Plastic surgery is restorative or aesthetic in nature. It is performed to improve the appearance of some part of the face or body. Often it is done because the face or body is damaged due to accident, or was malformed from a congenital condition.

There are also cases of elective plastic surgery, where someone pays to have a feature they do not like changed according to their preferences. Sometimes plastic surgery does not have a good result, and then is known as bad plastic surgery.

Generally this is caused when the surgeon makes a mistake in surgery. Sometimes it is the result of poor choices before surgery, made either by the patient or the surgeon. The most obvious bad plastic surgery is facial surgery, since it is so obvious and so hard to cover up.

We have all seen examples of too-tight facelifts where the skin looks unnaturally pulled, or even asymmetrical. In some cases, there can even be paralysis of features due to nerve damage during surgery, accompanied by loss of sensation.

Some bad surgery can be repaired with corrective surgery. Some problems are very hard to fix, like botched nose jobs or rhinoplasty.

When you have a nose job to reduce the size of your current nose, if the surgeon removes too much it is then very hard to fix. A second surgery would only work if there is enough tissue left to use to correct the original mistake. For bad surgery that is not on the face, at least it is easier to camouflage the results.

When someone has suffered a botched plastic surgery, the results can be devastating. You can have excessive scarring, deformation, even paralysis. The damage isn’t limited to the physical, either. Patients often experience emotional and psychological damage as well. When plastic surgery goes wrong, the patient may feel that it is their own fault for wanting to look better, like they are being punished for vanity and deserve the damage that has happened.

Before you agree to have any plastic surgery procedure, it makes sense to check your surgeon’s background. See how many procedures like the one you are contemplating that he or she has done successfully. Check to see if his former patients speak highly of their results. You also want to see if the surgeon you are considering has been the subject of any complaints or malpractice suits.

In addition to reconstructive surgery, this writer additionally frequently contributes articles on oak chest of drawers and wall mount jewelry armoire.

Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, an internationally recognized scholar, award-winning poet, diplomate senior Jungian psychoanalyst, and cantadora (keeper of the old stories). In addition to her international bestseller Women Who Run With the Wolves, Dr. Estés is deputy managing editor and columnist at TheModerateVoice.com and a columnist at The National Catholic Reporter online. In this interview, Clarissa discusses her new online events through Sounds True: Mother Night, Learning to See in the Dark. (56 minutes) > read the transcript

Sounds True: Insights at the Edge.