Plastic Surgery: How It Has Evolved Over The Ages

Plastic surgery is a field of medicine that has a long and interesting history

. We tend to think of cosmetic procedures as part of the technological age, but in truth, people have been having surgeries to alter the way that they look for centuries. Some of the earlier methods would seem strange and often frightening to us today. Some of what they're hoping to be able to achieve in the future as far as cosmetic processes seem like something out of science fiction. This field of medicine can be fascinating, for sure.

Methods and Practices in Earlier Years: This type of operation in some form or the other has been being performed for thousands of years. In ancient Europe and Asia, there is proof that things such as skin grafts were being performed. More than likely, the success rate of ancient cosmetic procedures was dependent on a lot of factors, not the least of which would have been luck.

In the 19th century, when more doctors knew how to administer effective anesthesia, they broadened their cosmetic procedure horizons. Not only did reconstructive surgery become more common, especially for those who suffered physical damage from war injuries, but cosmetic procedures such as face lifts started to be performed more often. Back then, though, there was still quite a bit of stigma attached to cosmetic methods for vanity reasons.

Changes over Time: Over time, the plastic surgery industry blossomed, especially in the mid to late 20th century. More cosmetic procedures were developed and improved upon, such as face lifts, breast augmentation, skin grafts and rhinoplasty. Slowly but surely, elective cosmetic procedures simply for improving normal looks started becoming almost as common as surgeries to correct damage or deformities.

Liposuction became a popular way to get rid of fat in specific places, and targeted surgeries such as eye-lifts and chin implants were being performed on many people instead of general face lifts. Today, more cosmetic surgeries are performed for reasons of vanity than to correct damage or defect, and the stigma is nowhere near what it used to be.

What the Future Holds: The future of plastic surgery will probably have a lot to do with manipulating stem cells. Scientists and medical researchers predict that as stem cell research continues, cosmetic methods will become less invasive, and there will come a time when many methods won't involve the knife at all, but simple injections. For some cuts will be drastically reduced. Scientists hope to be able to actually grow human organs in the futures, making skin grafts much safer for patients, since the new skin would be grown from the patients own cells.

Plastic surgery has been a steadily growing field of medicine for many years, and that growth doesn't look like it will be stopping any time soon. The future holds some exciting things and even today what can be done is nothing short of amazing.

by: Abigail Aaronson

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