Wellstar Plastic Surgery

Understanding Plastic Surgery

Plastic surgery is the broad term that includes cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery. Cosmetic surgery reshapes the body to improve the patient's appearance and self-esteem. Reconstructive surgery is performed to reshape abnormalities caused by congenital defects, developmental abnormalities, trauma, infection or disease.

Surgeons in the Wellstar Surgery Network perform both cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries to treat various conditions. The American Board of Plastic Surgery also recognizes several sub-specialty areas including: burn, craniofacial, hand, micro, and pediatric plastic surgery.

Wellstar’s plastic surgeons have extensive training and experience reconstructing deformities of the face and body. These surgical experts help patients who have experienced trauma, burns, disfiguring disease or have birth disorders that caused defects.

Plastic surgeries typically fall into four general categories: body, breast, face, and skin. Some common procedures include:

• Abdominoplasty—reshaping and firming the abdomen
• Buttock augmentation or lift—enhancing and/or tightening of the buttocks
• Liposuction—removal of fat deposits using a suction technique to remove fat from specific areas, such as the abdomen, hips and buttocks
• Mastectomy—surgical removal of one or both breasts, usually to treat or prevent cancer
• Breast reconstruction—reshaping or enhancing the breasts, often to return the breasts to normal size and shape following a mastectomy
• Breast augmentation—enhancing the breasts, or lifting and reshaping the breasts
• Reduction mammoplasty—reducing the size of the breasts and removing skin, often to reduce back and shoulder pain
• Blepharoplasty—reshaping of the eyelids
• Rhinoplasty—reshaping of the nose
• Otoplasty—reshaping of the ear, often accomplished by pinning the protruding ear closer to the head
• Browplasty—elevating the eyebrows and smoothing skin on the forehead
• Chin augmentation—enhancing or reshaping the chin, often by using a silicone implant
• Chemical peel—minimizing the appearance of scars, wrinkles or acne through the use of various chemicals
• Laser resurfacing—treating skin conditions and/or removing wrinkles by using intense pulsed light
• Skin grafting—transplanting healthy skin to treat skin that has been damaged by traumatic injury, burns, infections or cancer

Conditions typically treated

• Bite discrepancies (overbite, underbite, cross bite)
• Burn
• Breast cancer
• Carpal tunnel
• Cleft lip and palate
• Congenital defects
• Congenital nevi
• Complex wounds
• Craniosynostosis
• Deformity
• Deviated septum
• Dupuytren's contracture
• Facial imbalances (asymmetry, upper/lower jaw under-development, lower jaw excess, chin deficiencies)
• Facial trauma
• Gender confirmation
• Limb trauma
• Lymphedema
• Migraine
• Nerve injury
• Rheumatoid arthritis affecting the hand
• Scars
• Skin cancer