Plastic Surgery Birth Date:
From the Almanac corner: October 23rd, 1814, 207 years ago today . . . the day Joseph Carpue a London Doctor performed what is regarded as the Western world’s first modern plastic surgery operation.
Dr. Joseph Carpue operations and publishing gave him prominence within the Medical community. First pioneered in Egypt, ancient plastic surgery was long practiced in India, where it was first hand observed by Dr. Carpue.
In a manor corresponding to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the number of Americans who had cosmetic surgery last year was about 1.7 million, while more than three times as many – – – nearly six million people – – – had reconstructive surgery for medical reasons.
Consistent to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 74.2 Brazilians per 10,000 had plastic surgery in 2013, compared to 45.9 per 10,000 in the U.S.
Plastic surgery has been around for many, many years. The mention of treatments for broken parts of a human body was first found in an Ancient Egyptian medical text around 2500 BC and the reconstructive surgeries in India have been carried out since 800 BC.
It is a medical practice used to improve damaged or irregular parts of the body. We have collected some facts on plastic surgery you should not overlook.
Some facts on plastic surgery:
* Reconstructive surgeries were being carried out in India by 800 BC. Sushruta was a physician that made important contributions to the field of plastic surgery in the 6th century
* By 750 AD, the medical works of both Sushruta and Charak originally in Sanskrit were being translated into the Arabic language and sent to Europe
* Joseph Carpue, a surgeon in England, introduced the cosmetic surgery to western medicine as he reconstructed the nose of a young soldier. When he learnt about procedures developed in India to rebuild mutilated noses, he travelled to India and spent 20 years in India studying local plastic surgery methods
* Carpue was able to perform the first major surgery in the Western world by 1815
* Plastic surgeries involved a great pain until the techniques of anaesthesia were established
* The invention and use of antibiotics such as penicillin, was another step in making elective surgery possible
* The first American plastic surgeon was John Peter Mettauer, who, in 1827, performed the first cleft palate operation with instruments that he designed himself
* The father of modern plastic surgery is generally considered to have been Sir Harold Gillies who developed many of the techniques of modern facial surgery
* Walter Yeo, a British sailor during World War I, is often cited as the first known person to have benefited from plastic surgery
* The world’s first partial face transplant on a living human was carried out on November 27, 2005 by Bernard Devauchelle, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, and Jean-Michel Dubernard in France. Isabelle Dinoire became the first person to receive the transplant
* In ancient Rome, plastic surgery started as a means to remove scars. People in Rome were afraid of scars on their back as it was considered shameful and depicted that a man had turned his back during the war
Types of plastic surgery:
1. Reconstructive surgery
Reconstructive plastic surgery is performed to correct functional impairments caused by burns; traumatic injuries such as facial bone fractures and breaks; congenital abnormalities, such as cleft palates or cleft lips; developmental abnormalities; infection and disease; and cancer or tumors.
2. Cosmetic surgery
Cosmetic surgery is performed on normal parts of the body with the only purpose of improving a person’s appearance or to remove the signs of aging. In 2014, nearly 16 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in the United States. Nearly 12 million cosmetic procedures were performed in 2007. Cosmetic surgery include: Lip enhancement, reshaping of the nose called Rhinoplasty, reshaping of the ear called Otoplasty, removal of wrinkles and signs of aging from the face known as Rhytidectomy or Face lift, Cheek augmentation etc
3. Sub-specialties
Aesthetic surgery includes Burn surgery, Craniofacial surgery which mostly revolves around the treatment of congenital anomalies of soft tissues, such as cleft lip and palate, Hand surgery which is concerned with acute injuries of the hand and wrist.
