Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word plastic in plastic surgery comes from the Greek plastike tekne, meaning the art of modelling malleable flesh. It refers to reshaping, not to synthetic polymer material. This meaning appeared in English as early as 1598, and the surgical usage was established in 1838 by Eduard Zeis, predating modern plastic materials by 70 years.
Sir Harold Gillies, a New Zealand otolaryngologist working in London, is generally considered the father of modern plastic surgery. He developed foundational techniques for facial reconstruction while treating soldiers disfigured during World War I, performing more than 11,000 operations on more than 5,000 men at his hospital in Sidcup.
The Guinea Pig Club was a group of patients, mostly RAF aircrew, treated by Archibald McIndoe at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, Sussex during World War II. Members had undergone experimental reconstructive procedures for deep burns and facial disfigurement. Better-known members included Richard Hillary, Bill Foxley, and Jimmy Edwards.
Nearly 16 million cosmetic procedures were performed in the United States in 2014. In 2015, there were 15.9 million surgical and minimally invasive cosmetic procedures. Approximately 15.6 million cosmetic procedures were performed in 2020, with rhinoplasty as the most common surgical procedure that year.
Body dysmorphic disorder affects 15% of patients seeing cosmetic surgeons, compared to 2% of the general United States population. Half of BDD patients who undergo cosmetic surgery are not satisfied with the aesthetic outcome, and surgery does not treat the underlying disorder. In some cases BDD can lead to suicide.
Treatments for a broken nose appear in the Edwin Smith papyrus, an Egyptian medical text dating to around 1600 BCE. Reconstructive surgery techniques were practiced in India by 800 BCE, as documented in the Sushruta Samhita, which describes nasal reconstruction using skin flaps. Roman physicians performed ear repair surgeries in the 1st century BCE.