Patients often need emergency plastic surgery.

Reconstructive plastic surgery is often performed to correct congenital abnormalities such as cleft lip or cleft palate, facial bone fractures, and tumors, or to compensate for tissue removed in cancer.

Plastic surgery procedures include both cosmetic enhancements as well as functionally reconstructive operations. In the former case, where aesthetics are considered more important than functionality, plastic surgery is sometimes referred to as cosmetic surgery. Most procedures involve both aesthetic and functional elements.

Procedures at Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital include: