As long ago as 2000 BC, surgeons in India were carrying out reconstructive techniques like skin grafts. It wasn't until the late 18th century that western physicians traveled to India to learn about procedures like rhinoplasty. A surgeon named Joseph Constantine Carpue spend two decades in India learning plastic surgery methods. Carpue returned to the west and performed the first major plastic surgery in the western world in 1815.
The ancient Egyptians and Romans also carried out plastic surgery procedures. Romans were able to do such procedures as repairing ears that had been damaged from about the first century B.C.
While plastic surgery techniques evolved very slowly over the centuries, the horribly disfiguring wounds suffered by soldiers during World War I drove a need to develop techniques for reconstructive surgery. Sadly, World War II provided many more patients with disfiguring injuries such as severe burns. One of the most prominent practitioners at that time was Archibald McIndoe, who is also credited with performing the first male to female sex change operation.
In the 20th century in the United States, plastic surgery evolved far more rapidly. A surgeon from St. Louis named Vilray Blair used innovative techniques to treat World War I soldiers with complex facial injuries. His scientific paper, "Reconstructive Surgery of the Face" became the standard reference for facial reconstruction.
In the first half of the 20th century plastic surgery was generally considered a medically necessary set of procedures to reconstruct faces and sometimes other body parts of people who had been injured in accidents or fires, or who had had to undergo disfiguring surgery. By the second half of the 20th century, with the oldest baby boomers reaching adulthood, plastic surgery as a cosmetic pursuit began to gain traction.
Many young people - mostly young women - had rhinoplasty in attempts to have a more refined, feminine nose. The first breast implants came along in the 1960s, though they didn't take off in popularity until the 1980s and 1990s. But noses and breasts weren't all that were subject to surgical intervention. By the end of the 20th century, surgeons were regularly using techniques like liposuction, face lifts, and eye lifts. The pace has accelerated in the 21st century.
Plastic surgery is more common than ever these days, with the general increase in standard of living over the 20th century coupled with the massive baby boom generation aging and wanting to turn back the effects of time. The evolution and popularity of plastic surgery procedures show no signs of abating any time soon.
