The History of Plastic Surgery/ Cosmetic Surgery

Today, I would like to talk about the history and development of Plastic Surgery. These information are based on my online research and also visits to various Plastic Surgery clinics in Korea/Seoul.

The Evolution of Plastic Surgery

1. The Ancient Era

The record of 'reconstructive surgery for cut-off nose' in ancient India in 800 B.C (recorded in the scriptures of Brahmanism)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Vedic_religion

2. The 16th-19th Century

During this period, due to frequent wars, plastic surgery also encountered the Renaissance.

- The techonology of dermal tissues grafting was first introduced.

- Around the 15th century, G. Taliacozzi, the founder of plastic surgery, performed a nose surgery using upper arm flap.

- Nose surgery using forehead flap done in India in 1974 is still considered one of the best historical method of reconstructive plastic surgery.

- In the early 19th century, plastic surgery with various reconstructive surgeries began establishing in academical systems.

- in 1809, Von Graele began 'the first blepharoplasty'

- in 1823, Bunger began the surgery of 'autologous dermal tissue draft'

- in 1838, as Zies published his book, the term 'Plastic Surgery' began to be widely used.

- In the late 19th century, full/partial thickness skin grafting by adjusting the thickness began.

3. The early and mid 20th Century

- In 1914 during the WW1, the plastic surgery center (French army) was opened due to many bullet wounded soldiers. Gillies from UK and Blair and Ivy from USA began the innovative reconstructive surgeries.

- In 1931, around 10 surgeons established 'The American Society Plastic Surgeons' (ASPS)

- In 1939,  during WW1, many active researches for syntripsis, burn and nerve damage led plastic surgery into the growth period.

4. The late 20th century

- In 1962, Cronin first performed 'Breast augmentation using a silicon implant'

- In 1967, 'skull and facial bone surgery' was presented

- The field of plastic surgery was extended to not only in the human body but also in the skull and facial bones.

- In 1970, 'micro joining plastic surgery' using a microscope was introduced.

-  The field of organ transplantation was made due to the development of digital replantation, blood vessel inosculation and nerve connecting surgery.

- Murray, a plastic surgeon first succeeded in a 'kidney transplantation'

- In 1980s and 1990s, flap operation and cosmetic surgery for all parts of the body began to be developed.

WHAT IS PLASTIC SURGERY?

Plastic surgery can be explained as one of the surgical fields for recovering birth defects or acquired defects and for appearance improvement.

POST SURGERY PRECAUTIONS

Some guidelines to follow post surgeries.

Post Nose Surgery Precautions

- Make sure to take your medicine given to you by the hospital/clinic. I was given antibiotics and painkillers and I took them twice a day religiously for 2 weeks.

- Do avoid salty, spicy and greasy food for 3 weeks after surgery. Hot liquids and spicy foods will tend to dilate your blood vessels and lead to more bruising and swelling. I was on a liquid diet on the 2nd day post surgery, I had soup and porridge. On the 3rd day, i ate like normal. 

- Please avoid drinking and smoking for 3 weeks after surgery.

- Use an ice pack for the first few days after surgery and it should be placed over your eyes. This will help to reduce swelling and pain. I used this for about 4 times a day, 20 minutes each time, you can use this more if possible.

- During the first few days of surgery, bleeding may occur and makes it difficult to breathe. When bleeding occurs, please avoid wiping the blood from the nostrils but rather, wipe the blood from outside the nose area. Additionally, do not touch the insides of the nose or incision area as this may cause inflammation. Always go back to the clinic to get the nurse to clean it for you before stitches are out.

- Please sleep with elevated pillows, placing the upper body 30 degrees higher instead of lying flat on the bed. Sitting position helps to reduce swelling rather than lying position.

- Excessive swelling will occur during 72 hours after surgery. Major swelling will still last for one month while it will take 4-6 months for the whole swelling to be gone. Bruises may also occur around the nose but they will be gone within 1-2 weeks. Deviated nose or asymmetrical nostrils may be seen but this is due to different degree of swelling on each side. Please also make sure no pressure is applied on nose. If swelling is excessive, please contact your doctor immediately.

- Bandages will be applied on nose bridge in order to fix the nose implant. For simple rhinoplasty, bandage will be removed after 3 days of surgery. For reductive rhinoplasty, bandage will be removed after 10 days of surgery.

- For alar base reduction, stitches will be removed after 10 days of surgery. Stitches on ear incision will be removed after 7 days of surgery.

- Please wash your face on the day after stitch removal. Warm water is recommended to be applied and soap/facial cleanser can be used if it doesn't cause pain around the surgical area. If ear cartilage is taken out for nose tiplasty, please blow dry the incision after shower. Make up can be applied right after bandage removal. However, please avoid pressing the nose too hard.

- There is usually no scar if the incision is made inside the nostril.

- Avoid wearing eye glasses for 1 week as it may move the nose implant.

- Avoid heavy exercise for 3 weeks after surgery. However, light exercises such as walking is recommended to reduce swelling.

- If bleeding, heavy pressure, headache and nausea occur, please contact the doctor immediately. Patients are advised to go back to the clinic on the 1st day post surgery to get a check up and disinfection.

POST EYE SURGERY PRECAUTIONS

- Make sure to take your medicine given to you by the hospital/clinic. I was given antibiotics and painkillers and I took them twice a day religiously for 2 weeks.

- Do avoid salty, spicy and greasy food for 3 weeks after surgery. Hot liquids and spicy foods will tend to dilate your blood vessels and lead to more bruising and swelling.

- Please avoid drinking and smoking for 3 weeks after surgery.

- Avoid taking a nap on the day of surgery and make sure to open eyes naturally. Sitting position helps better to reduce swelling than lying position.

- Excessive swelling will occur 24 hours after surgery. Therefore, the ice pack MUST be used to reduce swelling. The excessive swelling will be gone within 3-5 days after surgery. Major swelling will still last for one month while it will take 4-6 months for the whole swelling to be gone. Asymmetrical eyes could be caused due to different degree of swelling on each eye. After swelling is gone, the symmetrical eyes will be seen in most cases.

- No stitches are removed after non-incisional eyelid surgery. However, stitch removal is incisional double eyelid surgery and canthoplasty 5 days after surgery.

- Please wash your face on the day after stitch removal.

- Non- incision double eyelid surgery won't leave scars as the surgery is performed through small holes. Redness around the surgical area may occur from canthoplasty and incisional double eyelids for 3-6 months. However, it can be easily covered with concealor. After one year, there will be just one fine line without redness. Therefore, the scar will be almost invisible without make up. Post and pre-surgery precautions are very impt to follow as it may cause big scars, asymmetrical eyes, multiple folds etc due to bleeding during surgery.

- Avoid heavy exercise for 3 weeks after surgery. However, light exercises such as walking is recommended to reduce swelling. From the 4th day post surgery, i was walking around Jeju and Seoul every day from morning till night.

- If bleeding, heavy pressure, headache and nausea occur, please contact the doctor immediately. Patients are advised to go back to the clinic on the 1st day post surgery to get a check up and disinfection.

POST FATS GRAFT SURGERY PRECAUTIONS

- Make sure to take your medicine given to you by the hospital/clinic. I was given antibiotics and painkillers and I took them twice a day religiously for 2 weeks.

- Do avoid salty, spicy and greasy food for 3 weeks after surgery. Hot liquids and spicy foods will tend to dilate your blood vessels and lead to more bruising and swelling.

- Please avoid drinking and smoking for 3 weeks after surgery.

- Please sleep with elevated pillows, placing the upper body 30 degrees higher instead of lying flat on the bed. Sitting position helps to reduce swelling rather than lying position. Avoid using heated blanket which could cause skin burn as the surgical area may not be as sensitive due to anesthesia.

- Avoid facial massage as it may reduce survival rate of injected fat cells. Also, please do not press or irritate surgical areas.

- Face wash and make up can be done after 3 days of surgery. During 3-4 days post surgery, surgical area will be disinfected and tapped with bandages.

- Extracted fat area especially on thighs or abdomen willl have redness after stitch removal. However, it will turn into original skin colour as time goes by.

- Avoid heavy exercise for 3 weeks after surgery. However, light exercises such as walking is recommended to reduce swelling. From the 4th day post surgery, i was walking around Jeju and Seoul every day from morning till night.

- If bleeding, heavy pressure, headache and nausea occur, please contact the doctor immediately. Patients are advised to go back to the clinic on the 1st day post surgery to get a check up and disinfection.

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WHY DID I HEAL SO FAST?

The consultant and nurses at the clinics were really amazed by how fast i healed, the major swelling were almost all gone in less than 2 weeks. My friends also mentioned i healed at an incredible speed and they asked me what I did for that.

Well, during the first 2 weeks of recovery, i was particularly cautious when it came to my diet. I made sure I had the right intake of fruits and protein cuz these aid recovery. I ate lots of meat, lots of strawberries and pineapple juice, not to mention, alot of veggies. It was good being in Korea during my recovery as their meals had lots and lots of veggies! Had pumpkin soup but not alot of this though.

One more thing i really need to mention which i strongly believed played a very big part in my fast recovery was PURTIER. My best friend kept asking me to take a bottle of it for one month immediately after surgery because it accelerates the recovery of cells using the stem cell technology, honestly i read about this product and even my mum says it's good. I didn't want to take it initially cuz it was quite costly. 

However, on the 2nd day post surgery, I was very frustrated with the fact that i cannot breathe and was practically choking on my own mucus, i couldn't sleep and couldn't bathe and wash my hair, i felt terrible, i couldn't stand it anymore and wanted this terrible feeling to disappear ASAP so i asked for Purtier (as i didn't have any pills that aided healing or deswelling with me) and my best friend who brought it over to Korea gave me some. I started taking it from then until now.

Check out my swelling especially around my eyes, i just took Purtier for 2 days (i took 2 pills a day) and the swelling subsided so much, I am amazed myself too. However, after taking 2 pills a day for about 5 days, i stopped and cut down to 1 pill a day only. (cuz i can't bear to finish it so fast and i felt that the hardest period was over and the following days were so much easier to deal with)

I did not edit the above picture at all and did not use any filters. These pics are taken with natural lighting.

My latest recovery picture.

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KOREA BEAUTY TRIP- After surgery photo shoot (sneak preview)

These are some pictures taken during my photoshoot.

DAY 14 POST SURGERY

Official pics will be up around next month, can't wait to see them! 

Following are some pics i took after the photo shoot, i love how natural i look with the make up applied on me. I can't apply such natural make up on my own... I should go take up some tutorials and learn more.

KOREA BEAUTY TRIP- Plastic Surgery adventure Part 3 (Day 7-13 post op)

DAY 8 POST SURGERY

Went to Everland with my friends and I managed to put on contact lens without any difficulty, I tried to avoid pulling up my upper eyelids and only pulled down my lower eyelids to get the lens into my eyes. 

Look at my smile when I show my teeth. I look like a toothless woman! My upper lip seem to have vanished when I smile like that. My friends are not used to my new look and said that I am still looking very unnatural. Sobz.

DAY 9-14 POST SURGERY

Things are starting to get better, my eyes are less purplish but left eyelid is higher than my right. 

Went back to the clinic again on day 11 to remove stitches on my ear. It was done and finished in less than 5 minutes. The consultant dropped by and was amazed by how fast I healed! I told her that my chin is too sharp for my liking and she said that it will go down in time to come. She also explained that my nose is deviated and that my left eyelid is higher due to the fact that they are still healing and healing at different speed. One side is healing faster than the other and they will look normal soon, so I gotta wait to see the results.

My face seem to be changing subtly everyday..

DAY 12 POST SURGERY

 I decided to visit Changdeokgung palace and also tried on some eye make up for the very first time after surgery. 

I applied eyeliner and falsies. Wanted to apply mascara but realized that I didn't bring it with me. (Gives me a very good reason to get a new one!!)

My eyelids felt numb when I applied the eyeliner, it wasn't painful but just very weird and I didn't really like that feeling, perhaps I'm just not used to it yet and probably it's not completely healed that's why I felt this way. 

My eyes look pretty much the same as before with make up on. I guess the double eyelids are very obvious when I have no make up on. My nose bridge is still swollen and my chin too sharp. 

Really they hope they subside fast and soon, and I hope to smile like before real soon too! 

DAY 13 POST SURGERY

With the help of make up, i finally look more normal. I tried applying CC cream to my face but because of the dry weather in Seoul, my skin was very dry and I couldn't apply any cream/foundation. So I could only apply moisturizer to my face and eye make up.

                                   

KOREA BEAUTY TRIP- Plastic Surgery adventure Part 2 (1-6 post op)

DAY 1 POST SURGERY

Today I made an appointment with the clinic (pls email me to enquire more about which clinic i went to) to have my surgery at 11pm. Reached at about 10.30pm and the staff brought me into the consultation room and gave me a bag of medicine (consisting of pain killers and antibiotics), ice pack and gauze to reduce swelling and lists of what to do and not to do after surgery (will write about these in details in another separate post).

After this, I was brought to another room to have a final consultation with Nicole before my surgery. Nicole showed me before and after pics of their patients and asked me what kind of nose I want. I told her that I wanted a more defined nose with a higher bridge but I wanted it to be natural, she assured me again that dr yoo is very good at making his patients look natural. This was exactly what I wanted. 

I was then ushered by the nurse to the recovery room and operating theatre on the 4th level. Dr Yoo was a little late and Bonny kept coming into the recovery room to check on me and apologized continuously for making me wait.

Last look of myself before surgery 

Finally after about 30 mins, I was ushered to the operating room. About 5 nurses were attending to me, adjusting the positions of my hands and legs, wrapping my head with towel, preparing the sedation, basically preparing me for the surgery. The last thing I remembered was Bonny telling me that they are putting me on sedation and I asked her how long would I take to fall asleep, she said one minute. Soon after that I fell asleep.. (I think it took slightly longer than a minute lol)

When I regained consciousness, I felt the surgeon operating on my eyes, I could feel the sewing and removing of thread but I couldn't feel any pain. He asked me to open and close my eyes a couple of time and asked me to sit up twice so he could take a better look at my eyes and see if both sides were balanced. Soon after this, it was over!!!

As the nurses helped me up and brought me back to the recovery room which was just next door, I felt a little intoxicated, like i was a little high on alcohol, drowsy but still aware of what's going on. 

They then asked me to rest for an hour and put an ice pack over my eyes. Before they did that they have me a mirror and I saw what I became!!

There was a piece of gauze in one of my nostril because it was still bleeding from the surgery. These pics were taken about 5 minutes after surgery.

The bruise on my eyes got so bad it's not blue black, it's literally jet black!! Ok I'm exaggerating, more to charcoal black. 

Not only does my face suck, my hair sucks too.

Soon then I drifted in and out of sleep. At 4pm, the nurse came into the room with a tray of corn soup and soya milk. 

My upper lip was still very numb from the anasthetic, I couldn't feel anything and I couldn't open my mouth too wide cuz of the bandages. I had a little bit of difficulty finishing the soup. And suddenly.. I saw little splatters of blood on the blanket and Abit on the wooden retractable table. 

I asked the nurse where the blood come from cuz I checked the mirror but couldn't see where, she said my nose. So I used a piece of tissue and gently cleaned the sides of my nose and openings of my nostrils. 

Then it happened again, the blood when into my corn soup. 

I gave up drinking it and finished up the soy milk. 

I felt well enough to go back to my hotel and left the clinic. I even strolled along the streets outside the clinic with my bandaged face for a while. They said this was a very common sight in Seoul and indeed, no one even took a second look at me. 

DAY 2 POST SURGERY

Face is slightly more swollen now and I didn't sleep well the night before because of blocked nose and I'm not used to sleeping facing the ceiling, I'm always sleeping on my sides. And it was advised to sleep facing the ceiling on elevated pillows to help in deswelling for one month!!!

Didn't really feel much pain, only slight pain that only lingered a while around my ear area. 

The only disturbance and discomfort was that I couldn't breathe thru my nose which is making me rather annoyed cuz I can't sleep. 

DAY 3 POST SURGERY 

I went back to the clinic again this afternoon at 12 noon for follow up. The nurse removed my bandages and pasted small translucent square stickers on the areas I had fats grafted. 

Most importantly, she cleaned the insides of my nostrils and airway is cleared, I can breathe properly thru my nose again now!! Last night was a torture, I couldn't sleep at all, I had a running nose and wanted to sneeze but I tried my very best to control this which made me so uncomfortable, the mucus was all stuck at my nostrils and I was almost chocked many times. But now after the nurse cleared my nose, I finally caught a proper rest! 

Lastly, she gave me an antibiotic jab, I feel so much better now.

Here are some pictures of me after removing the bandages: 

My eyelids are still very swollen and purplish, so are my checks, my lips especially my lower lips are thin and receded due to the swelling on the other parts of my face and I was told they will be back to normal once swelling subsides. 

Now, I don't look like super Mario's gf anymore, instead, I look more like Avatar's gf! Hope the swelling and bruising subsides fast...

After a good nap on day 3, I was well enough to get out for dinner. I'm so thankful I'm in Korea in this undesirable and scary state. The Koreans treat this as nothing and I didn't receive any weird stares at all from them. Instead, they didn't even take a second glance at me with those terrible bandages, bruises and swelling all over my face. for an instance, I thought I was invisible. If I was in singapore, I would probably be on stomp by now for walking around in public like this...

DAY 4 POST SURGERY 

i went back to the clinic for removal of the bandages. I was left with only the nose splint, eye stitches and ear stitches. 

And off I flew to Jeju Island!

The custom officer saw me with the cast in my nose and made me sign a form declaring that I am fit enough for the flight and that they will not be responsible should anything happen to me on board. 

I was really feeling very well and normal, no pain, no discomfort. 

I could smile but not as wide as before due to face swelling. 

DAY 5 POST SURGERY

Swelling continues to subside. I went sight seeing, did lots of walking, ate like normal. In general, I feel very normal and didn't get tired easily too. My friends were surprised and said that I don't behave like someone who just had surgeries done. 

Found a hair salon opposite our hotel in Jeju and went for hairwash at 12,000 won. It was equivalent to finding a gem! I had difficulties washing my hair on my own as water wasn't supposed to touch my face especially my eyes and my nose. 

DAY 6 POST SURGERY

My face is still swollen but the swelling around my eyes have subsided significantly. The bruises around my eyes have changed from black to light purplish. 

DAY 7 POST SURGERY

Went back to the clinic to get my stitches and nose splint removed.

I read somewhere that removing of stitches is very painful and I was rather nervous so I asked the nurse about it and she assured me that it's not gonna be pain. 

And true enough, its like ant's bite! I was worried for nothing, in fact I feel eye brow plucking is more painful than this. But it also depends on your threshold for pain I guess. 

The nurse said I can now put on make up, wash my face like normal (but not too rough), apply moisturizer and resume my normal skincare routine.

This was how I looked after removal of the splint and stitches. 

I wasn't very pleased at first. My dark eye circles were so obvious and eyelids were still purplish due to swelling, my nose seems a little deviated, I still can't smile properly, my lips are still receded and my chin seem too sharp. I look like I got beaten up.