Real reviews. Real prices.Never bought.
We built NavMDs on one simple, unbreakable rule: no doctor can ever pay us to hide the truth. The reviews you read and the prices you see are real, because you deserve to choose with your eyes open.
The NavMDs Trust Pledge
Five promises that don't have a price tag. They're the reason this site exists.
We never delete reviews for money
No physician, practice, or sponsor can pay any price to remove, hide, or soften an honest review. The hard reviews stay visible, right next to the glowing ones.
We never sell your trust
Rankings and placement reflect real ratings and real data, not who bought an upgrade. If something is an ad, we label it as an ad. Always.
Real, local pricing
We surface what procedures actually cost in your area, sourced from real data, so nothing catches you off guard in the consultation room.
Reviews from everywhere, not just us
We pull a doctor's reputation from many independent sources and combine it with our own verified community. The result is a fuller picture that's far harder to game.
You're never the product
We don't sell your personal data to the highest bidder. Your research, your decisions, and your information stay yours.
The cosmetic review world has a trust problem
For years, many of the places people turn to for honest reviews have carried a quiet conflict of interest: the doctors being reviewed are often the ones paying the bills. The result is an information ecosystem that's quietly bent away from the patient.
Silencing reviews is illegal, and still happens
Since the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016, it has been unlawful to force patients into contracts that ban honest reviews. Yet experts note enforcement is rare, and the practice persists.
It isn't hypothetical
In 2024, Washington's Attorney General took action against a cosmetic surgery group that made patients sign NDAs banning negative reviews, created fake positive profiles, and even edited their 'after' photos. The settlement reached roughly 21,000 patients.
Paying for visibility is the norm
Plastic surgeons' own professional society acknowledges that review platforms are businesses that charge doctors monthly fees to amplify their visibility. When the reviewed pays the reviewer, the incentive quietly bends away from you.
Refunds traded for silence
Some practices quietly offer money back or a free revision in exchange for deleting a negative review, a workaround ethicists warn distorts the very information patients depend on.
“Enforcement is rare.”
If an honest review you wrote disappeared, you're not alone
Spend time in the plastic surgery communities on Reddit and you'll hear the same story on repeat: a patient who actually had the procedure writes an honest, critical review, then watches it quietly vanish. The frustration is real, and it's everywhere.
It's common enough that the largest cosmetic review platform publishes an entire help article insisting it doesn't censor reviews. Companies don't write those pages unless a lot of people keep asking the same angry question.
We're not here to relitigate any single case. But there's a structural reason patients keep asking: on most platforms, the doctors being reviewed are the paying customers. When the people you're trying to warn others about are the ones funding the site, it's fair to wonder whose interests come first.
On NavMDs, this can't happen by design
No doctor, advertiser or not, can have your honest review removed, hidden, or softened at any price. Your words stay. That isn't a courtesy we can revoke for the right check. It's wired into how the site is built. If you've ever been silenced somewhere else, this is the place your experience finally counts.
Find your surgeon and leave a review that staysTwo ways to run a directory
One protects the practice's reputation. The other protects you.
The old way
- Honest negative reviews can quietly disappear
- Top spots go to the highest bidder
- Real prices stay hidden until the consult
- Your personal data gets sold
The NavMDs way
- Your honest review stays, and it's never for sale at any price
- Placement reflects real ratings and data
- Real, localized pricing is out in the open
- Your data stays yours
Straight answers
Can a doctor pay to remove a negative review on NavMDs?+
No. Never, at any price. No physician, practice, or sponsor can pay us to delete, hide, or edit an honest review. Negative reviews stay visible alongside positive ones so you see the full picture.
Do doctors who pay get ranked higher?+
No. Rankings and placement are driven by real ratings and data, not payments. Any paid placement is clearly labeled as advertising.
Are the prices on NavMDs real?+
Yes. We surface real, localized pricing for procedures so you can plan with confidence and avoid surprises during your consultation.
Where do your reviews come from?+
We pull a doctor's reputation from many independent sources and combine it with our own verified community, creating a fuller picture that's much harder to manipulate than any single review feed.
Choose with your eyes open
Find a surgeon whose reputation you can actually trust, built from real reviews and real prices that no one paid to change.
Sources & further reading
The industry practices described above are drawn from public reporting and the cited organizations below.
- InvestigateWest: Despite laws against it, some cosmetic surgeons are still banning negative reviews (2026)
- American Society of Plastic Surgeons: How reliable are online reviews for plastic surgery?
- RealSelf Support: “Does RealSelf Censor Reviews?” (the platform's own response to the recurring accusation)
- U.S. Federal Trade Commission guidance on the Consumer Review Fairness Act for businesses