Rhinoplasty is not a new invention. Going back to the centuries before Christ (B.C.), rhinoplasty was performed in its primitive beginnings in Ancient Japan and the Middle East. Techniques practiced then eventually spread to Europe and eventually to the U.S., as later centuries brought greater sophistication to the old techniques.

An assistant orthopedic surgeon ahead of his time, in 1896, Jacques Joseph of Prussia was appealed to by a mother of a young boy. The poor child was born with large protruding ears and was teased mercilessly by his schoolmates. She asked if there was anything that could be done for her son.

Joseph felt that it was possible. He took his time planning and operated on the boy’s ears. The boy’s ears were greatly improved. Although Joseph’s reputation was shot into national renown, His employer, Dr. Wolff fired him for risking the Wolff clinic reputation on an unprecedented surgery.

This first plastic surgery in modern history was followed by another, shortly thereafter, the first rhinoplasty. In 1887, surgeon John Orlando Roe, mirroring Dr. Joseph’s success, managed to perform the first intranasal rhinoplasty. Dr. Roe is credited as the father of modern rhinoplasty, but Dr. Joseph is credited as the father of plastic surgery.

The first physician, Joseph, was sought out by a man who had heard about what he did for the little boy’s ears, and asked if he could help him with his embarrassingly large nose. Dr. Joseph practiced the nose reduction surgery on a cadaver, to ensure that he could produce a decent result.

Dr. Joseph then performed it on the man, with pleasing results. This was the second modern rhinoplasty performed, and thus rhinoplasty became an accepted procedure.