Evidence of reconstructive surgery goes as far back as 800 BC, where records indicate physicians in India were utilizing skin grafts and facial injury correction.
From there, medical progress in the plastic surgery field came from a Roman named Aulus Cornelius Celsus who wrote “De Medicina.” Celsus, whose lifespan is estimated to have been around 25 BC to 50 AD, is considered to be one of the first authors of such a comprehensive medical text from the Roman era.
In “De Medicina,” Celsus referred to techniques for reconstructive surgery for ears, lips and noses, creating yet more evidence of the existence of cosmetic procedures.
After the fall of Rome and the rise of Christianity, a mini dark age of surgery and medical advancements fell over Western society when Pope Innocent III decreed that any surgery would be banned via church law. Surgical advancements, especially in the field of cosmetics, were few and far between during this moratorium on medical research and surgery.
The Renaissance brought not only a resurgence of art and music, but science as well. A medieval Ottoman surgeon named Serafeddin Sabuncuoglu wrote “Imperial Surgery,” a major medical text from Islamic culture. In this text, Sabuncuoglu includes references to facial surgery and methods of breast reductions.
In Western civilization, plastic surgery was brought to the forefront after the first World War. Advancements were on the rise due to the influx of facial injuries of wounded soldiers. The techniques and developments from surgeons treating maimed soldiers are direct ancestors of what we know to be modern plastic surgery.
In the United States, the first cleft palate reparation surgery is recorded to have been in 1827, where Dr. John Peter Mettauer designed his own instruments for the procedure. Other significant American doctors in the plastic surgery movement of the early 1900’s are: Dr. Charles Miller for writing “The Correction of Featural Imperfections,” which was often laughed off by other physicians of the time, Dr. Vilray Blair, who performed jaw surgery and published a text on surgery of the mouth and jaw, Dr. William Luckett for performing an operation to fix large ears and Dr. Frederick Kolle wrote a text specifically for plastic surgery in 1911.
