Research progress on shared decision making in maxillofacial plastic surgery and aesthetic surgery

Shared decision making (SDM) refers to two - way communication between doctors and patients. SDM helps surgeons decide the most suitable treatment plan for patients based on the medical evidence and the preferences of patients. A standardized clinical process and decision assistant tools, such as verbal tools, graphic tools, and patient decision aids, can help the shared decision-making work effectively. Since the sense of facial aesthetics is individual and there are multiple treatment options in plastic surgery, facial aesthetic surgery is suitable for the application of SDM. In addition, medical service centers can also meet the personalized needs of patients, provide high-quality medical services for patients and achieve better treatment results with SDM. SDM has not been introduced into the clinical practice of maxillofacial plastic surgery in China, and its development is facing many difficulties, such as the lack of decision aid tools, the limited time of diagnosis, and the lack of doctor-patient communication. Research and development of standard SDM clinical implementation path guides and decision aid tools will be beneficial to the application and development of SDM in the field of maxillofacial plastic surgery in China.