Life often imitates art, and mere mortals — not actors in movies like Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer — are its players. Unlike in slasher flicks however, people who’ve just taken their umpteenth tumble down the stairs might not manage to still look good.

Whenever life veers in such wrong turns, reconstructive surgery should be availed of. It is the kind of surgery one would need for deformities caused by injuries or trauma.

Facial trauma, for instance, often involves broken facial bones. A surgeon can easily perform a bone graft in this case. If not, prosthetic materials and implants would do.

Victims who just lost an ear or lip need not fret; microsurgery can solve their predicament. In this procedure, a surgeon utilizes a microscope in sewing minute blood vessels and nerves together, essentially reattaching the body part. When worse comes to worst, such that entire limbs, knee joints or teeth are missing, prosthesis would be the only resort.

Alternatively, plastic surgeons can transfer living tissue to a patient’s face, called a flap. Be it skin, bone or muscle, a section can be transferred, complete with its blood supply, to an area that needs it.

It’s another thing to be burnt however. In this case, a burn victim should resort to skin grafting procedures, which is the transplanting of skin from one part of the body to another. Otherwise, the body can grow excess skin through tissue expansion.

In the wake of a horrific accident, scars are one of the problems that may beset an individual. If, after 6-12 months since the accident the scar is still not presentable, one may resort to scar revision. Three to twelve months after scar revision, dermabrasion can further smoothen the surface of the skin.

Dr. Harold Farber is a renowned expert on facial reconstruction.

Dermatologist Harold Farber is profiled on UCompare HealthCare.

Keep up with the latest in skin care and science on Dr. Harold Farber’s blog.

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