The need to improve our physical appearance did not come from yesterday and one of the most common ways of doing that is to resort to plastic surgery. In this essay, it will be question of the history of plastic surgery, the techniques and finally examples of other alterations of the body and the reasons why people are doing it.
The first plastic surgeries that was reported took place in ancient India in 600 B.C. and were performed by a man named Sushruta. He reconstructed noses of criminals, which were amputated as punishment, by using their forehead skin. This technique was also used in India to repare noses of women who were beaten by their husbands. But it would not be until the Renaissance (in 1597 precisely) that the first textbook about plastic surgery would be written by the surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi. It was during the First World War that plastic surgery really made its first big improvement. To help soldiers who were disfigured by a bomb or a bullet, some « plastic surgery units » were created. Also, a lot of text book were written not long after the First World War. There was a new conception developped in the 1920's about plastic surgery : « improving facial features rather than contending with deformities » and was started by Fanny Brice, an American actress, who got her nose changed . But between that time and today, there as been a big improvment in the variety of plastic surgeries and the techniques.
During the last decades, there has been an explosion of new kinds of plastic surgeries such as liposuction, breast augmentation or breast reduction, facelift, eyelid or rhinoplasty. Those operations cost between 2000 to 5000 $ US in 1999. Before, operations were very painful. A lot of bleeding was frequent and hospitalization often lasted for more than a week because of infections or other complications. Now, plastic surgeries are safer.
