Plastic surgery has its roots in the creation of new tissue, improvement of form and function and reconstruction following accident or injury. This expertise is the fundamental asset of a plastic surgeon. Plastic surgery includes aesthetic surgery or cosmetic surgery. Not only can congenital and traumatic deformities and function be corrected but also aesthetic improvements of the face, body and extremities can be performed. A Canadian plastic surgeon is a well-trained, qualified specialist who has passed the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons examinations and is certified to practice.&nbsp; Education is an important part of the activity of these organizations both to the membership and the general public. Annual scientific meetings are held to share knowledge and expertise in order to improve our quality of care and advance the practice. This kind of surgery involves practicing technically demanding surgery that is also an art. Our primary aspiration with our knowledge and experience is to help our patients understand what can be done, fully inform them as to benefits and risks and perform This kind of surgery with the highest standards. Our goal is for a successful outcome and a satisfied patient The Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons looks forward to sharing new technologies and implementing new techniques as they are discovered in Canada and the world. Our members are involved in international organizations in aesthetic surgery, burns, breast surgery, cancer, hand surgery, maxillofacial surgery and trauma. An important part of our activity is in providing charitable service, where needed, to underprivileged countries and in so doing facilitating good relationships between these countries and Canada. A is a surgical specialist who has completed a minimum of 5 years of study and training in surgery after receiving a medical degree. He or she is thus specifically qualified to practise reconstructive and aesthetic. You may verify that your surgeon is a qualified specialist in this kind of surgery by contacting the Canadian Society, in Quebec, the Quebec Association of Specialists in,the Canadian Society for Aesthetic (Cosmetic). The techniques employed in aesthetic are derived from those used in this kind of&nbsp;procedure . In fact, aesthetic surgery is an extension of reconstructive surgery. It requires competent surgical skill, a sense of harmony of the body parts and good aesthetic judgement. Annual scientific meetings are held to share knowledge and expertise in order to improve our quality of care and advance the practice of plastic surgery. This kind of surgery involves practicing technically demanding surgery that is also an art. Our primary aspiration with our knowledge and experience is to help our patients understand what can be done, fully inform them as to benefits and risks31 year old Anamais's face and hands are dark and weather-worn, a product of 28 years as a "pescadoro", fisherman on the Brazilian Amazon river. He is stocky and muscular, but his face carries the look of an abused puppy, scared and apprehensive. He enters the speech therapy area, his eyes darting left to right, his head hung as if in defeat. Anamais knows he has missed official screening days, where patients go to the Operation Smile mission site <A href="https://admin.mzo.ca:444/www.plasticsurgery.ca">home page</A><A href="https://admin.mzo.ca:444/index.aspx">Canadian Society of Plastic Surgery </A><H1>cosmetic plastic surgery</H1><H1>reconstructive surgery</H1><H1>Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons</H1><H1>Société Canadienne des Chirurgiens Plasticiens</H1><H1>liposuction</H1><H1>face lift</H1><H1>breast augmentation</H1><H1>tummy tuck</H1><H1>nose job</H1><H1>breast implant</H1><H1>rhinoplasty</H1><H1>Société Canadienne des Chirurgiens Plasticiens</H1><IMG alt="The Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons looks forward to sharing new technologies and implementing new techniques as they are discovered in Canada and the world. Our members are involved in international organizations burns, breast, cancer, hand, maxillofacial surgery and trauma">
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CSPS volunteer surgery in developing countries
More than 80 Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons members have performed voluntary reconstructive services with Canadian residents and nurses with over 40 organizations in more than 60 countries. (See: Volunteer Reconstructive Surgery in the Canadian Journal of Plastic Surgery) Operation Rainbow Canada is a Canadian volunteer Plastic Surgery organization which has been working since 1998 sending teams of surgeons throughout the world. The following is the story of one patient as written by an American Speech Pathology Operation Smile team member working in Brazil.

The Fisherman

 

31 year old Anamais's face and hands are dark and weather-worn, a product of 28 years as a "pescadoro", fisherman on the Brazilian Amazon river. He is stocky and muscular, but his face carries the look of an abused puppy, scared and apprehensive. He enters the speech therapy area, his eyes darting left to right, his head hung as if in defeat.

 

Anamais knows he has missed official screening days, where patients go to the Operation Smile mission site in hopes of being selected for surgery for their facial deformities.

 

The fisherman is so disappointed that he missed the screening and sure we will not help him with the crevice that scars his upper lip. He lifts his head towards me, and I can get a full glimpse of his eternal embarrassment: a complete unilateral cleft, a facial crater that rips through his smile and extends through his soul.

 

"Tres veces", he starts in Portuguese. "Three times, I have tried other missions in this city, and each time I was told that I was too old. I was told to come back again the next year, but they said no each year". I am the speech pathologist and listen to his sad story as much to hear his life story as to learn what effect his deformity may have had on his speech.

 

Because his palate was not affected, his articulation is intelligible and only marred by difficulty pronouncing some words that have "p", "b", and "m"- bilabial sounds that require the lips to come together. He says he was not allowed schooling even though he had aspired to be a teacher.

 

He has worked all his life, or all the life he can remember since age three, on the docks and in the water. When he is out to sea, no one can crack jokes and anyway, at sea he has nowhere to hide. I ask if he is married and he buries his head, placing his hand over the shame he carries. No, he sighs, never. "Espero"…"I wish", he says. His facial crevice is frightening to anyone who looks at him, and it has caused him a life of loneliness and left him without a "namorada", girlfriend.

 

Kathy, medical records coordinator, is stationed in the hall. She holds the sacred schedules and records. Asked "what about the fisherman?, she grins, "We'll make it work", assuring that she has also heard his plight, and is giving the information to Jan, Clinical Coordinator, and person responsible for scheduling patients that week. Jan, in the pre-op area, is commanding the OR. She winks across the OR/ pre-op barrier. She has scheduled him, squeezing him in, last patient of the day. They will do the surgery under local anesthesia. Otherwise, there would be no time to do his case, as general anesthesia would take too long.

 

The fisherman is nervously fidgeting in his chair in the OR waiting area. They are calling his name for surgery, and he gives the "thumbs up" sign to indicate that he is ready. Surgery room #2 is daunting, but there is a friendly, almost festive atmosphere. There is a surgery beginning on the second table. Francesca, anesthesiologist from Italy, is starting to put another to sleep and speaks softly in her native language. Bolan, nurse from Finland, speaks English with a heavy accent, Brazilian nurse Rita, and Brooke from North Carolina begin the prep work. Ivan, dentist from Columbia, stands by at the next bed, ready to start extractions needed to make that patient's smile. Rosana, Brazilian Operation Smile volunteer, and Jan are buzzing from room to room.

 

Don Lalonde, the plastic surgeon from Canada, has just scrubbed with Sergio, the Brazilian Plastic Surgeon who will assist him with the fisherman's operation. Don, who is fluent in French and English, is conversing in Spanish and George, a native Portuguese speaker, can understand Spanish, too. I alternate between broken Portuguese and English, catching bits and pieces of the Spanish but none of the Italian or French.

 

I wonder what the poor fisherman thinks of this international endeavor, and hold his hands as they give him shots and wait for the anesthesia to take effect. As an adult, he is strong and brave enough to endure the pain of the injections needed all around his face in order to numb him properly. "Tell him this will hurt, very much", Don says as he prepares to give him a series of shots to freeze the area around the nose and mouth. "Tell him I'm sorry this will hurt", he adds thoughtfully.

 

Don takes a toothpick that has been broken in two in order to make it sharper, and dips it in ink. It is a proxy for a surgeon's pen, but the substitute marker in this hospital. He begins to make marks all along the Fisherman's lips. He is an architect, redesigning a flawed face. He is a master artist, his canvas is this countenance.


The procedure ends with nothing less than a miracle, and the surgeons are meticulous and take considerable time and effort, even in the last few stitches.

 

The fisherman sits up and anxiously takes the mirror handed to him. He glances at Don and George, at me, and at all the nurses standing there first, then slowly takes a glimpse at his new smile.

 

His eyes grow large, he smiles, and then looks again at us and give us all his big "thumbs up" sign. He holds fast to the mirror, and carefully touches what was once a mangled mouth, and now a handsome smile for a Fisherman´s face.
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