What is plastic surgery?
Plastic surgery is a specialty in medicine dealing with restoration or correction of function and appearance. Numerous, plastic surgery done on patients are not for cosmetic purposes but may include including microsurgery, reconstructive surgery and burn treatment. This form of surgery improves a patient's self-image and appearance either through cosmetic or reconstructive procedure.
Cosmetic surgery involves enhancement of body part appearance using medical and surgical techniques. Cosmetic surgery is concerned mainly with retaining the normal appearance, enhancing a body part to an almost ideal form or restoring appearance back to normal. Most commonly done cosmetic procedures include liposuction (fats removal from specific body parts), rhinoplasty (nose reshaping), augmentation mammoplasty (breast enlargement), mammoplasty reduction (breast size reduction), and others are not surgical at all like hair removal and skin sanding.
Reconstructive surgery is done for the main purpose of correcting functional impairment caused by injuries or burns and congenital abnormalities. This surgery is performed with the main aim of improving body part function or at times done to perfect a normal appearance. Some of the congenital reconstructive surgery includes surgery to correct palates, ear deformities, and cleft lips. Breast reconstructive surgery can be done on a lady after breast cancer surgery.
History of plastic surgery
Plastic surgery started more than four thousand years ago, but Reconstructive surgery was done in India during 800 BC. The surgery father Sushruta made crucial contributions to cataract and plastic surgery during the 6th century BC. Charak and Sushruta' surgery work was translated to Arabic language in the 750 AD. This translation came to Europe via intermediaries, in Europe, physicians travelled to see Norse reshaping done in India using the native methods done by Kumhar Vaidya. In Rome and Egypt cosmetic surgery was done during the 1st century BC. Romans performed reconstructive ear surgery by 1st century.
Oribasius a Byzantine physician is another prominent figure in plastic surgery evolution. During the 4th century, He wrote about some reconstructive surgery procedures in Synagogue Medicae a medical encyclopedia. In the medical encyclopedia, he showed the insight about fundamental techniques like including flaps to prevent facial features distortion and tensionless suture line creation process. His work in management of wounds and facial reconstruction still is the greatest contribution in plastic surgery.
In Europe, plastic surgery gained popularity during the 18th century especially Rhinoplasty which was done and perfected by many surgeons. During late 1800, introduction of anesthesia in the surgery procedure made plastic surgery less riskier and common than it was previously. Aesthetic Norse reshaping approach was first offered by the American doctor John Roe.
Reconstructive surgery has evidence showing reconstructive surgery being practiced more than four thousand years ago; the procedure became a mainstream during the First World War due to the necessity. Doctors were called to treat solders that had serious head injuries and were missing lips, ears, noses and many other parts of the body.
The reconstructive surgery evolved over time, but plastic was not recognized fully until Gustave Aufricht and Jacques Maliniac, European surgeons founded an American society for plastic and reconstructive surgeons now known as ASPS. Its popularity increased in the 2nd world war, and it became even more advanced. The surgeons were now doing the procedure with more speed, accuracy and precision benefiting more individuals. Currently plastic surgery has and is evolving thus helping even more individuals both internally and externally.