Cosmetic or Plastic surgery?

 Cosmetic or  plastic surgery: what's the difference?

Over the last few years, Brazil and the United States have been positioning themselves as the two countries with the highest number of plastic surgery and aesthetic surgeries performed.

In 2013, Brazil performed 1.49 million surgical interventions, either for aesthetic or restorative reasons. The data are from the International Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS).

The reparative surgeries in our country have been growing more than the aesthetic ones, and today, they represent 40% of the total cases. See the difference between them.

Repairing plastic surgery

As its name indicates, repairing plastic surgery aims to promote a correction in deformities caused by accidental injuries, as well as in congenital or acquired defects. It is also thus characterized when the patient has some functional deficiency that can be corrected by plastic surgery.

In cancer surgery, for example, to remove a tumor, very large defects may occur. In cases of this nature, restorative surgery is necessary for local reconstruction of the defect generated. This is also true of patients who have suffered severe burns. Facial malformations as well as cases of cleft lip are examples of reconstructive surgeries for congenital reasons.

These are the most common cases of reconstructive plastic surgery, in descending order of occurrence:

Cutaneous tumors;

Congenital defects;

Breast reconstruction;

Domestic accidents;

Urban accidents.

There are also examples of cases of this kind of surgery: facial paralysis, various post-traumatic reconstructions and hand surgeries (trauma and amputations).

Cosmetic plastic surgery

This type of plastic surgery aims to adapt some part of the body to the aesthetic conceptions of the patient and society. The objective, in these cases, is to improve the patient's appearance by adapting it to the concepts of his social group.

In these cases, there is a search for the patient's self-esteem elevation. The psychological damages caused to the patients by these aesthetic alterations justify the correction of the same ones.  

The major incidences of these types of plastic surgeries are:

Breast augmentation;

Liposuction;

Removal of excess skin from the belly   

Breast reduction;

Correction of eyelids.

Other examples that may be mentioned are: nose shape repair, intimate surgery, male breast reduction, among others.

Pre and post-operative care

The success of aesthetic or restorative plastic surgery is not exclusively dependent on the planning and the quality of the professional who will lead it. Therefore, in whatever type of surgery some care needs to be observed by the patient.

Preoperative

To go to the hospital in fasting;

If you smoke, stop smoking at least 14 days before;

Suspend, under medical advice, the consumption of medicines with acetylsalicylic acid (ASA);

Suspend hormonal medications.

Post-operative

If you smoke, keep the suspension of cigarette smoking;

Maintain the suspension of hormonal drugs;

Avoid very cold and very hot environments;

Avoid being in the sun for the next 60 days;

Avoid intense physical exercises.


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