“Board-certified” dermatologist

I’ve spent way too much time overthinking this…

But I cringe every time I say that I am a board-certified dermatologist. When I don’t specify that I’m a board-certified dermatologist, I will occasionally receive comments asking me if I am board certified.

Becoming “board-certified” was the easiest part of becoming a dermatologist. The hard part was getting into a good medical school, then busting my butt for 4 years in medical school to get into dermatology residency. It was reading 2000+ page dermatology textbooks multiple times cover to cover and memorizing the information in these textbooks on nights and weekends after seeing patients as a resident.

Then at the end of residency I paid thousands of dollars in board examination fees and another thousand plus dollars for my flight and hotel stay to Florida in the middle of hurricane season to take an exam on a computer.

My primary issue is - what other type of dermatologist is there in the US?

If you haven’t graduated from medical school, completed a dermatology residency, and passed the board exams, then you are not a dermatologist.

But it’s become an expectation on social media to say, “I’m Dr. X, a board-certified dermatologist” rather than, “I’m Dr. X, a dermatologist.”