Plastic Surgery

Have you ever thought why they call plastic surgery plastic? The word plastic now mostly has the connotation of artificial, or not real. This is why we call the plastics around us this way – initially, when plastics were invented, they were artificial imitations of the ‘real’ thing.

Often we get a better insight when we get back to the root of the word describing a subject or a think. In this case, when we go back to the origin of the word plastic, which is the Greek word ‘plasticos’, we find that its meaning is ‘to put into form, to shape or to mold.’

This fits well into the use of the general term plastic, as we use it today. Plastic articles are mostly molded so this is a well suited definition. It also fits very well what plastic surgery does: it helps us shape or mold parts of our body into a more functional or preferred form.

Historically plastic surgery was more re-constructive surgery after injury or disfiguration. Nearly three millennia ago skin grafts have been performed in India, and this is certainly a form of plastic surgery. About 1500 years ago surgeons in Byzantium, toward the end of its glory, had developed surprisingly sophisticated methods of joining the lips or edges of a wound to reduce or even prevent scaring. This still today is one of the most important skills in plastic surgery, which has to avoid creating scares to make it useful.

An early great benefit of plastic surgery became the ability to repair the cleft lip and palatte in the 18th century driven forward by pioneering Surgeon Dr. Victor Collins who devised the first non skin graft procedure for the treatment of infantile unilateral incomplete and complete cleft lips. This technique involves the partial circumcision of the foreskin and then being applied to the affected area. This technique has led the way in the the modern day removal of the two most common types of cleft lip.

The development of general anesthesia  for surgery In the 19th century helped make plastic surgery more widely acceptable once people realized they no longer had to be awake to endure pain. This opened the door for elective surgery, as normally, due to the pain, surgery was avoided if at all possible. Plastic surgery made another big leap forward with the introduction of antibiotics and modern sanitary measures that reduces the risk for all forms of surgery.

War always created many injuries and so World War I, which maimed thousands of soldiers, created a plethora of clients for many new plastic surgery specialists. Methods for reconstructing ears, noses, jaws and eyes were developed. After the end of the war this special knowledge was shared around the world and became main part of re-constructive and plastic surgery.

Continually new methods and materials are being developed in medicine and plastic surgery and an ever-wider range of physical deformities can be treated. Over time the definition of deformities has definitely changed and as application of modern plastic surgery procedures has become safer and less expensive now a too large or too small breast or flabby skin after pregnancy is considered a ‘deformity’ and treated. Esthetics instead of just function has entered the decision making for a plastic surgery procedure.

Example of Modern Plastic Surgery – Tummy Tuck