We tend to think of aesthetic plastic surgery as a modern phenomenon, pioneered by the rich, famous and infamous, now enthusiastically embraced by “average” people worldwide. But it has its origins in the mists of time.
We’ve compiled 10 fascinating facts about the history of cosmetic surgery.
1. Many historians agree that the first recorded account of reconstructive plastic surgery was documented in ancient Indian Sanskrit texts, around 500BC. Hindu author Sushruta wrote about the reconstruction of earlobes and noses using skin from other parts of the face.
2. In 1794, British surgeons witnessed an Indian brick layer repair the nose of a British cattle driver who had his nose and hand cut off. British surgeons imported the procedure back to northern Europe where interest rapidly grew.
3. Surgeons who served in WWI established the American Association of Plastic Surgery in 1931 and helped curtail unregulated plastic surgery. They are the largest plastic surgery specialty organisation in the world.
4. Two American dental surgeons Horace Wells (1815-1848) and William Morton pioneered the use of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and ether respectively as anesthetics.
5. Surgeons of the 19th Century commonly experimented with wooden, glass and ivory balls as breast implants.
6. Prior to the shooting of Ladies of the Chorus (1948), Dr. Walter Taylor, an orthodontist specialising in cosmetic surgery, fixed Marilyn Monroe’s protruding front teeth. In 1950, Johnny Hyde arranged for her to have her nose and chin surgically perfected. The details are unknown.
7. In 1961 two Texan surgeons, Thomas Cronin and Gerow, observed that plastic bags full of blood had a similar consistency to breasts, developing the first enclosed silicone breast implant based on this observation.
8. In 1962, 30 yr old Timmie Jean Lindsey became the first woman to undergo breast augmentation surgery with these new silicone implants at the Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston, Texas.
9. The late Michael Jackson was rumoured to have had 10 rhinoplasty procedures.
10. In August 2006, an Israeli woman’s breast implants saved her life when she was caught in Hezbollah rocket fire. Doctors found shrapnel embedded in the silicone implants, just inches from the 24-year-old’s heart.
To read our full list of 50 fascinating facts, click here!
