The Top 10 Plastic Surgery Blogs

As you’ve probably heard if you’ve ever talked about computers with someone over 65 years old, it is absolutely crazy how much information people can access over the web. Whether on Facebook, Wikipedia, or YouTube, you can discover just about anything on the web, from what your friend had for lunch to the history of Greece to how to change the oil in your car. It really is quite remarkable.

As a major platform for relaying information, online blogs play a substantial part in how the web educates its readers. Now, an important principle when it comes to comprehensive learning is to avoid limiting your perspective by limiting yourself to a single source. Your information is usually only as good as where it came from, so make sure your information is good by checking more than one source.

This principle holds true with plastic surgery too, which is why we compiled 10 of the top plastic surgery blogs for you to learn effectively from. So, here they are, in no specific order:

1.     The Plastic Surgery Post – What better way to start a list of some of the best plastic surgery blogs than beginning with a blog written by members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons? This blog is written by many of the nation’s top-tiered surgeons, which provides readers with access to some of the best information available as the ASPS collects all of the yearly statistics for plastic surgery.

2.     Real Self Plastic Surgery – This Real Self blog provides readers with incredibly useful information in a highly interactive manner. Their format is unique as its foundation is interactive. This blog has useful tools such as many forums, over 2,000 Q&A’s, guides, and videos all relaying very useful information.

3.     Spire Cosmetic Surgery Blog – The writers for Spire Cosmetic Surgery do a fantastic job answering everyday questions readers might have about cosmetic surgery. They effectively break informative advice down to a very readable level, providing people with a great tool to learn about the basics.

4.     Daily Beauty Reporter – Allure does an amazing job of relaying useful information about cosmetic surgery to the world around us as new beauty trends take place constantly. This blog provides a very entertaining twist on useful information.

5.     American Board of Cosmetic Surgery Blog – Although relatively similar to the first blog listed, the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery also has access to some of the best information available, but it provides such info to a whole array of readers from your average joe to plastic surgeons themselves.

6.     CosmeticSurg – This blog is written by Ricardo L. Rodriguez, MD., provides readers with information about plastic surgery from the unique perspective of a himself. With the experience of a cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Rodriguez does an incredible job integrating his information into video and other forms of media breaking things down into straightforward material.

7.     The Plastic Surgery Group – This blog carries a hefty arsenal of material as their blog covers topics within over 40 categories! So, if you are looking to have an online destination that holds information for anything about plastic surgery, this might be your stop.

8.     PSB – This Orlando plastic surgery blog is mostly written by Thomas Fiala, MD, FACS, FRCSC. Dr. Fiala does a magnificent job providing his insights about plastic surgery while relating it to plastic-surgery related news. This blog also features his commentary to his patients’ frequently asked questions, which is very useful for possible new patients looking to undergo some sort of plastic surgery.

9.     Dr. Reath’s Blog – Again, Dr. Reath provides readers with multiple categories to choose from. While providing useful information, he also is able to bring it down to a level for any reader as he does a great job connecting his blog with social media. Dr. Reath just loves to write and keep people updated with plastic surgery information, which he makes clear in his post about his top 10 most important posts for anyone who might have missed them.

10.  WebMD – Of course, there is WebMD. For those who do not know, WebMD is a very popular medical website that provides very clear and useful information regarding most medical topics, including plastic surgery. WebMD also provides readers with access to information from their specialized experts.

Now, while this list certainly includes very notable blogs that provide very useful information about plastic surgery, they are not the only ones out there. The beauty of the internet is how vast and full it is with information about almost anything, including cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. So, if for some reason you do not find any of the information about plastic surgery in these blogs that you were looking for, don’t feel discouraged. There is the whole internet world waiting to be found and read, and you can always begin your search here. Just remember, your information is usually only as good as where it came from, so be careful!

Written by: Russell McBurnie

The Difference Between Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery

Following people like Snooki and Kim Kardashian for the past few years, people have become pretty familiar with the idea of plastic surgery recently. Although they have both meshed into being thought of as one thing, there’s two different types of plastic surgery: cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery. Of course, just because people might consider them as one common thing, they are different things.

So, what makes them different?

Cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery are similar in that they both surgically improve a patient’s body in one way or another. Although they both aim to improve a patient’s body, they differ from each other in the reasons for why they are attempting to do so.

Cosmetic surgery focuses completely on enhancing the patient’s appearance. So, all of the procedures, techniques, and principles of cosmetic surgery focus primarily on improving the patient’s aesthetic appeal by enhancing their body’s symmetry and proportion.

On the other hand, reconstructive surgery focuses mainly on improving the patient’s body by fixing any defects due to things like birth disorders, trauma, burns, and diseases. While reconstructive surgery is mostly intended to improve the body’s functions, reconstructive surgery also tends to result in producing more of a normal look to the patient’s body.

A quick history and how they developed:

Plastic surgery has existed to certain extents for much of human history. Both ancient Romans and Indians used forms of reconstructive surgery to repair wounds of war such as ripped earlobes and broken noses. Many forms of plastic surgery have resulted from war throughout history. Accordingly, recent breakthroughs in plastic surgery as we know it today were a result of surgeons and their efforts to repair various injuries from war.

Specifically, advancements in technology, anesthesia, and surgical procedures around the time of World War I brought about significant progress in reconstructive surgeries for wounded soldiers. These advancements were aimed at not only improving impaired bodily functions, but also at achieving more of a normal appearance for the wounded soldiers, especially in regards to facial reconstruction. With such success in helping soldiers, people started to think about the possibilities of using surgery even on individuals who were not injured. Thus, the idea of cosmetic surgery was born. 

As a result of the increased popularity and commonplace of plastic surgery, surgeons formed the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons in 1931. Surgical procedures continued to evolve and elective, cosmetic surgeries became more and more popular as advanced technologies made plastic surgery procedures more accessible to people with healthy, normal bodies.

Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery Today:

Today, surgeons still perform reconstructive surgery on patients with abnormal structures of the body that are caused by things such as developmental abnormalities, birth and congenital defects, infection, trauma, tumors, disease, and other such things. While reconstructive surgery is done to improve certain bodily functions, reconstructive surgery is almost always coupled with cosmetic-based procedures in order to approximate a more normal appearance. Because of its purpose, most health insurance policies cover certain reconstructive procedures to some extent.

Unlike reconstructive surgery, cosmetic surgery is entirely elective and is only performed to improve the patient’s appearance and self-esteem by reshaping certain parts of their otherwise healthy and normal body. Being a completely elective procedure, health insurances almost never cover cosmetic surgeries. However, cosmetic surgery has become extremely popular, as over $10 billion was spent on cosmetic procedures last year in the United States.

Are cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery merging into one?

Despite any differences, cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery are deeply connected. Since cosmetic surgery evolved as an extension of reconstructive surgeries, they are often performed as one in the same. Many reconstructive surgeons are cosmetic surgeons as well, despite being more specialized in surgery than surgeons who are only trained in cosmetic procedures. Because of how deeply connected they are, there is a lot of gray area between when a procedure is reconstructive versus purely cosmetic. To emphasize their connection and relation, the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons changed its name to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons in 1999.

However, it is important to remember that although the specialties of cosmetic and reconstructive surgery are very closely related, there are key differences. There are also differences in the training and specializations of reconstructive surgeons versus solely cosmetic surgeons, so it is always important to keep such distinctions in mind when searching for somewhere to possibly get a procedure. Plastic surgery is still surgery; so make sure any procedure you undergo is being performed by a well-trained professional. 

Written by: Russell McBurnie