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What is plastic surgery?
The Word plastic comes from the Greek “plasticos,” which means to give shape to or mold. The most common use of this word is in the artistic field, where painting and sculpture are called plastic arts. Plastic surgery is therefore, surgery of SHAPE; it is enabled with technical elements that allow it to reconstruct deformed body parts or to mold others with the purpose of beautification. Its two main branches are aesthetic surgery and reconstructive surgery.
What is aesthetic surgery?
When the objective of plastic surgery is beautification, the same techniques and elements are used than those used in reconstructive surgery. This is why a good aesthetic surgeon must be, above all, an excellent reconstructive surgeon.
What is reconstructive surgery?
It is the branch of plastic surgery that deals with critical problems, with the idea of improving deteriorated functions, like in deformities, cancer or birth defects. For example, skin grafts for burn victims, hand reconstruction, breast reconstruction after breast cancer, and fixing cleft lip or palate.
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Who is a Plastic Surgeon?
A Plastic surgeon is a specialized physician, with a high ethical, aesthetic, and social sense. He/she has received enough education, medical elements and morals to practice plastic surgery as part of a healing duty, helping patients solve their problems in the manner they need.
How is a plastic surgeon educated?
A plastic surgeon is primarily a doctor, who has gone to the University for 6 years until completing his/her medical studies. After, they will go to a hospital for a year to practice giving medical attention while supervised; this is known as an internship. Later on, they will work at a smaller hospital, generally away from big cities, so that they are able to supply medical services during a year (known as a rural year). After completing both these requirements, they are able to go through a specialty that lasts 4 years.
The criteria for admission into a specialty are very strict and they guarantee that a plastic surgeon educated in Mexico is of the highest scientific quality. During this time the doctor is called a resident and has the opportunity to learn and practice everything that will be necessary during their career as a specialist. In our country, it is very common for specialists in plastic surgery from other countries to offer their services, which is allowed after they have met certain legal requirements.
How do you choose a Plastic Surgeon?
Make sure you are operated on by a Plastic Surgery:
With the growing success of plastic surgery, the market and media have been flooded with information about plastic surgery procedures. Sometimes the offer miraculous results, which are many times promoted by people who aren’t even physicians or aren’t adequately prepared.
Examine your doctor carefully:
Like every doctor carefully examines their patients, each patient should examine their plastic surgeon during several consults prior to their surgery. It may not be necessary to ask to see the doctor’s diploma before a procedure, but it is useful to know what human and scientific qualities the surgeon has. Remember that a real physician interrogates and examines their patient carefully, discusses findings and problems, asks for tests, consults with other specialists, fully discusses treatment possibilities and if surgery is or isn’t in the patient’s best interest. A doctor should never hide any information, in fact he should inform of possible complications, advantages and disadvantages of surgery, and finally plans in a slow and conscientious way the best treatment for the patient, without risking their health or their lives by carrying out procedures in inadequate places (gyms, spas, beauty salons, hotels, malls, etc).
A plastic surgeon who is adequately prepared knows his own limitations and resources and he informs his/her patients of these, which is why they know he cannot deliver miraculous, spectacular, immediate, painless, or risk-free results.
Beware of plastic surgeons who depend on excessive publicity or who put their economic wellbeing and marketing before patients. Whoever puts wealth before ethics, cannot be a good doctor.
Too good to be true! (Does a surgeon operate with a scalpel or a magic wand?)
Bragging about new and sophisticated techniques that are sometimes too expensive is not a guaranty for magical results. The best surgical techniques have been developed during the passing of years and have endured scientific tests of their development. Trends aren’t always the best choice or the safest; and certainly treatments of this kind are not miraculous.
Know your surgeon and make yourself known!
Surgeons that don’t know their patients before operating on them or that don’t evaluate them in a rigorous fashion during postop are fearsome. You shouldn’t plan your surgery with third parties or be examined after surgery by someone other than who operated on you. These practices are far from prudent and safe for patients.
Beware of those doctors who have and office and only come to town from other places to operate, if you need them in the future you may not know where to find them.
Commitment to Life
Plastic Surgery is not a one day commitment; it is a commitment to life and the best possible results for patients, who should have a friend in their surgeon, who should be ready to help them when they need him. This kind of logic is simple, and the confidence and security that the surgeon should provide during previous consults are elements that assure patients of having made a good choice.
Where do plastic surgeries take place?
All plastic surgery is a medical act and should be understood as so. Every surgery should take place in an adequate setting that is equipped with security measures, like a well equipped operating room located in a clinic or hospital known for the support they can bring during emergencies. Even though many surgeries are done with the purpose of beautification, this does not mean aesthetic surgery can be done in an inadequate or insecure place, like a beauty salon, a gym or a mall, for example.
Are there risks with plastic surgery?
Every surgery comes with certain degree of risk and altercations, and aesthetic surgery is no exception. When these surgeries are very prolonged and difficult they can have significant risks. Before undergoing an operation you should have very clear what specific risk you are under for that surgery.
How do you decrease the risks of plastic surgery?
Before undergoing any procedure make sure that the risks you are personally under are explained to you. There is not such thing as a risk-free surgery, but the risk is acceptable and minor next to the benefits provided by surgery, in most cases.
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To decrease risks it is necessary to have a consult prior to the operation with a medical examination that rules out diseases or conditions that may complicate good postop results. The consult will be completed with lab tests and if necessary with an interconsult with other physicians, for example an internist for hypertension or diabetes, among other problems.
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A specialist in anesthesiology will complete a full examination before the operation.
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The procedure should take place in an operating room equipped with all the necessary tools; this room should be inside an institution that can offer emergency services like transfusions, transport and special or intensive care, if necessary.
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An adequate choice for a surgeon and hospital may significantly reduce risk.
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Following the surgeon’s exact instructions and advice after surgery is of extreme importance.
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It is important to take the necessary time to recuperate after surgery.
What can you expect from a plastic surgery?
Most surgery techniques offer reasonable results with acceptable risks.
Results can vary according to the patient’s previous condition, the type of operation preformed, and the patient’s postop evolution.
In some cases surgery can leave scars that can be hidden or are not very visible; in other cases they can be notorious and very visible.
Make sure that what you expect from your surgery is what was explained and offered to you during consultation, if this does not happen there may be unrealistic expectations and it may lead to unsatisfactory results.
Plastic surgery is equipped with valuable resources, scalpels and other elements, far from being miraculous or magic wands for perfect, immediate, risk and pain free results.
What are the most frequent aesthetic surgeries?
Plastic surgery can offer a great variety of aesthetic surgeries to increase, reduce, or reaffirm some bodily aspect, making it useful to almost every consult.
The most common procedures are:
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Facial rejuvenation (wrinkles, eye lids, forehead, cheeks, neck)
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Nose (aesthetic rinoplasty)
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Enhancing and changing of facial bones (chin, cheeks, jaw, bite correction, changes in profile and face proportions)
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Enhancing and changes in breast size (augmentation with implants, reduction, reaffirmation)
What are the costs?
Many plastic surgeries, especially those of the reconstructive kind, are part of mandatory health plans and are covered by many insurance companies and health fund companies. Although, aesthetic surgeries are not covered by any type of insurance and the total costs that they generate must be covered by the patient. Surgery costs vary depending on the type of operation. Additional costs, that may include a good operating room, an adequate clinic or hospital, and trained specialists, are priceless if they are compared to the security and benefits that they bring.
What are the innovations of plastic surgery?
The development of grafts, expanding implants, and transplants using microsurgery are some of the things that plastic surgery has brought to medicine. Every day, new innovations are being developed and new techniques, like endoscopy and lasers, are incorporated to improve recovery and results of plastic surgery.
The techniques that have brought about the best results have been slowly established with the passing of time; new techniques are always gaining scientific value and can then be used on patients in a safe way.
Trends aren’t always the best choice or are scientifically approved; and certainly treatments of this kind are not miraculous or risk free.
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