The term Plastic Surgery comes from the Greek word plastike (teckhne) or the art of modeling or sculpting. While this type of surgery is known as “plastic surgery”, the term has no real connection with the “plastic” we know today. The term, like many other words in the English language, is derived from Greek. Coined from the Greek word plastikos, which means to shape or mold something, the term plastic surgery was first used in the 19th century to describe the process by which doctors and surgeons remodeled or molded the body tissue.
With the desire to change or improve our appearance, plastic surgery is one of the first forms of medicine. Plastic surgery has been performed since ancient times and the earliest origins of primitive plastic surgery date back to Ancient Egypt. The nose received the most attention from early plastic surgeons¹. The term plastic surgery comes from the Greek word plastikos, which means to mold and mold. It's a common misunderstanding that the word plastic in plastic surgery means artificial.
Rather, the word originated from the ancient Greek word plastikos, which means to mold or shape. Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty that deals both with improving a person's appearance and with reconstructing facial and body tissue defects due to diseases, trauma, or congenital disorders. Although the origins of the specialty of plastic surgery date back to ancient times, it only received the name “plastic” in the mid-19th century, with a base in the Greek word Plastikós meaning malleability. With the rise of synthetic plastics and the increased need for plastic surgery procedures at the time of the world wars, it was considered that adding the term “reconstructive” to the name would help mitigate the new public perception of the term “plastic”.
Largely due to the subsequent rise of cosmetic surgery, this created more confusion in public perception and eventually led many plastic surgeons to reappropriate the single term that encompassed “plastic” to describe their work. More studies are needed to examine the perceptible long-term implications of this lexical choice. Despite popular misconception, the word plastic in plastic surgery does not mean artificial, but is derived from the ancient Greek word plastikos, which means to mold or give form. Plastic surgery includes reconstructive and aesthetic subspecialties.
Hand surgery is an important part of training in plastic surgery, as well as in microsurgery, which is necessary to replant an amputated limb. Plastic surgery deals with “the repair, reconstruction, or replacement of various parts of the body to alter, change, or improve these structures. Plastic surgeons have developed innovative techniques to reduce the effects of aging on the face and body or to reshape the nose, breasts and other parts of the body. Like many words in the English language, the origin of the word plastic comes from Greek.
An essential feature of plastic surgery is that it involves treating conditions that require or may require tissue relocation skills. In fact, this belief in the lack of specificity of the term “plastic” is common among plastic surgeons, as many choose to call themselves by the name of their subspecialty (for example, hand surgeon, craniofacial surgeon, etc.). The most committed plastic surgeons also become members of the BAAPS and are audited every year to ensure that the highest levels can be maintained. of attention.
Plastic surgery is mentioned in ancient Egyptian papyri when it was used primitively to repair a broken nose. McIndoe, an RAF consultant, moved to the recently rebuilt Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead (Sussex) and founded a center for plastic and mandibular surgery. Since some people use the terms “plastic” and “aesthetic” surgeons interchangeably, it is logical to think that both are the same, when in reality they are not. Ethnic plastic surgery is plastic surgery that is performed to change ethnic attributes and is often considered to be used as a form to overdo it.
However, there has been a general increase in the use of the term “plastic surgery” in the journal in recent years, compared to a plateau in the term “plastic and reconstructive surgery”. Many birth defects or syndromes present at birth are best treated in childhood, and pediatric plastic surgeons specialize in treating these conditions in children.
