FAQ:
What is the difference between plastic
surgery and cosmetic surgery?
The terms
plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery don't have hard and fast definitions,
but here's how many people use them:
Plastic surgery
can be divided into two main categories: cosmetic surgery and
reconstructive surgery. During cosmetic surgery, you take a
body part that is within a range of normal appearance, and you try to
improve it. For example, a 60 year old man may have a face that is
normal for a 60-year-old. When he gets a face lift, he is trying to
improve the appearance of something that was basically normal to begin
with. That's cosmetic surgery. (This analysis, of course, hangs on the
assumption that he has indeed improved his appearance by trying to
look like he's 50 instead of 60.) During
reconstructive surgery, you take a body part that is not
within a range of normal appearance, and you try to make it look more
normal. The repair of a cleft lip or the straightening of a nose
that has been broken is usually considered reconstructive surgery, not
cosmetic surgery, because the body part that is being improved didn't
start out in a range of normal appearance; rather, it's being brought back
to a normal appearance. So
cosmetic surgery is a subset of plastic surgery. It still
makes sense to use the terms almost interchangeably, though. If you
have a rhinoplasty, you can say that you had cosmetic surgery, or you can
accurately say that you had plastic surgery.
Return
to the main FAQ page
|