Trends & History of Plastic Surgery Essay

Plastic surgery, like all other types of medical activities, continues its constant development. New drugs and appliances make it more and more effective and safe, while new standards of beauty give it a professional challenge. Many people are interested in the relatively near future of plastic surgery. Such a hot interest is conditioned by the fact that many changes may happen in plastic surgery in 10-20 years. Further development of plastic surgery depends both on the results of scientific research, and on the “participants of the process”, the speech is going not only about surgeons, but also about patients. Thus, the main aims of the assignment are to observe the obvious trends in the industry, which can be observed today, and to discuss some issues, which take their roots in the past. Trends & History of Plastic Surgery Essay

Despite the emergence of new means of non-surgical rejuvenation, the plastic surgery market continues to show dynamic development year after year. At the same time, it is characteristic that the general economic situation practically does not affect the growth of the number of plastic operations. Nowadays specialists firmly believe that the future of plastic surgery as a part of aesthetic medicine is in cellular technologies. In many ways it has already come. In the arsenal of researchers, there is a complex of theoretical and practical developments in this field, but their application is impossible due to the lack of the necessary legislative framework. Currently, a constant work is being carried out at the governmental level on the adoption of relevant laws.

The use of cellular technologies opens vast horizons in front of medicine. The speech is going about the possibility of creating an artificial skin, growing cartilage and other biological structures. Naturally, mastering this area will revolutionize the field of plastic surgery, not only reconstructive, but also aesthetic.

The use of cellular technologies will help to abandon the use of the usual implants of silicone while carrying out the plasty of the breast. It is also possible that in the future, cell biology will allow surgeons to forget about scalpels. Mastering these technologies will provide an opportunity to create drugs that can be used for aesthetic correction without large-scale surgical interventions.[1]

Almost all the plastic operations that exist now have been developed as early as the beginning of the twentieth century. Those new ones that appeared recently are only slightly more advanced versions of them. For example, with the development of technology surgeons were able to operate in loops, in capacity comparable to microscopes. It became easier, but the essence has not changed. Plastic surgery is conservative, and that is fine because it insures this sphere from unchecked methods.Trends & History of Plastic Surgery Essay

Today it is very important to be an attractive, charming, and beautiful person. This is necessary not only for the purpose to find a soul mate, build a happy family, but also in order to find a decent job, to become successful. Owing to such operations, people can prolong youth and to get rid of old complexes associated with realizing their real or imagined imperfections. It may seem that plastic surgery was developed only at the end of the twentieth century, but this is not entirely true.

The history of surgery, as well as plastic surgery, stores many events, each of which was the next stage of a significant increase in the surgeon’s capabilities. For instance, the brief list of stages of cognition, characterizing the steady advance of surgery, is the following: the victory over pain in the middle of the last century, caused by the discovery of general anesthetics; the beginning of the antiseptic era; the development of the technique of the vascular suture and the application of local anesthesia; the transfusion of blood and the discovery of antibiotics.

Observing historical roots of the issue, it can be said that the XIX century was marked by the development of more sophisticated tools and methods for the transformation of human appearance, which served as the basis for modern plastic surgery. However, a truly powerful impetus for the development of this branch of medicine was the First World War.[2] There were many mutilated people, who did not want to put up with the shortcomings, and they turned to surgeons with requests to improve not only the function of a damaged part of the body, but also their appearance.Trends & History of Plastic Surgery Essay

In the 1950s, the technique of skin transplantation was improved, it became possible to perform operations under local anesthesia, and plastic surgery became safer and, therefore, more common.[3] During this period, aesthetic surgery becomes an independent direction, designed to preserve, restore or create beauty.

Nevertheless, plastic surgery is a relatively new phenomenon, requiring not only the use of new technical methods, but also assuming historical and cultural prerequisites for the inalienable right to change, adjust, increase or decrease the size of human body, naturally, with the help of a surgeon. Independence, as a term of a constant struggle of plastic, is a phenomenon inherent in modernity: a person can set any goals associated with body perfection to feel happiness, but only with the help of professionals who are ready to offer their patients all possible ways to achieve these aims.[4]

The transition from reconstructive surgery, correcting the consequences of diseases, to surgery that restores sexual attraction, occurred in the 1930s. During the First World War, new techniques appeared in surgery, which made it possible to perform operations to restore the sexual functions of the body.[5]