While visions of plastic surgery date back over 4,000 years ago, the medical advancements weren't prominent in the United States and in parts of Europe until the 19th and 20th centuries. The first plastic surgery procedure, a cleft palate operation, was performed back in 1827 by Dr. John Peter Mettauer.
The ugly side of war caused the medical community and the plastic surgery field in particular, to develop very quickly in the early 1900s. Massive injuries needed a progressive approach to help reconstruct the faces and, inevitably, the lives of the soldiers who were fighting for our country.
In the post-war era, the developments in plastic surgery began to skyrocket. New techniques continued to abound through the 1950's, including breast augmentation, tummy tuck, and liposuction, while many benchmarks were set for cosmetic surgery starting in the 1960's. The silicone breast implant was introduced in 1962 as a way to reconstruct the breast after a mastectomy or to increase the size and fullness of the breast.
Plastic surgery continued to thrive through the '70s, '80s and into the 1990's. However, in late 1990, the media grabbed the attention of the public by questioning the safety of breast implants. For a brief time, silicone breast implants were only allowed for reconstruction purposes for patients in clinical studies. The FDA only re-approved the use of silicone implants for general patients in November 2006.
Even with the bump in the road with the FDA, the field continues to thrive today with the popularity of facial cosmetic procedures, such as facelift, BOTOX®, and microdermabrasion, and the continued success rates of rhinoplasty, liposuction, tummy tuck, and more. With medicine continuing to evolve, it's likely the field of plastic surgery will continue to expand for many years to come. Meet with a local plastic surgeon to learn more about cosmetic surgery.
Cosmetic surgeries, such as liposuction, face lift, and rhinoplasty are some of the most popular plastic surgery procedures performed on American men and women.
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