Plastic Surgery
 
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. While famous for aesthetic surgery, plastic surgery also includes two main fields: plastic and reconstructive surgery. The word "plastic" derives from the Greek plastikos meaning to mold or to shape; its use here is not connected with the synthetic polymer material known as plastic.
What is Plastic Surgery?
Plastic surgery is a specialized branch of surgery that deals with correction of all visible defects and deformities of any body part. Such deformities may be present since birth or acquired following injuries or after various surgical procedures. These defects commonly involve the skin, soft tissues, muscles or underlying skeleton. Plastic surgery is also done to improve the looks or aesthetics of normal body parts such as face, nose, eyes, cheeks, lips, chin, breasts, the shape and contours of abdomen, waist, hips, legs etc. Thus, plastic surgery has a very wide domain.
Reconstructive Surgery
Reconstructive Plastic Surgery is performed to correct functional impairments caused by:
  • burns
  • traumatic injuries, such as facial bone fractures
  • congenital abnormalities, such as cleft lip, or cleft palate
  • developmental abnormalities
  • infection or disease
  • removal of cancers or tumours, such as a mastectomy for a breast cancer, a head or neck cancer or an abdominal invasion by a colon cancer
Reconstructive plastic surgery is usually performed to improve function, but it may be done to approximate a normal appearance. Common reconstructive surgical procedures are: breast reconstruction for women who have had a mastectomy, cleft lip and palate surgery, contracture surgery for burn survivors, creating a new outer ear when one is congenitally absent, and closing skin and mucosa defects after removal of tumors in the head and neck region.

Plastic surgeons developed the use of microsurgery to transfer tissue for coverage of a defect when no local tissue is available. tissue flaps of skin, muscle, bone, fat or a combination, may be removed from the body, moved to another site on the body and reconnected to a blood supply by suturing arteries and veins as small as 1-2 mm in diameter.

The most common reconstructive procedures are tumor removal, laceration repair, scar repair, hand surgery and breast reduction. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the number of reconstructive breast reductions for women increased in 2007 by 2 percent from the year before. Breast reduction in men also increased in 2007 by 7 percent.

Who Requires Plastic surgery?
1. BIRTH OR CONGENITAL DEFECTS: Abnormal shape of the head or skull, clefts of the lips, palate or the face. Defects or abnormal shape of the eyes, nose, ears, jawbones etc. Defects of the limbs, fused fingers, extra fingers, large sized fingers and toes. Defects of the genitals such as hypospadias i.e. abnormal shape of the penis with abnormal urinary opening, absence of vagina, inter sex etc. Large black hairy nevus or moles, haemangiomas and vascular lesions. Foetal defect correction in utero i.e. before birth endoscopic correction of some defects inside the mother’s womb.

2. ACCIDENTS & INJURIES: Several roadside and automobile accident injuries involving face, eyelids, nose, ears etc. All cases with fractures of orbital, cheek nose and jawbones. Injuries of the limbs associated with extensive skin loss or degloving injuries. All types of hand and finger injuries especially industrial crush injuries. Cut tendons and nerves, total or partial amputations of the limbs, hands or fingers also can be corrected by plastic surgery.

3. BURN INJURIES: Acute burns due to flames, chemicals and acids, hot water or fluids, electric flash. Post burn contractures, thick hypertrophic scars causing deformities of several body parts.

4. POST SURGERY DEFECTS: Following extensive removal of various parts or areas involved in malignant or cancerous growths such as breasts, jaws, lips, mandible etc.

5. SKIN DEFECTS: Treatment of vitiligo or leucoderma (white) patches, removal of tattoo marks, split ear lobules.

6. COSMETIC OR AESTHETIC SURGERY: For the removal of facial wrinkles, forehead wrinkles, heaviness around eyelids, baggy eyelids, crow’s feet wrinkles, peri oral wrinkles, jowls, and double chin. Lifting up of the eyebrows, nose job or changing the shape of the nose, cheek and chin alterations all can be done by plastic surgery. Thinning or augmenting lips, creation of dimples, reshaping ears, breast reduction or enhancement, breast lifting can be done by plastic surgery. Reshaping arms and legs, body contouring surgery for loose hanging belly, waist, hips, buttocks and thighs can be done by plastic surgery. Removal of pregnancy stretch marks, laser assisted facial rejuvenation and hair transplant are all procedures that come under plastic surgery. Benefits of Plastic SurgeryThe great thing about plastic surgery is that the benefits can be both physical and emotional, both external and internal. The physical and external benefits of plastic surgery can be multi-faceted. The first thing that many people notice after plastic surgery is that their bodies seem more proportional or balanced. Whether a person opts to have surgery on their face, hips, breasts or thighs the aim is to sculpt the body in a way that looks natural. The result often allows people to look more like they feel like they should look. This may sound strange, but often a nose that is too large for a particular person's face or a bust that is too large or too small can blur all of this person's other features making them seem disproportionate. Surgeons aim to correct this by taking each individual's body into consideration before deciding on a desired result.

Cost of Plastic Surgery:
No, plastic surgery is not very costly. The expenses involved for any procedure depends upon the institution, the infrastructure required, material used, and nature of the procedure, anesthesia and the operating surgeon. As compared to most other superspecialities, a routine plastic surgery procedure requires minimal instrumentation and infrastructure but high degree of innovative surgical skill.