PLASTIC SURGERY MORE THAN NIPS AND TUCKS

A plastic surgeon may tend to broken bones and damaged nerves one morning and consult with someone interested in eliminating sagging skin that afternoon.

A specialty recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, plastic surgery procedures generally fall into one of two categories -- reconstructive surgery or cosmetic surgery.

With the field so encompassing, the general plastic surgeon sees plenty of variety in his day-to-day work.

Those wide-ranging possibilities captured the attention of Gregory A. Tobin, a young medical student from South Dakota. Tobin, now a doctor and a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with offices on Mount Auburn Road, continues to enjoy the multi-faceted challenges his chosen field affords. Plastic and reconstructive surgeons may address problems involving practically any portion of the body.

Cosmetic surgery is defined by the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons as the reshaping of normal structures of the body to improve appearance, while reconstructive surgery is performed on abnormal structures of the body. Those abnormalities may be caused by any number of factors including congenital defects, developmental abnormalities, trauma, infection, tumors or disease.

Tobin holds special interest in hand surgery. However, in his practice, he also performs a wide range of reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgery procedures, including liposuction, abdominoplasty, surgeries of the breast and facial surgeries.

"There are going to be areas of interest for the individual plastic surgeon," he said. Likewise, several local ear, nose and throat physicians hold special interest in facial plastic surgery.

"One of the primary misconceptions is that plastic surgeons do in large part cosmetic surgery," Tobin said. On a national scale, the surgeries performed by plastic surgeons fall within the 40 percent cosmetic and 60 percent reconstructive range.

"There is nothing like a cut and dry limitation," when it comes to defining surgeries that may be performed by a plastic surgeon or called plastic surgery, agreed Dr. R. Reddy, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with offices in Doctors' Park.

The word plastic is derived from the Greek meaning of giving form or molding.

Reddy's interest in the field was sparked when reading about surgical techniques developed to address wartime injuries that occurred earlier in this century. Plastic surgery arose as a specialty from the varied injuries sustained during war.

Types of cases not generally addressed by plastic surgeons in Cape Girardeau include major burns, cranial and facial surgeries and major congenital anomalies, Tobin said.

While the subject is broad in scope, cosmetic surgery is the type of surgery likely to be most readily associated with a plastic surgeon, perhaps because the results are so visible.

A Cape Girardeau woman who had a complete facelift at age 56 and upper and lower eyelid surgery a year later is an adamant believer in the possibilities offered through cosmetic surgery.

Eyelid surgery, called blepharoplasty, removes fat and excess skin from the upper and lower eyelids.

The result of her facelift, she said, "is not anything that's real dramatic, where it stretches your skin to where you look like someone else."

The experience was more uncomfortable than painful, she said, and the results were worth it. "I feel like it took 10 years off at least, maybe more," she said.

"I just wanted to feel better about myself. If I could look younger, I wanted too," she said.

Both surgeries were performed on an outpatient basis with the facelift taking about four hours and the eyelid surgery about one hour, said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous.

"I had some swelling and bruising, but it soon went away," she said. "The scars are in areas where it doesn't show."

The woman found the results so pleasing that, she "might have it done again sometime."