It might seem that cosmetic surgery is a very recent invention. In fact this is not true as it has been around for many thousands of years. The first documented record of any kind of plastic surgery taking place was two thousand years before Christ in India. This kind of surgery is called corrective, restorative, or it can be a kind of microsurgery.

Reconstructive surgery was also performed in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome. It did not become commonplace until better methods of anaesthesia were invented. Before this time it was obviously excruciatingly painful as it involved removing flaps of skin to rebuild other areas of the body. There was also a great risk of infection until modern methods of sterilization and infection control were invented. The introduction of penicillin was a massive leap forward.

In eighteen twenty seven a surgeon named John Peter Mettauer performed the first successful cleft palate operation. He even designed the instruments for the operation himself. Towards the end of the nineteenth century a lot of surgeons were experimenting with rhinoplasty, or nose reductions or reconstructions.

It was during the course of the first world war that many new techniques were pioneered. A New Zealand surgeon named Harold Gilles was instrumental in helping many young men who had badly disfigured by their injuries. His work was carried on during world war two by his cousin Archibald McIndoe.

McIndoe set up a burns unit that would become famous throughout the world for young airmen who had suffered terrible burns during the fighting. The members of this very select group were called the Guinea Pigs, and they had their own club called the Guinea Pig club. McIndoe helped many of these brave men to recover from their injuries with his pioneering surgeries.

The work of this burns unit still continues today in the McIndoe burns unit in the Queen Victoria hospital in the town of East Grinstead in southern England. The survivors of the Guinea Pig club still meet today. At the end of world war two it had nearly seven hundred members, and there are still two hundred remaining members who get together regularly.

Today this kind of surgery is widely used for cosmetic reasons. There are quite literally millions of procedures done throughout the world every year. Cheek lift surgery, cosmetic eyelid surgery, cheek augmentation and a face lift are just a few of the many procedures that are now available.

The massive rise in demand for cosmetic surgery procedures has perhaps come about in the pursuit for perfection. The media is full of images of women and men who represent an ideal image. These people have the time and money to devote to their appearance, and quite often their profession demands it if they are in front of the cameras. The media is quick to comment if one of these stars looks tired or gains a few pounds so the pressure to be thin and fabulous looking is immense. This pressure filters down to the rest of the ordinary mortals who want to look like the stars they idolize, and so they may be tempted to turn to surgery to try to achieve the same kind of perfection.

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