How cosmetic surgery has changed over the years.
When many think of plastic surgery,
they think of Michael Jackson’s famous nose, or breast implants, but plastic or cosmetic surgery is much more than that. Some cosmetic surgery is necessary due to an accident, but much is by choice because someone does not like their own physical features.
Plastic in the term “plastic surgery” does not literally mean plastic, as in synthetic polymers, but it means sculpting or shaping, according to the Greek adjective plastike, which means the art of modeling. Due to that fact, it is most often called cosmetic surgery instead. This is a specific field of medicine which refers to correcting or restoring something. This surgery is not just for aesthetic purposes, but for medical necessity as well, such as burns, hand surgery, microsurgery, or for other reconstructive issues.
Cosmetic surgery goes back more than 4,000 years, though most historic writings have it go back only to India in 800 B.C., by Indian physicians such as Sashruta who is known as the “father of Indian surgery”. There was also Charak who made huge contributions to modern cosmetic surgery with his writings in Sanskrit and Arabic which eventually made its way into the European languages where the Italians were able to use the methods used by Sashruta.
British surgeons began traveling to India to observe rhinoplasties done by Kumbar Vaidva in 1794 in the Gentleman’s Magazine. Aulus Cornelius Celsus, in his writings, was able to describe cosmetic facial surgeries performed using skin grafts. Grafts were being used in Europe as early as 1792 by Chopart and in 1814, Joseph Carouc was able to surgically reconstruct a nose on a military officer who had lost it due to mercury poisoning. Then, in 1818, Carl Ferdinand von Graefe published the book Rhinoplastik, which emphasized a graft method using skin from the arm. .
Toward the end of the 19th century, cosmetic surgery finally came to America with the operation on a cleft palate by Dr. John Peter Mettauer in 1827 with self-designed instruments. This was soon followed by Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach, who in 1845, wrote the Operative Chinergie, which officially introduced America to the idea of changing ones appearance with a sculpted nose. Then came World War I with its many facial injuries and burns, due to the new weaponry of this era. Many of these injuries required medical miracles to reconstruct one’s face to pre-war appearance. This changed the future of plastic surgery forever.
The Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons was later formed in 1931 which led to new and more inventive forms of reconstructive and cosmetic surgeries.
Elective cosmetic surgery as we know it today would not have been possible without the extensive use of anesthetics for pain relief as there is intense pain involved. The introduction of disinfectants and the invention of penicillin and other antibiotics greatly reduce the chances of infection during and after these procedures. We have seen plastic surgeons in both the office of Surgeon General and as a Nobel Prize winner. Recent changes to the cosmetic surgical profession have brought out a higher level of awareness of the realities of plastic surgery to the public.
Much experimentation is being done now with complete facial transplants as well as many other advances in modern cosmetic surgery. As our medical society progresses, many new ways to enhance our way of life cosmetically will be perfected.
