Reconstructive Harris Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics

Reconstructive facial surgery restores form and function after something has changed the face, rather than refining a feature a patient was born with. The distinction matters less in the operating room than it does in how patients think about it. The techniques overlap heavily with cosmetic facial surgery, and the same training in facial anatomy applies to both.

Dr. William Harris is a facial plastic surgeon practicing in Beverly Hills. Reconstructive work in the practice centers on three areas: improving scars so they are less noticeable, correcting nasal structure where it affects breathing, and repairing the earlobe. Each is described below.

Scar Revision

A scar cannot be erased. It can often be made to sit flatter, run in a more favorable direction, and blend better with the skin around it.

Scars behave differently depending on where they sit on the face, how the original wound healed, and how much tension the surrounding skin places on them. A scar that crosses a natural crease is more visible than one that follows it. A scar that healed under tension tends to widen. A scar that formed over a joint or an area that moves frequently, such as near the mouth, is subject to forces that a scar on the forehead is not.

Timing matters as well. Scars continue to mature for a year or longer after they form, generally becoming flatter and paler over that period. Operating too early can mean revising a scar that would have improved considerably on its own.

The approach taken depends on the scar. Some are excised and closed in a direction that follows the natural lines of the face. Some are broken up so that the eye no longer reads them as a single continuous line. Some respond better to resurfacing or to non-surgical treatment than to further surgery.

The practice page on scar revision covers the techniques in more detail. Where a scar is better addressed by resurfacing than by excision, the laser treatments available at the practice may form part of the plan, and fractional laser in particular is used to improve skin texture.

Functional Nasal Surgery

Not every nasal operation is performed for appearance. A deviated septum, the wall of cartilage and bone dividing the two sides of the nose, can obstruct airflow on one or both sides. Patients often describe chronic congestion that does not respond to medication, difficulty breathing through one nostril, disturbed sleep, or a nose that feels permanently blocked on one side.

Septoplasty straightens the septum to improve the airway. It is a functional operation, and it can be performed on its own or alongside work on the external shape of the nose.

Where both breathing and appearance are concerns, the two are usually addressed in the same operation rather than separately, because the internal structure and external shape of the nose are physically connected. Changing one without accounting for the other is how a nose can end up looking better and breathing worse. The practice pages on rhinoplasty and, for patients who have had previous nasal surgery, revision rhinoplasty set out how that planning works.

Patients who want to understand the reasoning in more depth may find the article on rhinoplasty and the breathing hierarchy useful, since it explains why airway is assessed before aesthetic changes are planned.

Earlobe Repair

Earlobes tear and stretch. The common causes are a heavy earring pulling through over time, an earring caught suddenly, or gauging that has left an opening the lobe will not close on its own.

The repair is a straightforward office-based procedure performed under local anesthetic. The edges of the opening are freshened and closed so the lobe takes a normal contour again. Re-piercing is possible afterward, though it is done once healing is complete and generally not through the repair itself.

A stretched but intact piercing hole is a different problem from a fully split lobe, and the two are repaired differently. The article on earlobe repair in Beverly Hills describes what each involves.

How Reconstructive and Cosmetic Work Overlap

Patients sometimes arrive expecting these to be two separate categories with a clear line between them. In practice the line is often blurred.

A patient having septoplasty for breathing may also want the bridge of the nose addressed. A patient having a scar revised may be considering resurfacing for the surrounding skin at the same time. A patient whose eyelid skin has descended far enough to affect the upper field of vision is dealing with a functional problem that is treated with the same operation used cosmetically, which is covered on the upper blepharoplasty page.

Where a concern has both a functional and an aesthetic component, it is usually more efficient and more predictable to plan for both at once than to treat them as separate problems in separate operations.

Where Procedures Are Performed

Surgical procedures are performed at the practice's private surgical suite in Beverly Hills, which is accredited by the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities. Minor office-based procedures such as earlobe repair are performed in the treatment rooms at the practice's Beverly Hills office. Further detail is on the page covering the surgical suite.

Consultations

A reconstructive consultation starts with an examination and a conversation about what the concern actually is, which is not always what it first appears to be. A scar that bothers a patient may be a texture problem rather than a color problem. A blocked nose may be structural or may not be.

Patients traveling in for treatment can find practical information on the out-of-town patients page, and those who prefer to begin remotely can request a virtual consultation.

To arrange an appointment, use the contact page or call the Beverly Hills office.