Plastic Surgery - A History

War is never good, no matter which side you are on. But sometimes, wars lead to positive outcomes. Today, we will discuss one such outcome. 

In World War I, soldiers were coming back from the frontlines with disfigured faces. Not cuts and nicks. Entire jaws broken, teeth broken, and sometimes a side of their face torn from shrapnel. 

So much so that even eating was impossible, not to mention the pain and anguish. It fell on the shoulders of Harold Gillies, a surgeon who set out to change this.

Through his intervention, modern plastic surgery was born. Not to make you look better, but to save lives. 

Through his efforts, we learnt how to reconstruct faces, layer by layer. He built a team of surgeons, dentists, nurses, and anaesthetists who went on to become the first modern plastic surgery team. 

He was not the only one. Recorded history shows that even as far back as 800 BC, facial reconstruction surgery was taking place in India. 

Slowly, the knowledge spread to the rest of the world as trade developed between nations. 

So should you get plastic surgery? The answer is perhaps philosophical. 

If you think of your body as a suit carrying your soul, then the suit does not matter. It is the soul that matters.

If you are working to free your soul, perhaps the vehicle is a mere tool. 

Yet, don't we bathe, wash, clean, and groom our bodies?

Why should plastic surgery be any different? So, if you take that approach, why should we judge those who use a surgeon to look different? I won't comment on better or worse. 

At the end, you have to decide for yourself if you wish to use surgery.

I am obviously excluding those who need it for medical reasons or those who have suffered an accident of some kind. 

Reach out to me on twitter @rbawri Instagram @riteshbawriofficial and YouTube at www.youtube.com/breatheagain