Plastic Surgery As a Life-Saving Operation

As an aesthetic medical procedure, plastic surgery gets a lot of bad publicity. Society practically views vanity as a sin especially in the face of other more significant issues like global warming, poverty, and world hunger. The narcissistic also add to the negativity about an operation that actually save lives. Here are a few ways plastic surgery positively changes how its patients live.

Skin Grafting for Burn Victims
A person who suffers severe burns does not get plastic surgery just to look better. Without the dermal layers, the body has no protection against infection. The impairment or loss of blood circulation will also lead to hypovolemic shock. With plastic surgery, the successfully implanted skin graft will speed up recovery and ensure that the patient has a chance for a life outside extremely clean rooms.

Craniofacial Surgery for Children with Birth Defects
Due to hereditary conditions or improper prenatal care and medication, a newborn could suffer from skull, face or jaw malformations. Thankfully, plastic surgery can be performed to successfully correct them. The scars eventually fade, too, as the child grows. The most common craniofacial surgery performed is for cleft and palate deformities that are hardly visible by the time the little one goes to school.

Cranio-maxillofacial Surgery for Trauma Patients
Children are not the only ones who need of plastic surgery for non-aesthetic reasons. Disaster and accident survivors may get to live another day but at the expense of severely damaged faces. The same goes for cancer patients who have head, face, or neck tumors successfully removed. Facial reconstructive surgery gives back the use of their facial features.

Microsurgery for Lost Appendages
Extra care is always needed when working with sharp blades and knives as they can lead to devastating accidents. If you lost an ear, part of your nose, a thumb, or a toe to such an event, it can still be reattached to your body within a specific timeframe using a type of plastic surgery known as microsurgery. With this technique, the completely detached body part can be completely replanted by using techniques that reconnect bone, tissue, and nerves and restore blood flow up to the capillaries.

Whether or not you decide to get plastic surgery for visual or functional reasons is really up to you. You won't be able to please all of society all of the time. What matters is that you get a trusted surgeon who is out for your best interests.