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Español Dr Antonio Puig Rosada
Plastic surgery is a medical speciality concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. While famous for aesthetic surgery, plastic surgery also includes a variety of fields such as craniofacial surgery, hand surgery, burn surgery, microsurgery, and 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 and neck cancer and 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. It is generally covered by insurance coverage but this may change according to the procedure required. 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 tumours in the head and neck region.
Cosmetic Surgery defined as a subspecialty of surgery that uniquely restricts itself to the enhancement of appearance through surgical and medical techniques. It is specifically concerned with maintaining normal appearance, restoring it, or enhancing it beyond the average level toward some aesthetic ideal. The most prevalent aesthetic/cosmetic procedures are:”tummy tuck”, nose, ear and eyelid surgery, breast enlargement, breast reduction, liposuction and facelift.