The long and interesting history of plastic surgery can be traced back to the ancient times. Doctors or medical practioners in old India started using skin grafts to reconstruct human skin spots in the 8th century BC.

An ancient Indian surgeon named Susrutha made the first recorded nose construction. He used a portion or some skin from a forehead. During that time, nose amputations were punishable by old Indian laws.

Several millennium later, the Romans performed simple techniques like repairing damaged ears. In Europe, Dr Heinrich von Pfolspeundt conducted a simple plastic surgery by removing skin coming from the arm’s back and sutured it in place.

However, the practice and science of plastic surgey advanced and became common only in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was because in the old times, too much danger was attributed to plastic surgeries.

In the United States, Dr John Peter Mettauer was the first American plastic surgeon. The first plastic surgery operation he performed was a cleft palate operation in which dates back to 1827. He designed his own instruments and operation materials.

The father of modern plastic surgery is Sir Harold Gillies. He was able to develop a number of techniques for modern plastic surgery. Sir Gillies focused on patients who suffered facial injuries during World War I.

Defining plastic surgery

The term plastic surgery is a general term referring to manual or instrumental treatment or operation performed for aesthetic or functional reasons or purposes.

The word ‘plastic’ from plastic surgey comes from a Greek ancient word ‘plastikos’ that means to shape or to mold.

There are two principal or main areas or fields of plastic surgery to date. These include:

o Reconstructive plastic surgery. This area of plastic surgery concentrates on masking or undoing destructions in the face or other external parts of the body. This form of plastic surgey include closing defects bu grafting skin with regional, local or distant flaps. Through the procedure tissues from other parts of the body is transferred to another part.

o Aesthetic or cosmetic surgery is the most common form of plastic surgery nowadays. This form of plastic surgery is most of the time made to modify or improve features in the face or body that the patient finds ugly or unflattering. Examples of this kind of plastic surgery are breast reduction or breast implantation.

Related disciplines to plastic surgery

From the history and the two broad areas of plastic surgeries, it can still be further subdivided. The American Board of Plastic Surgery also includes the study or further advancement in the following related specific disciplines:

o Craniofacial surgery. This form of plastic surgery involves the treatment or surgery to align or modify congenital or in-born physical defects, It includes cleft lip palate, craniosynostosis and other defects in the face due to in born causes and physical development.

o Hand surgery is another discipline where plastic surgeons are trained. They receive full training in the discipline.

o Maxillofacial surgery is one form of plastic surgery that involves maxilla or jaw and face. The field grew or sprang from the contributions and advancements in both oral surgeries and plastic surgeries. Examples of operations in this discipline are fractures in the jaw as well as in the face that may have arisen from accidents or brawls.