Cosmetic Surgery and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery: What’s the Difference?

Filed in archive Plastic Surgery on February 27, 2010

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Plastic surgery can improve physical appearance, boost self-esteem, and enhance the aesthetics of a particular feature; however some plastic surgery procedures are also necessary to restore a "normal" appearance or to actually correct an impaired function of part of the body. This is where cosmetic surgery magically becomes reconstructive plastic surgery.

And the results really can be like magic to those who can now live a more normal life after having had a terrible accident, or after a lifetime of social rejection due to a congenital defect.

Reconstructive surgery is usually performed to correct abnormal structures of the body often caused by trauma, disease, or developmental problems or deformities:

• Tumor removal
• Laceration repair
• Scar repair
• hand surgery
• breast reduction or reconstruction after mastectomy
• Cleft lip and palate surgery
• Contracture surgery for burn survivors
• Ear reconstruction where there is no ear present due to birth defect
• Other traumatic injury

Cosmetic surgery is elective surgery performed to improve appearance, aesthetics, or self-esteem, and involves surgically reshaping parts of an otherwise functioning body. There are many different types of cosmetic plastic surgery, however it is always a personal choice based on an individual's perception of self and projected quality of life.

In future posts we'll discuss the reasons reconstructive plastic surgery is so necessary, and how even small cosmetic changes can affect people's quality of life.