French version — the French version is the authoritative one.
Plastic surgery is the surgical specialty that repairs or reshapes a part of the human body. It concerns almost every anatomical region and brings together two distinct activities: aesthetic surgery and reconstructive surgery.
Aesthetic surgery modifies a shape that the person themselves finds unsightly, in the absence of disease. It is not covered by French health insurance and requires a written quotation together with a statutory fifteen-day reflection period.
Reconstructive surgery corrects a constitutional anomaly or a sequela of illness, accident or treatment: reconstruction after mastectomy, tuberous breasts, Poland syndrome, gynaecomastia, breast reduction with functional impact, sequelae of major weight loss. It may be eligible for reimbursement, generally after prior authorisation.
The operative techniques are often identical. It is the indication, not the procedure, that distinguishes the two activities.
It reshapes a face marked by ageing — re-tensioning with the cervicofacial lift, brightening the eyes with eyelid surgery — and corrects features felt to be unsightly: rhinoplasty for the nose, otoplasty for the ears.
It answers very different requests: insufficient or excessive volume, asymmetry, laxity after a pregnancy, congenital malformation, reconstruction after cancer. The choice of technique depends on the morphology of the chest, the quality of the skin and the position of the areola.
It treats localised fat deposits by liposuction and corrects skin laxity of the abdomen, arms and thighs that has appeared after a pregnancy, significant weight loss, or with the ageing of the tissues.
Injections of botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid, carried out at the practice, without general anaesthesia and without time off. They treat expression lines and loss of volume, and often make it possible to postpone surgery.
Excision of skin tumours, benign or cancerous, with systematic pathological examination and reconstruction adapted to the site.
Harvesting of follicular units by the FUE technique and reimplantation into thinning areas, to treat androgenetic alopecia.
You do not need to arrive at the consultation knowing which technique to ask for. The approach is the reverse: you describe what troubles you, I examine, and I explain the available options with their advantages, their constraints and their limits.
The same complaint may be addressed by several solutions. Moderate laxity of the jawline may point towards a mini-lift, a full lift or, in certain cases, injections. A loss of breast volume may be a matter for an implant, for lipofilling, or for a technique combining the two.
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