Nose Jobs Through The Centuries

Wednesday June 14, 2006 in: Rhinoplasty Tag(s):

Next to liposuction, rhinoplasty is the second most –sought after cosmetic surgery procedure last year. According to the annual report of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a total of 298,000 nose reshaping procedures were done in 2005.

With its popularity, you would think that nose jobs are just a modern fad that has steadily grown in demand through clever marketing and word of mouth. That rhinoplasty is just a recent invention that numerous individuals want to have a piece of because it is the "in" thing.

The truth is, nose jobs have been around longer than many of us realize. Was it invented in the 1950s? Definitely not. How about a hundred years ago? Nope. Far from it. The Middle Ages?

How about more than 2000 years ago?

According to a Los Angeles Times article entitled "Ancient Nose Jobs Not So Pretty", surgeons have been reconstructing noses and other parts of the body since way before Christ was born.

Around 600 BC, an Indian surgeon, Sushruta, jotted down tips for restoring damaged noses and ears. He instructed surgeons - often members of the tile and brick makers' castes - to cut skin from the cheek or forehead, press it to the severed part, and sew the ensemble back in place.

The article also points out that the practice of reconstructing noses at that time came in handy, especially when the penalty for adultery and other crimes in India at that point in history was cutting off the offender's nose.

Ouch.

Over the ages, nose jobs evolved. One interesting thing about the nose job's evolution is that when it regained popularity in 15th century Europe after centuries of falling out of favor, the realm of rhinoplasty was mainly dominated by, of all people, barbers.

When it came back into fashion in 15th century Europe, it was mainly the domain of barbers. A pair of Sicilian barbers, for example, reconstructed noses using upper arm flesh (the result was a nose that was whiter than the rest of the face).

A lot of weird rhinoplasty practices of that era were enumerated in the article, but what really gets my goat is this:

In another case from that era, Leonardo Fioravanti, an Italian military surgeon, reattached a soldier's nose while posted in North Africa. He picked the nose out of the sand, washed it with his urine and sewed it back on.

I understand that unsanitary practices were common during those times, but washing a body part with urine? Now that's really gross.

Luckily for us in the modern world, that didn't catch on and become standard surgical procedure. Heaven help us if it did.

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