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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Plast Surg 2024; 57(06): 486-491
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1789271
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From Quackery to Super-Specialization: A Brief History of Aesthetic Surgery

Aakanksha Goel 
1   Divine Aesthetic Surgery, Greater Kailash-II, New Delhi, India
,
Arun Goel
2   Department of Burns of Plastic Surgery, Lok Nayak Hospital, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India
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Abstract

From time immemorial, human beings have always tried to decorate themselves to look more beautiful and attractive to an onlooker, in turn improving their own self-esteem. Thus, Ayurveda in India and Ebers Papyrus in Egypt, written thousands of years ago, mention a variety of cosmetics being used for the same. However, operative interventions were mainly reconstructive and any improved aesthetics was a by-product only (e.g., restoration of amputated nose). The surgery for purely cosmetic reasons started less than 150 years ago after the availability of anesthesia and antisepsis. Initially, the medical profession and the common man were skeptical of these interventions and even ridiculed the patient and the clinician. The pioneers were labeled as quacks and working against the law, and some of them had to even commit suicide, while the patients were labeled as “psychiatric.” The past 50 years have seen aesthetic procedures, both surgical and nonsurgical, being performed by highly qualified superspecialists. This article attempts to trace this change.

Keywords

history - aesthetic surgery - quackery - cosmetic surgery


Publication History

Article published online:
03 September 2024

© 2024. Association of Plastic Surgeons of India. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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