Plastic Surgery: Beyond the Hype

Monday, November 22, 2010

WHAT KIND OF PLASTICS DO YOU USE?

Greek Statue
I get asked all the time what kind of plastics I use in plastic surgery. The answer is none! The “plastic” in plastic surgery actually comes from the Greek word “plastikos,” which means to shape or to mold. This is what plastic surgeons do. We shape or mold tissue. We spend our entire surgical training learning how to manipulate tissue whether it is with a scalpel, a syringe, or a laser. The surgical techniques and principals learned apply equally to cosmetic or reconstructive surgery. There are those that would have you believe that cosmetic surgery is a unique surgical discipline, but that is disingenuous at best and misleading at worst. To put it simply, it’s not true. The distinction between cosmetic and reconstructive surgery is largely an artificial one, initiated by the insurance companies to determine what a covered benefit is. Remember, from a previous episode that insurance companies are in the business to make money, not to take care of YOU.
If your needs happen to get met, consider that a bonus.

Cosmetic surgery is considered surgery on “normal” body parts and therefore, not covered by insurance. On the other hand, reconstructive surgery is surgery on “abnormal” body parts and therefore, is covered. But try telling the boy with excessive breast development, or the child with the protruding ears, who both get teased unmercifully by their classmates, that their “condition” is cosmetic, while the sagging upper eyelids on their grandmother is reconstructive.

The surgical principals and techniques that go into lifting a sagging breast (not a covered benefit), are the same ones used in reducing a large breast (a covered benefit, at least for now). There are some insurance plans out there that no longer consider breast reduction a covered benefit. But try telling that to the woman with the 38-DD breasts, who has chronic neck and shoulder pain, gets heat rashes, can’t exercise and can’t find a comfortable bra, that her condition is considered “cosmetic”! How can this be? It is because the insurance companies are run largely by men, and ENTIRELY FOR PROFIT.

Putting a face back together after a car accident and rejuvenating a face require the same knowledge of anatomy and principles of tissue manipulation. Plastic surgery is more than abnormal vs. normal; it’s about making people feel better about themselves. People often ask me why I went into plastic surgery. I am often also asked what my favorite procedure is, and my answer is always the same: the one that makes someone happy!

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