The Two Sides of Plastic Surgery

Plastic surgeons performed more than 10 million cosmetic procedures and nearly 5.5 million reconstructive procedures in 2005. Cosmetic procedures jumped 11 percent from the previous year, prompting The American Society of Plastic Surgeons to note that "cosmetic surgery is the new take on ‘growing old gracefully’."

What should patients know about such procedures? How dangerous are they? How are they different from reconstructive procedures? And with the successful completion in France of the world’s first face transplant, how far can medicine go in recreating parts of the human body?

Glen Brooks, M.D., President, Massachusetts

Society of Plastic Surgery, and Surgeon, Aesthetic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Longmeadow, Mass.

Theodore Calianos, M.D., Plastic Surgeon; President, Barnstable County District Medical Society

Co-produced with Hopkinton Community Access Television, HCAM-TV, Hopkinton Mass.

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Filed under: Physician Focus