Pediatric plastic surgery serves a purpose: reparation of various disorders of tissues, caused by traumatisms or malformative congenital events.

Sometimes, the request for surgery of the child and his family is quite purely "esthetic", as in cases of sticked out ears, nasal hump, or receding chin. Of course, any esthetic surgical act on a minor needs a parental authorization, and a complete information.

Any surgical change, performed during adolescence needs precautionary measures. In fact, adolescence is a delicate time, a turning point of life during which the "body image" is progressively built, with a lot of social and psychologic repercussions. A change of aspect, during this particular time, may have a great impact. So any information in the previous history of a teen ager which permits to suspect psychologic weakness, must lead the surgeon to ask for a pedopsychiatric evaluation before surgery.

Nasal surgery ( rhinoplasty) and correction of an "inesthetic profile" (profiloplasty) can be only executed at the end of puberty, because it is necessary to wait for a complete growth of bone and cartilage pieces, before making corrections.

Corrections of "sticked out ears", or otoplasties, must be performed earlier, since the age of seven, because the cartilage of ear reachs early it definitive size. It is always better to wait for the request of the concerned child, instead of the request of his parents.

Surgical operations intended to correct hypertrophic mammary glands can be executed at the end of puberty, the same for correction of mammary asymetry.

Placing of mammary implants to increase volume of hypotrophic breasts, are generally executed on well informated and over 18s girls, presenting real disorder of growth. In any case, a teenager or a young woman, must have an operation to answer a call of fashion!

 

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