You've heard the terms plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery and reconstructive
surgery bandied about, and you're confused. No wonder. You'll see both medical
and marketing uses of these terms and when you see them, you need to
know what they mean.
When you hear the word plastic, you probably think of the modern material
that's molded into myriad products - patio chairs, kids' toys, kitchen glasses,
and airline knives and forks. The list goes on and on. This plastic isn't what
we're talking about.
Plastic surgeons shape or mold your body into new and more pleasing forms.
Another form of this word, the suffix - plasty is used in the names of many
plastic surgery procedures. In the mid-l800`s, the medical term for nose
reshaping came to be rhinoplasty - rhino (for nose) plus plasty (to describe
the shaping technique). Other examples include abdominoplasty (reshaping
of your abdomen), mammoplasty (changing the shape of your breasts), and
blepharoplasty (reshaping of your eyelids).
As defined by the AMA, the medical specialty of
plastic surgery includes two subcategories of procedures:
Cosmetic: Cosmetic surgery is performed to reshape normal structures
of the body to improve the patient's appearance and self-esteem.
Reconstructive: Reconstructive surgery is performed on abnormal features
of the body (usually caused by congenital defects, developmental
abnormalities, infection, tumors, or disease) It is generally done to
improve function, but may also be done to approximate a normal
appearance.
Cosmetic surgery improves form, whereas reconstructive surgery improves function.
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