In ancient India, doctors and medical practitioners began using skin grafts to reconstruct human skin spots. The 8th century BC was the first time that doctors or medical professionals in India used cost of plastic surgery grafts on human skin to cover up skin marks.

Susrutha an ancient Indian surgeon, made the first ever recorded construction of a nose. It was a part or small piece of forehead skin that he used. At that time, the old Indian laws punished nose amputations.

More than a millennium after the Romans, they used similar techniques to fix damaged ears. In Europe Dr Heinrich von Pfolspeundt carried out a simple operation by cutting the skin of the arm from behind and sewing it back in.

The science and practice of plastic surgeries advanced, and only became popular in the 19th to 20th centuries. Plastic surgery had a bad reputation in previous times.

John Peter Mettauer in America was the very first plastic surgeon. It was in 1827 that he carried out his first surgery, which is a cleft palette operation. His own operation and instrument materials were designed by him.

Sir Harold Gillies has been called the “father of modern surgery”. His work helped to create a wide range of new techniques used in modern plastic surgeries. He focused on facial injuries suffered during World War I.

What is plastic surgery?

The term “plastic surgery” is a term that refers to any type of treatment or procedure, either manual or instrumental, performed with aesthetic or functional purposes or goals.

The Greek word plastikos, meaning to mold or form in ancient Greek, is the source of ‘plastic’.

Plastic surgery is divided into two areas. There are two major areas or fields of plastic surgery.

o Reconstructive cosmetic surgery. This field of plastics surgery deals with masking and undoing damage on the face, or in other parts of the human body. A form of cosmetic surgery which involves grafting regional, distant or local flaps over the defect to close it. This procedure transfers tissues from the other part of the person’s body.

Plastic surgery today is dominated by aesthetic or cosmetic procedures. It is often used to alter or improve facial or body features the patient dislikes or finds unflattering. These plastic surgeries include breast reductions or breast implants.