Who Is A Plastic Surgeon?

A plastic surgeon is someone who performs manual and instrumental treatment for functional or aesthetic reasons.

A plastic surgeon can perform reconstrucitve surgery or cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery focuses on undoing or masking the destructive effects of trauma, surgery or disease. Reconstructive surgery includes closing defects with skin grafts, where tissue is taken from other parts of the body.

Cosmetic (or aesthetic) surgery, is most often performed to change a particular feature that a patient is unhappy with. There are also medical reasons in many cases. Cosmetic surgery reaches back to the ancient world. The great Indian surgeon, Susrutha, utilized skin grafts for reconstructive work as early as the 8th century BC.

Around the 1st century BC, Romans were able to perform basic techniques, such as repairing damaged ears.

In the U.S. the first plastic surgeon was Dr John Peter Mettauer, who performed the first cleft palate operation in 1827, using instruments that he had designed himself.