Dr. Kaufman
Advances in technology in the last few centuries have made it possible for us to consider surgery a common and safe occurrence. We naturally think of plastic surgery as a recent invention, but ancient Indians and Egyptians were getting nose jobs and implants as long as 5000 years ago.
In ancient India, the nose was a symbol of pride. Whether your nose was lopped off by an enemy in the heat of battle or sliced off as punishment for looking at the emperor’s daughter the wrong way, the technique for repair was the same. A physician would use a leaf as a stencil, cutting a piece of skin from the patient’s cheek and transfer it to where it was needed on the nose, using a piece of wax as a template for molding the correct shape. After molding the skin around the wax and stitching the skin in place, the physician would then place two thin pipes where the nostrils should be and douse the nose with a powder of sapan wood, licorice-root and barberry, completing the procedure by covering the nose with a bit of cotton. Violá! Good as new!
In ancient Egypt, complex mummification techniques and elaborate pyramids are both indications of the level of care the people took when handling the dead. As part of the mummification process, Egyptians sometimes enhanced certain areas of the body to ensure proper identification of the individual in the afterlife. Ramses II’s signature nose was ensured proper entry into the afterlife by reinforcing it with a small bone and a handful of seeds. Queen Nunjmet’s mummy had bandages implanted into her cheeks and belly. Though there is little evidence this kind of procedure was performed on the living, these kind of body modifications were common after death, at least for the rich and powerful.
The ancient Romans seemed to be constantly occupied with physical appearance, regarding any physical abnormality with great suspicion. There is documentation indicating that at least one large man with breasts “unsightly and shameful” underwent a breast reduction surgery. Roman physicians also removed back scars, shameful marks which indicated either servitude or cowardice.
Today, we’ve traded painful lip-discing, earlobe stretching, foot-binding, teeth-filing, mummification and licorice-root powder for safe and relatively painless procedures like silicone breast implants and liposuction. Our goals have changed a bit in 5000 years, but the theme remains the same: human ingenuity knows no bounds—where there’s a will there’s a way.
