Plastic surgery

is a specific section of surgery including the rectification of specific parts of the body that may have been damaged owing to birth defects, cases of trauma, burns or even diseases. Plastic surgery also incorporates cosmetic surgery, which is carried out to change the look of a person through operations including facelifts, rhinoplasty, liposuction and breast augmentations. The main disparity between cosmetic plastic surgery and reconstructive surgery is that people choose cosmetic surgery to improve their look as well as their personality.
Emergence

Reconstructive surgery techniques were being performed in India by 2000 BC. Sushruta who is considered the father of surgery, made significant contributions to the sphere of plastic and cataract surgery in 6th century BC. British physicians used to travel to India in order to see how rhinoplasties were being performed using native methods. Reports on Indian rhinoplasty delivered by a Kumhar Vaidya were brought out in the Gentleman\’s Magazine by 1794.The history also suggests that ancient Egyptians and Romans also performed plastic cosmetic surgery. The Romans were capable to perform simple techniques involving repairing damaged ears from around the 1st century BC. For religious restrictions and believes, they did not dissect either human beings or animals. So their knowledge was entirely based on the texts of their Greek predecessors. Aulus Cornelius Celsus left some amazingly accurate anatomical descriptions, such as his researches on the genitalia and the skeleton are of singular interest to plastic surgery. In mid-15th century Europe, Heinrich von Pfolspeundt described the process of plastic surgery as \”to make a new nose for one who lacks it entirely, and the dogs have devoured it\” by collecting skin from the back of the arm and adjusting it in place. However, due to the risks linked with surgery in any form, especially that involving the head or face, it was not until the 19th and 20th centuries that such surgery became so common

Types of Plastic surgery

Plastic surgery is a specialized surgery that may incorporate both a person\’s appearance and capacity to function. Plastic surgeons make every effort to improve patients\’ appearance and personality following both reconstructive and cosmetic procedures.

Reconstructive
Reconstructive procedures rectify drawbacks on the face or body including physical birth defects, such as cleft lips and palates, ear deformities, traumatic injuries including dog bites or burns, or the consequences of disease treatments like improving a woman\’s breast after surgery for breast cancer. Tumor removal, laceration repair, scar repair, hand surgery, and breast reduction are the most common reconstructive procedures. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the number of reconstructive breast reductions for women increased in 2007 by 2% from the previous year. On the other hand breast reduction in men also increased in 2007 by 7%. Some other common reconstructive surgical procedures are breast reconstruction after a mastectomy, cleft lip and palate surgery, contracture surgery for burn survivors, and creating a new outer ear when one is congenitally not present.

Plastic surgeons choose microsurgery to shift tissue for coverage of a defect when no local tissue is present. Free flaps of skin, muscle, bone, fat, or a combination may be eliminated from the body, moved to another location on the body, and reconnected to a blood supply by replacing arteries and veins as small as 1 to 2 millimeters in diameter

Cosmetic

Cosmetic (also called aesthetic) procedures change a part of the body that the person is not happy with. Common cosmetic procedures consist of breast enhancement or (augmentation mammoplasty) or make the breast smaller (reduction mammoplasty), reshaping the nose(rhinoplasty), and removing pockets of fat from particular spots on the body (liposuction). Some cosmetic procedures aren\’t even surgical but most people have a view that each and every surgery involves cutting and stitching. For instance, the use of specific lasers to remove unwanted hair and sanding skin to cure severe scarring are two such cosmetic cures.

The most prevalent aesthetic/cosmetic procedures include the following:

Abdominoplasty (\”tummy tuck\”): The process includes reshaping and firming of the abdomen.
Blepharoplasty (\”eyelid surgery\”): It means reshaping of the eyelids or the application of permanent eyeliner, including Asian blepharoplasty.
Phalloplasty: It refers to the improvement or reconstruction of a penis or, at times, artificial change of the penis by surgery, often for cosmetic purposes. It is also sometimes used to mean penis development.

Mammoplasty:

Breast augmentations (\”breast implant\” or \”boob job\”): It involves enlargement of the breasts using fat grafting, saline, or silicone gel prosthetics, which was primarily performed to women with micromastia

Reduction mammoplasty (\”breast reduction\”): exclusion of skin and glandular tissue, which is performed in order to ease back and shoulder pain in women with gigantomastia and/or for psychological benefit men with gynecomastia.

Mastopexy (\”breast lift\”): Lifting or reshaping of breasts in order to make them less shapeless, often after losing weight (specifically after a pregnancy). It consists of elimination of breast skin as opposed to glandular tissue.

Buttock augmentation (\”butt implant\”): The surgery involves improvement of the buttocks by means of silicone implants or fat grafting (\”Brazilian butt lift\”) and transfer from other areas of the body.

Buttock lift: lifting, and tightening of the buttocks eliminating the redundant skin.

Chemical peel: Reducing the emergence of acne, chicken pox, and other scars along with wrinkles depending upon the concentration and sort of agent used, excepting deep furrows, solar lentigines (age spots, freckles), and photodamage in general. Chemical peels normally contain carbolic acid (Phenol), trichloroacetic acid (TCA), glycolic acid (AHA), or salicylic acid (BHA) as the active agent.

Labiaplasty: it denotes surgical reduction and reshaping of the labia.

Lip enhancement: It involves surgical improvement of lip detail through enlargement.

Rhinoplasty (\”nose job\”): It indicates reshaping of the nose.

Otoplasty (\”ear surgery\”/\”ear pinning\”): Reshaping of the ear is done, mainly by pinning the protruding ear near the head. It is performed on both kids and adults to reduce social anxiety and is performed for entirely cosmetic purposes opposing popular belief that it improves hearing.

Rhytidectomy (\”face lift\”): It is all about the elimination of wrinkles and signs of aging from the face.

Browplasty (\”brow lift\” or \”forehead lift\”): It elevates eyebrows and smooths forehead skin.

Midface lift (\”cheek lift\”): It is used for tightening the cheeks

Suction-assisted lipectomy (\”liposuction\”): it is a process of exclusion of fat from the body.

Chin augmentation (\”chin implant\”): it is an augmentation of the chin using an implant, generally silicone, by descending genioplasty of the jawbone or by suture of the soft tissue.

Fillers injections: collagen, fat and other tissue filler injections, such as hyaluronic acid, is injected.

Laser skin resurfacing: It is a relatively new process for removing facial wrinkles and skin defects like blemishes, acne or other scars. In this process skin is removed layer by layer and very carefully. It is also known as lasabrasion, laser peel or laser vaporization.

Pediatric Plastic surgery: Children often face medical issues very different from the experiences of an adult patient. Many birth defects or syndromes present at birth are best treated in childhood, and pediatric plastic surgeons specialize in treating these conditions in children. Conditions generally treated by pediatric plastic surgeons comprise craniofacial anomalies, cleft lip and palate and congenital hand deformities.

Microsurgery: This is generally linked with the restoration of missing tissues by transferring a piece of tissue to the affected site and reconnecting blood vessels. Popular subspecialty areas comprise breast development, head and neck reconstruction, hand surgery/replantation, and brachial plexus surgery.

Plastic Surgery and the role of media

These days physical beauty is given too much importance; to some extent it is due to greater media attention on beauty and perfection. The result is, celebrities and those alike are opting for plastic surgery more and more. Those who are not living on the salary of a celebrity are taking out loans to get their plastic precision costing approximately $83,000 for 14 surgeries.

Although media and widespread advertising do play a vital function in influencing many people\’s lives, researchers think that plastic surgery obsession is related to psychological disorders. Body dysmorphic disorder is considered as playing a huge role in the lives of those involved with going under the knife in order to attain physical perfection. People with this disorder are so obsessed with their looks that it takes over their lives. For those whose doctors refuse to do any further surgeries, they choose to do it themselves by injecting themselves in their home without being concerned about their safety.

Plastic Surgery is not an easy job to perform as it involves various complications and sometimes the results go against our desire. Many Plastic surgeons experienced that cosmetic change to the body parts should not be carried out without consulting a certified doctor because sometimes the prescription will not be appropriate for you and might interfere with your look and personality. Now a day teens and younger generation are experimenting with their looks to achieve a better one that may contribute to their personality. They more often crave for the looks of their favorite film star. But the same type of surgery may not be applicable to you so it is essential to undergo a test to find out whether plastic surgery really suits you or not.

The more the patients undergo plastic surgeries the craving for it also increases consequently it further increases the cost of the surgery, which may not be affordable by any other patients. So the entire surgery should be performed if your cosmetologist really declares that you are fit for the surgery and you are really in a vital need of it.