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What is Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery?
| Plastikos, from the Greek, means to give form and shape. It is a guiding principle in reconstructive surgery, where we as surgeons, strive to restore our patients to as close to their normal appearance and function as possible. Below are three examples of this principle. |
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This young man was ejected from a car, suffering a loss of bone over his left eye. In this case, a customized plastic plate was fabricated and inserted from an incision in the hairline to improve his appearance. |
| This older woman had a left paralyzed face as a result of the removal of a tumor growing on the "hearing (cochlear vestibul or eight cranial) nerve". She underwent a series of surgical procedures including muscle transfer, nerve anastomosis and face lift to improve her form and function. |
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Cosmetic, from the Greek, is defined as "improving appearance". We hear this term almost daily. No longer reserved for actors and wealthy socialites, any individual wishing to enhance his or her looks or improve upon "Mother Nature's" inadequate anatomic design, can undergo cosmetic surgery. A variety of procedures are used to "rejuvenate" aged eyes and faces; re-align protruding and mis-shaped ears, improve the form and function of noses that are too large, have been broken or previously operated, augment under-developed jaws, chins, and cheeks and smooth wrinkles and improve scars. Included are explanations of the aging process, surgical procedures designed to correct the results of aging and other procedures that enhance overall appearance.
Inadequate bone structure can be enhanced by improving "facial contours" with Facial Implants. These synthetic materials are safe and have been used for 30 years. Continuous improvements have allowed surgeons to respond to patient's desire to produce (within reason and practically) a "customized look" for individual anatomic variation. Below is a patient, before and after, with cheek and chin implants which fill out and improve the patient's appearance, augmenting her natural beauty.
Click here to see an Example of Cosmetic Surgery
