Plastic surgery is a surgical speciality involved with both the improvement in a person’s appearance and the reconstruction of facial and body tissue defects due to illness, trauma, or birth disorders. Plastic surgery restores and improves function, as well as appearance.

Plastic surgeons undergo extensive training in both general surgery and plastic surgery techniques. Plastic surgery encompasses a wide range of procedures, including reconstructive surgery as well as cosmetic surgery.

Reconstructive surgery is done on abnormal structures of the body that may be caused by the following:

• Trauma
• Infection
• Developmental abnormalities
• Congenital (present at birth) anomalies
• Disease
• Tumours

This type of surgery is usually done to improve function, but may also be done to change appearance.

Cosmetic (aesthetic) plastic surgery is done to repair or reshape otherwise normal structures of the body, generally, to improve appearance.