeon performs a type of specialty surgery that customers will pay top dollar to have done, and is particularly skilled at it. Employers will be even more likely to make sure that the surgeon is compensated well for performing this skill in order for them to not lose a great asset to their company.

Type of Facility

The type of facility the plastic surgeon is working in also has a lot to do with salary. Surgeons who own their own practice will often make more money than other surgeons, especially if they are successful. In addition, if the facility is a private owned hospital, customers will be charged more, which transfers into a higher earned salary for surgeons. It is known that many people will fly overseas to foreign countries to get the same procedures that they could get done in the states. This is because surgery overseas is significantly less expensive than it is in the United States. As a cause of it, surgeons in the US get paid more than those who operate overseas.

Job Description

A cardiac surgeon (also known as a heart surgeon), specializes in performing surgeries that are related to the cardiovascular system. This type of surgeon meets with other medical professionals in order to determine the best type of treatment for patients who are having heart or blood vessel complications. Heart surgeons perform very invasive operations on these patients in order to cure their ailments and prevent the heart complications from taking their lives.

Education

Cardiac surgeons are one of the highest paid surgeons in their field. Heart surgery is a very complicated and delicate procedure, so compensating these surgeons well for their job description is imperative. Due to the surgery profession being such an involved career, cardiac surgeons need to have an extensive education career. They first need to have an undergraduate degree in pre-med, then go to a reputable four-year medical school, then complete residency at a hospital for about five to seven years. The residency allows for the potential surgeon to gain experience in the cardiac surgery environment and get on-the-job training.

Average Salary

Heart surgeons are paid quite well for what they do; salaries range from $102,000 to $486,000. Surgeons with less than five years of experience are of course on the lower end of the pay scale, whereas those who have been in the field for approximately 20 years are the ones who are earning the highest salaries.

Factors that Affect Salary

Location, experience, and the type of facility where the surgeon will be working on have a great affect on overall salary. Surgeons working in a hospital setting in an area of the country where the cost of living is high will earn more than one working in a smaller facility in a city with a slower economic growth. In cities where cost of living is high, salaries tend to be higher in order for the residents to be able to afford to live comfortably.

Trauma surgeons work in emergency situations where the patient is in a life or death situation and needs surgery immediately.  This type of surgeon generally works in emergency rooms at hospitals, and they perform surgery for all patients who are in dire need of medical attention. Surgery is often a last resort option in the field of medicine due to the large number of risks that are involved with each procedure. In trauma situations, surgery is often the only hope the patient has of surviving.

These surgeons have a lot of people relying on them to save lives, and therefore must have a solid education and experience background before being able to perform any type of surgery. Obtaining a pre-med undergraduate degree, then going to a four-year medical school, and then completing a five to seven year residency are the steps required to become a surgeon. The years in residency provide the surgeon with hands-on experience in the field and see how trauma surgeons must react to emergency situations.

Average Salary

Due to having such an important career, trauma surgeons are compensated quite well. According to Payscale, the national average of a trauma surgeon salary in October 2010 was between $147,395 and $288,772. The lower side of the salary includes those surgeons who have not been in the field for very long, whereas the higher side of the pay scale is comprised of those trauma surgeons who have a lot of experience within the field.

Benefits

Trauma surgeons also receive a very generous benefit package. This package includes health, vision, dental and life insurance, and can be worth upwards of $100,000.

Salary-Affecting Factors

Many factors affect the salary of a surgeon, including experience, location, and the type of facility worked in.

Experience

Surgeons who have less than a year experience will find themselves receiving a smaller overall paycheck than a surgeon who has been in the field for upwards of ten years. Even a surgeon with two years of experience will make more than one who has only been working for one year.

Location

Location plays an important factor in salary. If a surgeon is working in a part of the country that has a slow economic growth and is not very wealthy, he will not be earning as much money as a surgeon living in a rich part of the country like Los Angeles.

Type of Facility

The type of facility also determines the size of the paycheck.  It has been found that surgeons working in acute care hospitals earn the highest income, followed by working in hospitals, and those who work in general surgery services earn the lowest income.