"Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of us all?"
ALL of us have looked critically at
ourselves in the mirror - at one
time or another, if not every day.
In the end, it is the mirror - the way all
of us see ourselves - that determines
whether we feel "fair" about our appearance.
The number one reason people consider
cosmetic surgery is to beautify
their bodies, to improve their image. And
there's nothing wrong with that reasoning,
says Dr. Ahmed Abdullah, plastic
surgeon at Dakota Medical Center in
Fargo. Along with Dr. Charles Benjamin,
Dr. Abdullah performs a wide range of
plastic and reconstructive surgeries at
Dakota - from skin grafting for burn
patients and hand surgery for accident
victims, to reconstructive surgery after
a mastectomy and the facelifts, rhinoplasties
and tummy tucks that come to
mind more readily to most of us when we
think of plastic surgery.
The 'image thing'
Cosmetic surgery - including
facelifts, rhinoplasties, eyelid surgeries
and tummy tucks - is just one part of
plastic surgery as a whole. It also happens
to be one of Abdullah's chief medical
interests.
"Cosmetic surgery is rejuvenative
surgery for any part of the body,"
Abdullah explains. A plastic surgeon can
lift the face, forehead, eyes or eyelids...
perform rhinoplasties, often called
'nose jobs,' or otoplasties, for the ears.
Plastic surgeons can offer chemical
peels or dermabrasion to remove wrinkles.
They do liposuction, tummy tucks
and thigh lifts - in short, any type of
rejuvenative surgery for sagging skin.
Cosmetic surgery has gotten a bad
rap, in some circles, says Abdullah. That,
he says, is because of misunderstanding
of people's motives, and of the information
and skill plastic surgeons bring to
their practice.
"Your image affects what you do,"
Abdullah asserts. 'There's a huge psychological
factor. If you're not happy with
your image, there's nothing wrong with
wanting to have it fixed,"
Cosmetic breast surgeries
Cosmetic breast surgeries. including
reduction and augmentation, are a major
area of rejuvenating plastic surgery. In
fact, of all the cosmetic plastic surgeries,
breast reduction surgery has some of
the most satisfying results for women.
It' a big operation, involving numerous
incisions. But scarring is "fairly minimal,"
and very acceptable to the patient.
"I've personally never seen a woman
who was not satisfied with her surgery,"
states Abdullah. "These are women who
have had chronic backaches and shoulder
pain because of the size of their
breasts, who have been unable to do aerobics,
jogging or other activities. After
breast reduction surgery, a lot of them
totally change their lifestyles. They are
very happy with the relief the surgery
has given."
Nipple reconstruction is an outpatient
procedure commonly done for women
whose nipples sag, usually due to breastfeeding.
Breast augmentation surgery,
using saline implants, is also done on an
outpatient basis, and most patients can
remain awake during the procedure.
"There are different ways of doing the
procedure, different incisions," Abdullah
says. "The technique is determined on
an individual basis, after the different
options available are discussed with the
patient."
Reconstructive breast surgery
after mastectomy
Reconstructive breast surgery following
rnastectomy is another growing
field for plastic surgeons. That's because
nearly 1 in 9 women will develop breast
cancer at some point in her life - a
"fairly alarming statistic," points out
Abdullah.
"It used to be that patients would have
a mastectomy, and that was it," the surgeon
relates. 'That was the treatment for
breast cancer. Now, we know that the
los of a part of your body is a big psychological
factor. Reconstruction helps fill
that void."
In fact. immediate reconstruction is
now the best option for many women
undergoing mastectomy.