Most of us think of plastic surgery as the kind of operation people have when they want to straighten a nose, or otherwise change the appearance of their faces in some way.

This is really cosmetic surgery and is only a branch of plastic surgery. Today, plastic surgery includes such things as correcting some deformity that a person may have been born with; or repairing the skin after a tumor has been removed or after a person has suffered severe burns.

Plastic surgery has been practiced for thousands of years in India. People who committed certain crimes there used to be punished by having their noses sliced off! Plastic surgeons in India used to take skin from the cheeks and reconstruct a nose.

In plastic surgery, the skin of the body is involved. The skin may be molded or rearranged on a certain part of the body, excessive tissue may be removed, or new skin tissue may be added. Or the surgery may involve a combination of all three of these techniques.

When the skin is removed from one part of the body and grafted onto another part, usually only the top two layers are used. This is because the skin then has a better chance to “live” in its new location. New blood vessels form and circulation keeps the skin alive. When thicker layers of skin are grafted, as when someone has had a bad accident or severe burns, the chances for the new skin to “live” are not as good, but when it does, it is likely to look more natural and normal.

Plastic surgery can help a person who has been injured regain a presentable and normal appearance and so continue to live and work happily.

Very often, however, people will undergo plastic surgery purely to improve their appearances. They may want to change the shapes of their ears, or noses. In some cases, they may want to remove wrinkles from the face, or have their faces “lifted.” In such cases, the change is only temporary. In time, signs of age appear again.