Facial plastic surgery has a long and interesting history, dating back as early as B.C. times. In India and Egypt, medical practitioners performed facial reconstructive surgeries, particularly on the nose. Surgeons would generally take a flap from the cheek or the forehead and use it to reconstruct the exterior of the nose.
During the 1000 B.C. era, facial reconstructive surgery was extremely common due to the political custom of disfiguring faces—particularly noses and lips—of one’s enemies. Surgeons would correct the disfigurement by using skin from the upper arms or forearms. The procedure was extremely invasive, as it required cutting an unsevered flap from the arm and then attaching the flap to the nose while it was still attached to the arm. The arm was then bound to the head for a week or two until the skin had firmly attached to the nasal area, at which point it was severed and the final touches were implemented. This procedure was cutting edge at the time, as it was believed that the skin would die and not reattach to the nose if it was severed from the arm before it fused to the nose.
Several hundred years later, such invasive tactics virtually disappeared as Gaspare Tagliacozzi came onto the scene. In the 16th century, Tagliacozzi made significant breakthroughs in the practice of plastic surgery, rendering him famous as one of the fathers of plastic surgery. He performed countless surgeries on dueling injuries and succeeded in transferring skin from the upper arm to the nose without the flap of skin remaining attached to the arm.
Centuries later, facial plastic surgery got its real start during the time of World War I. As thousands of soldiers’ faces were disfigured beyond recognition, plastic surgeons of all kinds came on to the scene, using skin grafts from the thighs and buttocks to reconstruct faces.
Though the surgeries during World War I gave surgeons plenty of practice and breakthroughs in plastic surgery procedures, it was still a far cry from what it is today. The results of the surgeries were obvious and often unsightly, though still better than what it had been before. Although the practice was instrumental in saving the lives and lifestyles of many soldiers, the practice of plastic surgery was often sneered at by many medical practitioners of the time.
In the 1940s, procedures in facial plastic surgery began to take a turn for the better as medical journals were published and mass produced. From that time forward, the procedures have evolved to be non-invasive and the results can be flawless. Now, when a facial plastic surgery procedure is performed, there is no visible scarring, and patients can enjoy their reconstruction no matter the reason without others knowing it ever took place.
The practice of facial reconstructive surgery is continually developing today and has become widely accepted and acknowledged as an important surgical practice across the world.
