January 23, 2026 • 33 mins
Why are people getting plastic surgery on their fingerprints? Why was the Civil War such a golden era for procedures? And why is everyone suddenly obsessed with the length of their philtrums? Will and Mango take a brisk walk through the history of plastic surgery.
This episode originally aired on January 25, 2019.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Guess what, well, what's that mango? So, have you ever
heard of poker talks.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Poker talks, is that like dtox for playing poker? Or what?
I actually not heard of it.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
It's actually botox for playing poker.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Oh, I get it. That's smart. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It was invented by this New York City doctor. His
name is Jack Birdie, and he's also this poker player,
and he realized the biggest problem for poker players is
there tells like people who like fire their brows or
curl their lips as they're trying to bluff, and so
he basically came up with a few places to administer
botox so you don't show your hand as much.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Now, I'm guessing this is just for humans, or can
you know those dogs that play poker? Can they also
get this treatment?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I love the idea of like Sharpei or one of
those like super wrinkly dogs just getting all smoothed out.
Think of the bowtops. I feel like it'll take so
many years off the dog. But hearing about Poker Talks
treatments really made us wonder, like, what what's the history
of these cosmetic procedures? How long have people been getting
those jobs? And why was the Civil War such a
(01:06):
turning point for plastic surgery? So let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and on the other side of
the soundproof glass really feeling that burned because he's doing
his daily set of Facer sizes. I don't know if
you've noticed this man, he's been doing them all week.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, that is our friends and producer Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Tristan claims these exercises are a viable alternative to plastic surgery,
something about how like toning your face muscles can make
you look younger. So good luck to you, Tristan. You're
already pretty young looking. But you know, we'll see if
this makes a difference. And honestly, from here, it mostly
looks like he's just kind of smushing his cheeks and
making this little turtle face. It's kind of I wish
(02:09):
everybody could see this. It's a little weird.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, So he was trying to explain this to me earlier.
He's been doing this old nineties exercise routine that's supposed
to tighten facial muscles. And he said it's called cheek energizing,
and supposedly it's part of this whole facer size program
that this doctor named Carol Maggio developed like thirty years ago.
It all sounds and looks pretty bizarre, and I mostly
(02:32):
just impressed that Tristan was able to decode the written instructions.
So I actually look this up, and this is a
breakdown of the cheek energizer move he's been doing. Quote,
place an index finger lightly on the top of each cheek. Now,
smile with the middle of your upper lip while thinking
about the expression you pulling the top lip flat against
(02:52):
your teeth. Keep your upper and lower lips firmly pulling
away from each other, and feel your cheeks move under
your index fingers. Repeat this, smile and release. I mean,
none of this makes any sense to mew.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
It feels weird. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, I'll only smile in the middle of your lip.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Okay, Oh got bad. Bad.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
What's strange is that if we wanted, we could actually,
like ask the inventor herself about how to do this.
At age seventy three, she actually promotes facer size on
Skype and you can do a Skype session with her
and she'll walk you through it face to face.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I am totally gonna do this manga. That just sounds
weird enough for me to want to do it, and
it does seem like it'ld be a pretty surreal experience.
But as proponents of plastic surgery will tell you, most
improvements from facial exercise just don't hold a candle to
the results you get from a shot of botox or
maybe a half hour under the knife. And when you
think about it, that relative ease and the immediacy of
(03:46):
the results, it's what makes cosmetic procedures so appealing in
the first place. For instance, in twenty seventeen alone, fifteen
point seven million minimally invasive cosmetic procedures were performed in
the US, So we're talking about things like botox injections,
chemical peels, laser hair removals. That's almost two hundred percent
increase since the year two thousand. Now. Obviously a big
(04:09):
reason for that growth is that cosmetic procedures have become easier,
less invasive, you know, than they were in the year's past.
But millions of people are lining up each year to
have parts of their bodies nipped and tucked and shaped
and plumped. But you know, whether or not that's a
good thing is still kind of up in the air
for many people. And so with that question of mine,
we foind it be interesting to look into the history
(04:31):
of plastic surgery, including how and why it got started
and many of the ways it's changed over the years,
And then a little bit later in the episode, I
think we'll check out some of the more recent trends
in the industry, as well as how a selfie stick
might make you think twice about getting a nose job.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
That's right, But you know, before we get into any
of that, I thought we could start by breaking down
some of the terms we'll be using today, you know,
just so things don't get confusing a little bit later.
So in general, we refer to the term plastic surgery
for a few time diferent things at once. You know,
they're cosmetic surgeries, which are the ones meant to enhance
a person's overall appearance and aren't considered medically necessary, so
(05:08):
things like liposeuction or facelifts, as well as the less
invasive procedures you mentioned like chemical peels and botox. But
plastic surgery can also refer to reconstructive surgeries, and those
are the ones performed to restore the normal function or
appearance of a person's body, and for the most part,
these are considered medically necessary.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, I mean there are several of these types. When
you think about surgeries like you know, repairing a cleft
palate or the you know, unbelievable jobs that these surgeons
can do when they're reconstructing a burn victim's face or
their body, it's pretty remarkable how far this has come.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, and I did think it was worth mentioning because
there's still a ton of stigma surrounding the term, Like
lots of people only associate plastic surgery with the cosmetic
side of things like tummy talks and calf implants.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah. Well, my guess is that the stigma has a
lot to do with the word plastic itself. I mean,
I think it makes people think about fakeness and artificiality
and all the other things we associate with plastic as
a substance, Like we wrap our view of plastic as
being cheap and disposable onto these surgeries that share this name,
which of course is pretty unfair when you really think
(06:13):
about it.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, I mean, especially when you consider that the name
doesn't have anything to do with plastic in the first place.
Like I read this week that the first time the
word plastic was actually used to describe a surgical technique
was in eighteen thirty seven, which is so long before
plastic the substance was even invented.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
All right, So then what did the term actually mean
when it was used in eighteen thirty seven.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It actually came from the Greek word plasticos, which means
to mold or give form. So a plastic surgery was
basically a shaping surgery, and that was pretty fitting because
the earliest forms of plastic surgery were based much more
in reconstruction than they were in purely cosmetic changes.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You know, It's interesting. This is another one of those
things that when we started looking into the history, you
really don't think about how far back some of these
things go. And so actually, the earliest known example of
plastic surgery dates all the way back to the sixth
century BCE, and it was indeed a form of reconstruction.
This was a nose job. The technique was invented in
ancient India by a physician and a surgeon named Soushruta.
(07:16):
And this was at the time when you know, it
was common to punish an adulter or a thief with
some form of body mutilation, usually by cutting off the
nose or maybe an ear. And so this physician was
one of many in the region who felt that this
was a kind of public shaming and was just way
over the line of course, and you know, basically ensured
that the criminals would be shunned for the rest of
(07:38):
their lives. We wanted to do something to help solve
this problem, and so it began looking for a way
to help these people reintegrate into society by restoring their
appearance as much as he possibly could. And so what
he came up with was this technique where a flap
of skin was removed from a patient's cheek and then
molded and shaped into a new nose the nostrils by
(08:01):
inserting these two hollow reeds, and then you'd leave them
in place to make sure the nostrils didn't close up
as the new nose healed. I mean, it's unbelievable that
somebody could pull this off that long ago.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, and it almost sounds like fantastical that anything like
that could even work.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, it seems to have been the consensus at the
time too. But you know, once word of this method spread,
other Indian surgeons began trying it for themselves, and some
even put their own spin on the procedure by building
the replacement nose from a flap of the patient's forehead
skin rather than you know, maybe their cheek. And this
early form of rhinoplasty proved so successful that it was
(08:37):
eventually adapted throughout Europe, where it became known as the
Indian method.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So I had actually heard about this Indian method just
because it's one of those things I feel is compulsory
if you're Indian, like for an Indian pride, Like you know,
India also came up with the concept of zero as
a number and invented shampoo. Like these are just things
we know, and you are welcome. But so apparently we
weren't the only invaders there. There was also something called
the Italian method, and this was emitted by a surgeon
(09:05):
named Antonio Branca. This was in early fourteen hundreds, and
the big difference was that Bronca used a flap of
skin from the upper arm to build his patient's new noses,
and this was considered an improvement for the most part
because it left a lot less scarring than the Indian
method did. The only downside was that, and this is
a little strange to think about, in order for the
skin to fully attach itself, patients actually had to hold
(09:27):
their arms against their nose for like twenty straight days.
Obviously seems super uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
It does sound miserable, but I guess in these cases,
you know, considering the results or the payoff, I guess
it was considered worth it. But yeah, let's get back
to Shushruta for a minute. Because after his breakthrough, this
plastic surgery continued to develop throughout Europe. So, for example,
ancient Rome got in on the act sometime during the
early first century, so surgeons of the era pioneered bleferoplasty,
(09:57):
which is the adjustment of the eyelids in order to
correct drooping or squinting eyes. And around the same time,
the Greek physician Galen performed the very first purely cosmetic
plastic surgery, so it was kind of like a nose
job for the wealthy.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
It's kind of cool that those jobs were like first
both for reconstructive and cosmetic purposes. It's kind of stunning,
but you know, not everyone was happy about those breakthroughs
and body modification. As Christianity began to take hold in
Europe during the Middle Ages, plenty of religious leaders viewed
plastic surgery as sinful or almost borderline blasphemous, and this
(10:34):
belief gained more traction in the twelfth century when the
Pope I think it's Pope Innocent the third at the time,
he formally spoke out against it, and pretty soon after
it became a crime to surgically alter the human body.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
So you see this kind of thing happen throughout history,
but in this case, like what changed that perception? What
made the church eventually back down from this.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
This is going to sound strange, but a lot of
the shift was due to syphilis.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Really, you know that there were a lot of things
I was guessing about. Is not what I expected you
to say, though.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
I know. So there was a really bad outbreak of
this disease in Europe during the late sixteenth century, and
one of the symptoms of advanced syphilis happens to be
soft tissue decay, which is usually centered in the nose.
I had no idea about this. But now there were
all these like upper crust lords and ladies with these big,
gaping holes in their faces, and suddenly this like quote
(11:28):
sin of like crafting a false nose, it started to
seem a whole lot better, you know than the alternative
of having, you know, a hole in your face.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, I mean that makes sense. And yeah, of course,
plastic surgeries development didn't end in Europe, and the techniques
eventually made their way here to the United States, with
one of the earliest practitioners being doctor John Metdouer. You know,
he and his sons ran this successful practice in Virginia
and they were specializing and repairing genital birth effects and
then later on in reconstructive surgery, and his legacy is
(11:59):
actually really impressive. So Metour is credited with performing the
first hard cleft palette repair on the Americas in eighteen
twenty seven, and notably, he completed the procedure by transplanting
pieces of bone rather than just skin or muscle as
previous surgeons had done. And so this new technique was
this huge leap forward for reconstructive surgery, and it's actually
(12:19):
the main reason why doctor Metour is often called America's
first plastic surgeon.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, so it really seems like the nineteenth century is
when modern plastic surgery really started to take off. And
I was reading about how much of a game changer
the Civil War was for battlefield medicine. I mean, you
think about things like amputation techniques or more reliable forms
of anesthesia, but facial reconstruction was another area that saw
these major advances during America's bloodiest war, and records actually
(12:48):
show that Union surgeons performed more than thirty successful plastic
surgeries on these odd disfigured soldiers during the war, and
they also pioneered new techniques that would later become standards
in the field, like taking photo to track the progress
of repairs and also using smaller sutures for incisions to
help minimize the scarring. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
You know, it's interesting how these advancements happened during war,
because it actually wasn't just the Civil War where these
kinds of breakthroughs happen, like both world wars actually also
brought major innovations the plastic surgery as well.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, I mean, that's definitely a good point, and we
should spotlight a few of those advances before we talk
about the state of plastic surgery today. But before we
go any further, why don't we take a quick break.
(13:44):
You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about
the long, surprising history of plastic surgery. Okay, well, so
we're up to the twentieth century now in our timeline,
and we were just about to get into World War One.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, that's right. You know, as we were saying, earlier
wars have certainly led to these turning points and you know,
reconstruction of various kinds and facial reconstruction specifically. And there
were a couple of reasons for this. I mean, if
you think about what was advanced in terms of warfare
at that time, you had machine guns and aerial bombers
that were being used in combat and really for the
first time during World War One. And the result of this, obvious,
(14:19):
you know, tragic result of this is that more soldiers
suffered facial wounds due to bullets and shrapnel than in
any of the wars before them. And you know, it's
obviously awful, but the wounds were often more extensive than
surgeons were used to treating. So the good news here
is though, that anesthesia and the treatment of infections had
definitely improved drastically by this time, so you had serious
(14:41):
injuries that would have been fatal in the past that
were now considered survivable, and that included a lot of
major facial disfigurements as a result of this.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, we mentioned earlier that there were some like thirty
odd plastic surgeries during the Civil War, and that actually
doesn't sound like that many at first, but when you
consider how many soldier died just because there was no
way to stave off infection, it starts to make sense
why the number was so low.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, And so with World War One, surgeons suddenly found
themselves with a lot of chances to develop and refine
new ways to deal with disfigurements. And one member of
the medical community was especially helpful in this regard. His
name was doctor Harold Gillies, and he was actually a nose,
ear and throat specialists. He was from New Zealand and
so he had joined the Royal Army Medical Corps at
(15:27):
the start of the war, and so during his time
on the Western Front, Gillies learned as much as he
could about reconstructive surgery, and this was mostly by observing
the dentists and the doctors that he was stationed with.
So then when he returns to England, he was actually
given the chance to apply what he'd learned to the
newly opened Queen's Hospital in London. There were more than
(15:47):
a thousand beds there and these were reserved for patients
in need of these facial reconstructions, so it was a
ton of people.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, I mean it's almost hard to imagine that many
people needing surgeries like that all at once. It's really
it's really staggering when you think about it.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah, no, it really is. Actually, there was such a
demand for these services that patients often had to queue
up outside the hospital. So even with a thousand beds there,
it just gives you a sense of how many people
were affected by this. And there was this set of
blue benches reserved exclusively for patients with facial disfigurements, and
apparently the bright blue color was a way to warn
(16:24):
the locals that they might want to look away when
walking past the benches, and so it's just tragic to
think about that, and you know, it might seem insensitive
at first, but it was really as much for the
patients as it was for the public, and you know,
if anything, the soldiers probably appreciated the break from people
staring at them all the time, I guess.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
So what kind of breakthroughs was Gilly's making at that time.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Well, there's actually probably too many to go through here,
but one of the biggest was what he called the
tube pedicle or flat procedure, I guess. So basically, Gillies
would cut a strip of living skin and tissue and
then he would form it to this tube that was
still connected to the patient at one end. Then the
tube could be laid across the patient's wounded face until
(17:08):
the skin graft actually took root.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Which sounds pretty gruesome, but I'm guessing there was some
sort of upside to this approach.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, definitely, I mean a really big one. So before
Gillies came along, reconstructive surgeries had long struggled on how
to ward off infection in this open wound while they
were waiting for this skin graph to take So his
variation solved this problem because it ensured that blood continued
to flow through the grafted area, so then once the
graft had taken root, the surgeon could simply sever the
(17:37):
tube and sculpt the remaining tissue into the patient's new
nose and throat, and you know, it doesn't paint this
pretty picture, but the technique was so successful that the
work at Queen's Hospital continued long after the war had ended.
So in total, the hospital performed more than eleven thousand
operations on over five thousand patients before they finally closed
(17:58):
their doors in nineteen twenty five. And Gillies actually received
knighthood for his efforts. And when World War two began,
he kept working on this new set of soldiers that
were in the same kind of need.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
That's a tremendous legacy. But you know, we've mostly dealt
with the reconstructive side of plastic surgery so far. So
what do you say we switched gears and focus on
the cosmetic side for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Actually, I'll start us off
with something that I was surprised to learn this week. So,
even with nearly two million cosmetic surgeries performed in the
US each year, the plastic surgery industry overall has actually
shrunk by about twelve percent since the year two thousand.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
That's strange. I wouldn't have guessed that. I mean, I
guess breast augmentations and liposection. Just I mean, maybe they're
not as appealing as they used to be, is that right?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, I mean that those are still the top two
cosmetic surgeries in the States, with roughly three hundred thousand
each per year, But on the whole, there are fewer
people undergoing the ninth than there were about, you know,
twenty years or so ago. But the most interesting part
to me, at least, was that while cosmetic surgeries are down,
the number of minimally invasive cosmetic procedures like injection or
(19:09):
laser hair removal, those numbers are only going up each year.
So in fact, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports
that the number of these procedures has grown nearly two
hundred percent since two thousand, So that's the same period
that you know, these cosmetic surgeries have been declining.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Sure, and I'm sure poker tox is one of the
biggest reasons for all of exactly. Yeah, you know, I
do wonder what's behind that downward shift, Like, is it
just that the minimally invasive stuff requires less downtime than
the flow on surgeries or what's going on here?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, I mean I think that's part of it, you know,
plus the fact that these procedures are cheaper, they're faster,
of course, you know, less invasive, like you mentioned. And
I think it also doesn't hurt that there isn't as
much stigma around something like microdermabrasion as there might be
in getting a tummy tuck or a nose job or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
So I guess it kind of comes back to the
idea that plastic surgery might still carry a connotation of phoniness,
like and I guess these similar types of procedures are
kind of a way of sidestepping that stigma while still
altering your appearance.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, and you know, actually, just in looking this up,
I think that desire for a more natural look is
something that came up a lot. And there's a really
good article about this and Allure this past month, which
is a sentence I never really thought i'd be saying,
but I did want to share a quote from it
really quickly. The author is Caitlin Clark, and here's what
she writes. Disproportionate breast enhancement, overfilled lips, and exaggerated cosmetic
(20:31):
procedures in general are all trends on their way out. Now,
a successful plastic surgery or cosmetic procedure should no longer
be obvious. Patients are increasingly wanting to maintain their general
facial structure, inherited family traits, and just generally wanting to
look like themselves, but with a few refined tweaks.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Which definitely tracks with these so called tweak mins I
read about last week. So there's this new skin tightening
treatment that's supposed to take off this year, face tight,
and it actually uses this radio frequency energy to tighten
and sculpt the skin around your neck and jalline. It's
totally non surgical, and the effects supposedly last up to
five years, which is kind of amazing. And even on
(21:13):
the surgical side, it seems like smaller, less obvious treatments
are how most people want to go these days. For instance,
there's this one procedure that's becoming really popular right now,
and it addresses something so obscure that you probably forgot
it's even a body part.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
I'm gonna guess that we're talking about the uvula here
at the back of your throat, because I've actually heard
they can go in and sort of like shave it
down if it's bothering you. Did you know this?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I didn't realize that, but I guess it's good to know.
But you know, the surgery I'm talking about is actually
for the filterum, which is that little indented space between
your nose and your lip, and it's sometimes also called
Cupid's bow too.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
All right, So what exactly are people doing to their filterums?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Apparently the filterum elongates over time, so a lot one
is a pretty clear sign of age for some people.
But now there's this quick little surgery where you make
a tiny incision it goes right under the nose, and
then lift up the lip a little so the filter
looks smaller. And while that might still sound like a
lot of trouble over something so small and so unnoticeable,
the procedure tends to be easier and safer than getting
(22:18):
lip injections or I guess using a bunch of weird
fillers to plump up your lips.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah, I mean, I can imagine how this new method
might provide a more natural looking result. And from everything
I've been reading this week, it does seem like the
average cosmetic surgery patient is more interested in this direction nowadays,
Like not this complete overhaul, but kind of a subtle
I kept seeing the word plussing of what's already there.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, it's an interesting shift from the way we used
to be with these like over the top changes that
gave cosmetic surgery such a bad rap in the first place.
But you know, there's still a lot of potential pitfalls
with these procedures, not to mention the lingering question of
whether all this focus on physical appearance and beauty is
actually good for us.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
We can spend a little bit of time mulling that
one over. But before we get to that, let's take
one more quick break, all right, Mago. So before the break,
(23:21):
you were saying there are still some drawbacks to cosmetic surgery,
even with all the advancements and the greater focus on
a more natural look that we see these days. So
do you have an example of what kind of stuff
you're actually referring to?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, So, why don't we go back to nose jobs
for a second. We live in such an age of
wonder is that it's now possible to actually reshape your
nose without the need for any surgery at all. Instead,
there are these non surgical nose jobs that I guess
you inject this acid based filler into your nose, and
the filler then lodges into the imperfections in a person's nose,
(23:56):
kind of filling in the gaps and smoothing everything into
this more dreamline shape.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I mean, it's interesting because it kind of goes back
to some of the reconstructive nose jobs we talked about
earlier in the episode, you know, where you're actually trying
to build up the nose rather than shave it down
like we're used to seeing. But in this case, like,
what's the concern? Is the filler unsafe? No, it's not that.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And if I were going to sum up the worry,
I think I'd say that the procedure makes it too
easy to change the shape of your nose, and the
whole thing takes something like fifteen minutes of results are
visible right away. But you know what, while that sounds
like it might be a win across the board, there's
evidence that the ease of access is actually resulting in
way more people getting nose jobs than they would otherwise.
(24:40):
But what's concerning is that people are changing the shape
of their nose or other parts of their bodies based
on false evidence. And I'm actually going to tell you
what this is. According to a recent report from the
American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, about fifty
five percent of the people who visit a plastic surgeon
do so because they want to improve the their selfies.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, that's a little disconcerting. But I mean, on the
other hand, is wanting to look better in selfies that
much different than wanting to look good in a bathing
suit or in a wedding photo, or you know, like
whatever other goal people might have.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
No, I mean, it isn't. But the red flag in
this case is that selfies aren't actually an accurate representation
of the person who took them. In fact, there was
this study just last year that found that selfies taken
too close can make your nose appear about thirty percent
larger than it really is. And that makes sense, right, Like,
if your nose sticks out of your face, it means
it's close to the camera and as a result, it's
(25:37):
much bigger compared to everything else.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I mean, that makes sense. But what about the plastic
surgeons themselves, Like, wouldn't they know that selfies aren't a
fair representation of their clients? That did they just go
ahead with the procedures anyway.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I mean, at the end of the day, it's not
really their call to make right. But some plastic surgeons
do try to talk their patients out of it whenever possible.
So you know, the study I mentioned was champion by
this facial plastic surgeon named Boris Pashkov. And you notice
how frequently his patients were showing him selfies to explain
why they wanted the surgery. So he started taking photos
of them from the proper portrait distance, which is actually
(26:13):
five feet away, just to give him a better sense
of what their face actually looks like. And as Bors
put it, quote, I want them to realize that when
they take a selfie, they're in essence looking into a
portable funhouse mirror.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
You know, I do think the elephant in the room
that we really haven't touched on is that with any
of the drawbacks we've been talking about, it's women who
are disproportionately affected by them, because when you look at
the stats for plastic surgery, eighty five to ninety percent
of the patients are women, depending on you know, the
specific procedure, right.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And the thing is people probably aren't too surprised to
hear that, Like you always hear about how there's you know,
an enormous pressure on women to look like other women
do in movies or magazines or Instagram. And since those
images are all overproduced and filtered and deaf they photoshopped,
a lot of us end up devoting a lot of
time and energy chasing something unattainable.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, you're right, it's a legitimate source of pain. And
in fact, I was reading about this study in Scientific
American where the researchers found that women who believe they
can become more beautiful with effort have a higher risk
of developing appearance based anxiety, and so they're more likely
to show an interest in cosmetic surgery as a result
of this.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
And so that wasn't the case for women who have
more fixed views on their beauty.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Yeah, no, that's right, and you know, as you might expect,
it wasn't the case for men either. But what I
did find interesting about this is is that believing we
can improve a trait really can help us achieve that goal. So,
just to take an example here, people who think that
intelligence or creativity are malleable, they tend to improve in
those areas. Over time compared to people who don't believe
(27:52):
those traits can be changed.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
That's weird. So having an eye towards improvement is actually
a good thing for the most part.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I mean, that seems to be the case, But it
mostly comes down to how realistic your goal is. So
according to the co author of the study, your name
is Professor Melissa Berkeley, here's what she says. She says,
prior research has shown that malleable beliefs increase motivation, which
is good if we're talking about being motivated to stay
in school or improve somebody's math skills. But when the
(28:19):
domain is as unrealistic as the beauty standards we have
for women today, increasing motivation may lead to harmful behaviors.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So basically, if someone's going to alter their appearance, you know,
through a procedure or surgery, they should make sure they're
doing it for the right reasons, not not because of
how a selfie turned out or because of the way
a celebrity looks on screen, but because they want the
outside to better reflect how they feel inside.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, and you know, cosmetic surgery can be empowering in
the same way as reconstructive surgery. I mean, you know,
namely as a way to reclaim or reassert your own identity.
And that doesn't mean that who you are should be
completely wrapped up and how you look, but being comfortable
in your own skin. It's you know, it's important, and
it's crucial for mental health too. And if you'd rather
(29:03):
just dabble in a lower key approach, you can always
try facer size. I mean, if it works for Tristan,
it can work for anybody.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I mean, he looks younger every single minute, like he's
Benjamin Buttoning right in front of our eyes.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
All right, well, that's probably enough unsolicited beauty talk for
one day, but we still have plenty left to chat
about in today's fact off, so let's get to it.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
According to Colors magazine, Iran is the nose job capital
of the world, and apparently the procedure is expensive enough
that it carries a bit of a status cloud with it,
So Colors puts it this way. People will wear their
post surgery bandages for months like a badge of honor.
Some even wear the bandages without undergoing the surgery.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
All right, well, they are all sorts of people who
are obsessed with celebrities and get plastic surgery to look
like them. You see stories of them all over the Internet,
of course, and you know people paying to look more
like Justin Bieber or Kylie Jenner or Lindsay Lohan. But
you know, one of the most surprising cases is this
Chinese writer and superfan who has spent almost a quarter
(30:14):
of a million dollars to get ten surgeries to look
like guess who William Shakespeare. And apparently the only place
he refuses to spend is the haircut. For some reason,
he doesn't want the Bard's receding hairline, but he's been
willing to grow his hair out just to kind of
amplify the look.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
That's great, you know. Weirdly enough, there's a surgery to
switch your left and right fingerprints by slicing them off
and grafting them on the other And I guess authorities
only found out about this in two thousand and nine
when this woman who'd been kicked out of Japan for
overstaying her visa re entered the country and then was
caught for a different crime. Her name was Lynn Wrong.
She paid fifteen thousand dollars for the surgery to mask
(30:57):
her fingerprints, and it's been dubbed Japan's first biometric fraud crime.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
All right, well, did you know the inventor of botox,
who was this ophthalmologist named Alan Scott, never really cared
about wrinkles. So he had this patient who'd undergone three
surgeries for double vision, and this was his way of
using almost like this natural duct tape to patch up
the eye. So Scott says he isn't sure who was
more nervous about the experimental treatment, him giving it or
(31:26):
the patient receiving it. But once it was successful, Scott
sold the concept to allergant, who immediately realized the skin's
smoothing benefits.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
So here's something I hadn't realized. Animal plastic surgeries are
actually a thing, and people have been getting Tommy tucks,
eyelid lifts, and laser nostril procedures for their dogs for
a while now. And the treatments aren't purely cosmetic. The
treatments actually prevent bacterial infections and help the dogs with
wrinkled noses breathe better. It tends to be a booming industry. Apparently,
(31:57):
in twenty eleven, people spent sixty two million dollars on
plastic surgery for their pets. But I'm actually gonna tell
you about one story where it made a huge difference,
and this was at the Vancouver Aquarium. There was this
one eyed yellow tail rockfish and the vets there noticed
it was getting bullied by the other fish in the tank,
like they'd steal its food, they'd attack it from that side.
(32:18):
And it was just low confidence, I guess. But the
doctor sewed this big, bright yellow prosthetic eye into the
socket and now the fish is fatter, he's doing well,
and he isn't getting bullied anymore.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Oh, that's a great story. Actually, I think that's good enough.
I think I'm gonna let you take the fact off today. Mango.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Well, I'm happy about it. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Well, that is it for today's show. If you've got
facts for topics you want to share, you know, we
always love hearing from you at Part Time Genius and
HowStuffWorks dot com or find us on Facebook or Twitter
for from Gabe, Tristan, Mango and me. Thanks so much
for listening.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
The struct to the bottle, but the sacri
Guess what, well, what's that mango? So, have you ever
heard of poker talks.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Poker talks, is that like dtox for playing poker? Or what?
I actually not heard of it.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
It's actually botox for playing poker.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Oh, I get it. That's smart. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It was invented by this New York City doctor. His
name is Jack Birdie, and he's also this poker player,
and he realized the biggest problem for poker players is
there tells like people who like fire their brows or
curl their lips as they're trying to bluff, and so
he basically came up with a few places to administer
botox so you don't show your hand as much.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Now, I'm guessing this is just for humans, or can
you know those dogs that play poker? Can they also
get this treatment?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I love the idea of like Sharpei or one of
those like super wrinkly dogs just getting all smoothed out.
Think of the bowtops. I feel like it'll take so
many years off the dog. But hearing about Poker Talks
treatments really made us wonder, like, what what's the history
of these cosmetic procedures? How long have people been getting
those jobs? And why was the Civil War such a
(01:06):
turning point for plastic surgery? So let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and on the other side of
the soundproof glass really feeling that burned because he's doing
his daily set of Facer sizes. I don't know if
you've noticed this man, he's been doing them all week.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, that is our friends and producer Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Tristan claims these exercises are a viable alternative to plastic surgery,
something about how like toning your face muscles can make
you look younger. So good luck to you, Tristan. You're
already pretty young looking. But you know, we'll see if
this makes a difference. And honestly, from here, it mostly
looks like he's just kind of smushing his cheeks and
making this little turtle face. It's kind of I wish
(02:09):
everybody could see this. It's a little weird.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, So he was trying to explain this to me earlier.
He's been doing this old nineties exercise routine that's supposed
to tighten facial muscles. And he said it's called cheek energizing,
and supposedly it's part of this whole facer size program
that this doctor named Carol Maggio developed like thirty years ago.
It all sounds and looks pretty bizarre, and I mostly
(02:32):
just impressed that Tristan was able to decode the written instructions.
So I actually look this up, and this is a
breakdown of the cheek energizer move he's been doing. Quote,
place an index finger lightly on the top of each cheek. Now,
smile with the middle of your upper lip while thinking
about the expression you pulling the top lip flat against
(02:52):
your teeth. Keep your upper and lower lips firmly pulling
away from each other, and feel your cheeks move under
your index fingers. Repeat this, smile and release. I mean,
none of this makes any sense to mew.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
It feels weird. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, I'll only smile in the middle of your lip.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Okay, Oh got bad. Bad.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
What's strange is that if we wanted, we could actually,
like ask the inventor herself about how to do this.
At age seventy three, she actually promotes facer size on
Skype and you can do a Skype session with her
and she'll walk you through it face to face.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I am totally gonna do this manga. That just sounds
weird enough for me to want to do it, and
it does seem like it'ld be a pretty surreal experience.
But as proponents of plastic surgery will tell you, most
improvements from facial exercise just don't hold a candle to
the results you get from a shot of botox or
maybe a half hour under the knife. And when you
think about it, that relative ease and the immediacy of
(03:46):
the results, it's what makes cosmetic procedures so appealing in
the first place. For instance, in twenty seventeen alone, fifteen
point seven million minimally invasive cosmetic procedures were performed in
the US, So we're talking about things like botox injections,
chemical peels, laser hair removals. That's almost two hundred percent
increase since the year two thousand. Now. Obviously a big
(04:09):
reason for that growth is that cosmetic procedures have become easier,
less invasive, you know, than they were in the year's past.
But millions of people are lining up each year to
have parts of their bodies nipped and tucked and shaped
and plumped. But you know, whether or not that's a
good thing is still kind of up in the air
for many people. And so with that question of mine,
we foind it be interesting to look into the history
(04:31):
of plastic surgery, including how and why it got started
and many of the ways it's changed over the years,
And then a little bit later in the episode, I
think we'll check out some of the more recent trends
in the industry, as well as how a selfie stick
might make you think twice about getting a nose job.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
That's right, But you know, before we get into any
of that, I thought we could start by breaking down
some of the terms we'll be using today, you know,
just so things don't get confusing a little bit later.
So in general, we refer to the term plastic surgery
for a few time diferent things at once. You know,
they're cosmetic surgeries, which are the ones meant to enhance
a person's overall appearance and aren't considered medically necessary, so
(05:08):
things like liposeuction or facelifts, as well as the less
invasive procedures you mentioned like chemical peels and botox. But
plastic surgery can also refer to reconstructive surgeries, and those
are the ones performed to restore the normal function or
appearance of a person's body, and for the most part,
these are considered medically necessary.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, I mean there are several of these types. When
you think about surgeries like you know, repairing a cleft
palate or the you know, unbelievable jobs that these surgeons
can do when they're reconstructing a burn victim's face or
their body, it's pretty remarkable how far this has come.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, and I did think it was worth mentioning because
there's still a ton of stigma surrounding the term, Like
lots of people only associate plastic surgery with the cosmetic
side of things like tummy talks and calf implants.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah. Well, my guess is that the stigma has a
lot to do with the word plastic itself. I mean,
I think it makes people think about fakeness and artificiality
and all the other things we associate with plastic as
a substance, Like we wrap our view of plastic as
being cheap and disposable onto these surgeries that share this name,
which of course is pretty unfair when you really think
(06:13):
about it.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, I mean, especially when you consider that the name
doesn't have anything to do with plastic in the first place.
Like I read this week that the first time the
word plastic was actually used to describe a surgical technique
was in eighteen thirty seven, which is so long before
plastic the substance was even invented.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
All right, So then what did the term actually mean
when it was used in eighteen thirty seven.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It actually came from the Greek word plasticos, which means
to mold or give form. So a plastic surgery was
basically a shaping surgery, and that was pretty fitting because
the earliest forms of plastic surgery were based much more
in reconstruction than they were in purely cosmetic changes.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You know, It's interesting. This is another one of those
things that when we started looking into the history, you
really don't think about how far back some of these
things go. And so actually, the earliest known example of
plastic surgery dates all the way back to the sixth
century BCE, and it was indeed a form of reconstruction.
This was a nose job. The technique was invented in
ancient India by a physician and a surgeon named Soushruta.
(07:16):
And this was at the time when you know, it
was common to punish an adulter or a thief with
some form of body mutilation, usually by cutting off the
nose or maybe an ear. And so this physician was
one of many in the region who felt that this
was a kind of public shaming and was just way
over the line of course, and you know, basically ensured
that the criminals would be shunned for the rest of
(07:38):
their lives. We wanted to do something to help solve
this problem, and so it began looking for a way
to help these people reintegrate into society by restoring their
appearance as much as he possibly could. And so what
he came up with was this technique where a flap
of skin was removed from a patient's cheek and then
molded and shaped into a new nose the nostrils by
(08:01):
inserting these two hollow reeds, and then you'd leave them
in place to make sure the nostrils didn't close up
as the new nose healed. I mean, it's unbelievable that
somebody could pull this off that long ago.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, and it almost sounds like fantastical that anything like
that could even work.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, it seems to have been the consensus at the
time too. But you know, once word of this method spread,
other Indian surgeons began trying it for themselves, and some
even put their own spin on the procedure by building
the replacement nose from a flap of the patient's forehead
skin rather than you know, maybe their cheek. And this
early form of rhinoplasty proved so successful that it was
(08:37):
eventually adapted throughout Europe, where it became known as the
Indian method.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So I had actually heard about this Indian method just
because it's one of those things I feel is compulsory
if you're Indian, like for an Indian pride, Like you know,
India also came up with the concept of zero as
a number and invented shampoo. Like these are just things
we know, and you are welcome. But so apparently we
weren't the only invaders there. There was also something called
the Italian method, and this was emitted by a surgeon
(09:05):
named Antonio Branca. This was in early fourteen hundreds, and
the big difference was that Bronca used a flap of
skin from the upper arm to build his patient's new noses,
and this was considered an improvement for the most part
because it left a lot less scarring than the Indian
method did. The only downside was that, and this is
a little strange to think about, in order for the
skin to fully attach itself, patients actually had to hold
(09:27):
their arms against their nose for like twenty straight days.
Obviously seems super uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
It does sound miserable, but I guess in these cases,
you know, considering the results or the payoff, I guess
it was considered worth it. But yeah, let's get back
to Shushruta for a minute. Because after his breakthrough, this
plastic surgery continued to develop throughout Europe. So, for example,
ancient Rome got in on the act sometime during the
early first century, so surgeons of the era pioneered bleferoplasty,
(09:57):
which is the adjustment of the eyelids in order to
correct drooping or squinting eyes. And around the same time,
the Greek physician Galen performed the very first purely cosmetic
plastic surgery, so it was kind of like a nose
job for the wealthy.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
It's kind of cool that those jobs were like first
both for reconstructive and cosmetic purposes. It's kind of stunning,
but you know, not everyone was happy about those breakthroughs
and body modification. As Christianity began to take hold in
Europe during the Middle Ages, plenty of religious leaders viewed
plastic surgery as sinful or almost borderline blasphemous, and this
(10:34):
belief gained more traction in the twelfth century when the
Pope I think it's Pope Innocent the third at the time,
he formally spoke out against it, and pretty soon after
it became a crime to surgically alter the human body.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
So you see this kind of thing happen throughout history,
but in this case, like what changed that perception? What
made the church eventually back down from this.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
This is going to sound strange, but a lot of
the shift was due to syphilis.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Really, you know that there were a lot of things
I was guessing about. Is not what I expected you
to say, though.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
I know. So there was a really bad outbreak of
this disease in Europe during the late sixteenth century, and
one of the symptoms of advanced syphilis happens to be
soft tissue decay, which is usually centered in the nose.
I had no idea about this. But now there were
all these like upper crust lords and ladies with these big,
gaping holes in their faces, and suddenly this like quote
(11:28):
sin of like crafting a false nose, it started to
seem a whole lot better, you know than the alternative
of having, you know, a hole in your face.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, I mean that makes sense. And yeah, of course,
plastic surgeries development didn't end in Europe, and the techniques
eventually made their way here to the United States, with
one of the earliest practitioners being doctor John Metdouer. You know,
he and his sons ran this successful practice in Virginia
and they were specializing and repairing genital birth effects and
then later on in reconstructive surgery, and his legacy is
(11:59):
actually really impressive. So Metour is credited with performing the
first hard cleft palette repair on the Americas in eighteen
twenty seven, and notably, he completed the procedure by transplanting
pieces of bone rather than just skin or muscle as
previous surgeons had done. And so this new technique was
this huge leap forward for reconstructive surgery, and it's actually
(12:19):
the main reason why doctor Metour is often called America's
first plastic surgeon.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, so it really seems like the nineteenth century is
when modern plastic surgery really started to take off. And
I was reading about how much of a game changer
the Civil War was for battlefield medicine. I mean, you
think about things like amputation techniques or more reliable forms
of anesthesia, but facial reconstruction was another area that saw
these major advances during America's bloodiest war, and records actually
(12:48):
show that Union surgeons performed more than thirty successful plastic
surgeries on these odd disfigured soldiers during the war, and
they also pioneered new techniques that would later become standards
in the field, like taking photo to track the progress
of repairs and also using smaller sutures for incisions to
help minimize the scarring. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
You know, it's interesting how these advancements happened during war,
because it actually wasn't just the Civil War where these
kinds of breakthroughs happen, like both world wars actually also
brought major innovations the plastic surgery as well.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, I mean, that's definitely a good point, and we
should spotlight a few of those advances before we talk
about the state of plastic surgery today. But before we
go any further, why don't we take a quick break.
(13:44):
You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about
the long, surprising history of plastic surgery. Okay, well, so
we're up to the twentieth century now in our timeline,
and we were just about to get into World War One.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, that's right. You know, as we were saying, earlier
wars have certainly led to these turning points and you know,
reconstruction of various kinds and facial reconstruction specifically. And there
were a couple of reasons for this. I mean, if
you think about what was advanced in terms of warfare
at that time, you had machine guns and aerial bombers
that were being used in combat and really for the
first time during World War One. And the result of this, obvious,
(14:19):
you know, tragic result of this is that more soldiers
suffered facial wounds due to bullets and shrapnel than in
any of the wars before them. And you know, it's
obviously awful, but the wounds were often more extensive than
surgeons were used to treating. So the good news here
is though, that anesthesia and the treatment of infections had
definitely improved drastically by this time, so you had serious
(14:41):
injuries that would have been fatal in the past that
were now considered survivable, and that included a lot of
major facial disfigurements as a result of this.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, we mentioned earlier that there were some like thirty
odd plastic surgeries during the Civil War, and that actually
doesn't sound like that many at first, but when you
consider how many soldier died just because there was no
way to stave off infection, it starts to make sense
why the number was so low.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, And so with World War One, surgeons suddenly found
themselves with a lot of chances to develop and refine
new ways to deal with disfigurements. And one member of
the medical community was especially helpful in this regard. His
name was doctor Harold Gillies, and he was actually a nose,
ear and throat specialists. He was from New Zealand and
so he had joined the Royal Army Medical Corps at
(15:27):
the start of the war, and so during his time
on the Western Front, Gillies learned as much as he
could about reconstructive surgery, and this was mostly by observing
the dentists and the doctors that he was stationed with.
So then when he returns to England, he was actually
given the chance to apply what he'd learned to the
newly opened Queen's Hospital in London. There were more than
(15:47):
a thousand beds there and these were reserved for patients
in need of these facial reconstructions, so it was a
ton of people.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, I mean it's almost hard to imagine that many
people needing surgeries like that all at once. It's really
it's really staggering when you think about it.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah, no, it really is. Actually, there was such a
demand for these services that patients often had to queue
up outside the hospital. So even with a thousand beds there,
it just gives you a sense of how many people
were affected by this. And there was this set of
blue benches reserved exclusively for patients with facial disfigurements, and
apparently the bright blue color was a way to warn
(16:24):
the locals that they might want to look away when
walking past the benches, and so it's just tragic to
think about that, and you know, it might seem insensitive
at first, but it was really as much for the
patients as it was for the public, and you know,
if anything, the soldiers probably appreciated the break from people
staring at them all the time, I guess.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
So what kind of breakthroughs was Gilly's making at that time.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Well, there's actually probably too many to go through here,
but one of the biggest was what he called the
tube pedicle or flat procedure, I guess. So basically, Gillies
would cut a strip of living skin and tissue and
then he would form it to this tube that was
still connected to the patient at one end. Then the
tube could be laid across the patient's wounded face until
(17:08):
the skin graft actually took root.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Which sounds pretty gruesome, but I'm guessing there was some
sort of upside to this approach.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, definitely, I mean a really big one. So before
Gillies came along, reconstructive surgeries had long struggled on how
to ward off infection in this open wound while they
were waiting for this skin graph to take So his
variation solved this problem because it ensured that blood continued
to flow through the grafted area, so then once the
graft had taken root, the surgeon could simply sever the
(17:37):
tube and sculpt the remaining tissue into the patient's new
nose and throat, and you know, it doesn't paint this
pretty picture, but the technique was so successful that the
work at Queen's Hospital continued long after the war had ended.
So in total, the hospital performed more than eleven thousand
operations on over five thousand patients before they finally closed
(17:58):
their doors in nineteen twenty five. And Gillies actually received
knighthood for his efforts. And when World War two began,
he kept working on this new set of soldiers that
were in the same kind of need.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
That's a tremendous legacy. But you know, we've mostly dealt
with the reconstructive side of plastic surgery so far. So
what do you say we switched gears and focus on
the cosmetic side for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Actually, I'll start us off
with something that I was surprised to learn this week. So,
even with nearly two million cosmetic surgeries performed in the
US each year, the plastic surgery industry overall has actually
shrunk by about twelve percent since the year two thousand.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
That's strange. I wouldn't have guessed that. I mean, I
guess breast augmentations and liposection. Just I mean, maybe they're
not as appealing as they used to be, is that right?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, I mean that those are still the top two
cosmetic surgeries in the States, with roughly three hundred thousand
each per year, But on the whole, there are fewer
people undergoing the ninth than there were about, you know,
twenty years or so ago. But the most interesting part
to me, at least, was that while cosmetic surgeries are down,
the number of minimally invasive cosmetic procedures like injection or
(19:09):
laser hair removal, those numbers are only going up each year.
So in fact, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports
that the number of these procedures has grown nearly two
hundred percent since two thousand, So that's the same period
that you know, these cosmetic surgeries have been declining.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Sure, and I'm sure poker tox is one of the
biggest reasons for all of exactly. Yeah, you know, I
do wonder what's behind that downward shift, Like, is it
just that the minimally invasive stuff requires less downtime than
the flow on surgeries or what's going on here?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, I mean I think that's part of it, you know,
plus the fact that these procedures are cheaper, they're faster,
of course, you know, less invasive, like you mentioned. And
I think it also doesn't hurt that there isn't as
much stigma around something like microdermabrasion as there might be
in getting a tummy tuck or a nose job or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
So I guess it kind of comes back to the
idea that plastic surgery might still carry a connotation of phoniness,
like and I guess these similar types of procedures are
kind of a way of sidestepping that stigma while still
altering your appearance.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, and you know, actually, just in looking this up,
I think that desire for a more natural look is
something that came up a lot. And there's a really
good article about this and Allure this past month, which
is a sentence I never really thought i'd be saying,
but I did want to share a quote from it
really quickly. The author is Caitlin Clark, and here's what
she writes. Disproportionate breast enhancement, overfilled lips, and exaggerated cosmetic
(20:31):
procedures in general are all trends on their way out. Now,
a successful plastic surgery or cosmetic procedure should no longer
be obvious. Patients are increasingly wanting to maintain their general
facial structure, inherited family traits, and just generally wanting to
look like themselves, but with a few refined tweaks.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Which definitely tracks with these so called tweak mins I
read about last week. So there's this new skin tightening
treatment that's supposed to take off this year, face tight,
and it actually uses this radio frequency energy to tighten
and sculpt the skin around your neck and jalline. It's
totally non surgical, and the effects supposedly last up to
five years, which is kind of amazing. And even on
(21:13):
the surgical side, it seems like smaller, less obvious treatments
are how most people want to go these days. For instance,
there's this one procedure that's becoming really popular right now,
and it addresses something so obscure that you probably forgot
it's even a body part.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
I'm gonna guess that we're talking about the uvula here
at the back of your throat, because I've actually heard
they can go in and sort of like shave it
down if it's bothering you. Did you know this?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I didn't realize that, but I guess it's good to know.
But you know, the surgery I'm talking about is actually
for the filterum, which is that little indented space between
your nose and your lip, and it's sometimes also called
Cupid's bow too.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
All right, So what exactly are people doing to their filterums?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Apparently the filterum elongates over time, so a lot one
is a pretty clear sign of age for some people.
But now there's this quick little surgery where you make
a tiny incision it goes right under the nose, and
then lift up the lip a little so the filter
looks smaller. And while that might still sound like a
lot of trouble over something so small and so unnoticeable,
the procedure tends to be easier and safer than getting
(22:18):
lip injections or I guess using a bunch of weird
fillers to plump up your lips.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah, I mean, I can imagine how this new method
might provide a more natural looking result. And from everything
I've been reading this week, it does seem like the
average cosmetic surgery patient is more interested in this direction nowadays,
Like not this complete overhaul, but kind of a subtle
I kept seeing the word plussing of what's already there.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, it's an interesting shift from the way we used
to be with these like over the top changes that
gave cosmetic surgery such a bad rap in the first place.
But you know, there's still a lot of potential pitfalls
with these procedures, not to mention the lingering question of
whether all this focus on physical appearance and beauty is
actually good for us.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
We can spend a little bit of time mulling that
one over. But before we get to that, let's take
one more quick break, all right, Mago. So before the break,
(23:21):
you were saying there are still some drawbacks to cosmetic surgery,
even with all the advancements and the greater focus on
a more natural look that we see these days. So
do you have an example of what kind of stuff
you're actually referring to?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, So, why don't we go back to nose jobs
for a second. We live in such an age of
wonder is that it's now possible to actually reshape your
nose without the need for any surgery at all. Instead,
there are these non surgical nose jobs that I guess
you inject this acid based filler into your nose, and
the filler then lodges into the imperfections in a person's nose,
(23:56):
kind of filling in the gaps and smoothing everything into
this more dreamline shape.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I mean, it's interesting because it kind of goes back
to some of the reconstructive nose jobs we talked about
earlier in the episode, you know, where you're actually trying
to build up the nose rather than shave it down
like we're used to seeing. But in this case, like,
what's the concern? Is the filler unsafe? No, it's not that.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And if I were going to sum up the worry,
I think I'd say that the procedure makes it too
easy to change the shape of your nose, and the
whole thing takes something like fifteen minutes of results are
visible right away. But you know what, while that sounds
like it might be a win across the board, there's
evidence that the ease of access is actually resulting in
way more people getting nose jobs than they would otherwise.
(24:40):
But what's concerning is that people are changing the shape
of their nose or other parts of their bodies based
on false evidence. And I'm actually going to tell you
what this is. According to a recent report from the
American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, about fifty
five percent of the people who visit a plastic surgeon
do so because they want to improve the their selfies.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, that's a little disconcerting. But I mean, on the
other hand, is wanting to look better in selfies that
much different than wanting to look good in a bathing
suit or in a wedding photo, or you know, like
whatever other goal people might have.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
No, I mean, it isn't. But the red flag in
this case is that selfies aren't actually an accurate representation
of the person who took them. In fact, there was
this study just last year that found that selfies taken
too close can make your nose appear about thirty percent
larger than it really is. And that makes sense, right, Like,
if your nose sticks out of your face, it means
it's close to the camera and as a result, it's
(25:37):
much bigger compared to everything else.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I mean, that makes sense. But what about the plastic
surgeons themselves, Like, wouldn't they know that selfies aren't a
fair representation of their clients? That did they just go
ahead with the procedures anyway.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I mean, at the end of the day, it's not
really their call to make right. But some plastic surgeons
do try to talk their patients out of it whenever possible.
So you know, the study I mentioned was champion by
this facial plastic surgeon named Boris Pashkov. And you notice
how frequently his patients were showing him selfies to explain
why they wanted the surgery. So he started taking photos
of them from the proper portrait distance, which is actually
(26:13):
five feet away, just to give him a better sense
of what their face actually looks like. And as Bors
put it, quote, I want them to realize that when
they take a selfie, they're in essence looking into a
portable funhouse mirror.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
You know, I do think the elephant in the room
that we really haven't touched on is that with any
of the drawbacks we've been talking about, it's women who
are disproportionately affected by them, because when you look at
the stats for plastic surgery, eighty five to ninety percent
of the patients are women, depending on you know, the
specific procedure, right.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And the thing is people probably aren't too surprised to
hear that, Like you always hear about how there's you know,
an enormous pressure on women to look like other women
do in movies or magazines or Instagram. And since those
images are all overproduced and filtered and deaf they photoshopped,
a lot of us end up devoting a lot of
time and energy chasing something unattainable.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, you're right, it's a legitimate source of pain. And
in fact, I was reading about this study in Scientific
American where the researchers found that women who believe they
can become more beautiful with effort have a higher risk
of developing appearance based anxiety, and so they're more likely
to show an interest in cosmetic surgery as a result
of this.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
And so that wasn't the case for women who have
more fixed views on their beauty.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Yeah, no, that's right, and you know, as you might expect,
it wasn't the case for men either. But what I
did find interesting about this is is that believing we
can improve a trait really can help us achieve that goal. So,
just to take an example here, people who think that
intelligence or creativity are malleable, they tend to improve in
those areas. Over time compared to people who don't believe
(27:52):
those traits can be changed.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
That's weird. So having an eye towards improvement is actually
a good thing for the most part.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I mean, that seems to be the case, But it
mostly comes down to how realistic your goal is. So
according to the co author of the study, your name
is Professor Melissa Berkeley, here's what she says. She says,
prior research has shown that malleable beliefs increase motivation, which
is good if we're talking about being motivated to stay
in school or improve somebody's math skills. But when the
(28:19):
domain is as unrealistic as the beauty standards we have
for women today, increasing motivation may lead to harmful behaviors.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So basically, if someone's going to alter their appearance, you know,
through a procedure or surgery, they should make sure they're
doing it for the right reasons, not not because of
how a selfie turned out or because of the way
a celebrity looks on screen, but because they want the
outside to better reflect how they feel inside.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, and you know, cosmetic surgery can be empowering in
the same way as reconstructive surgery. I mean, you know,
namely as a way to reclaim or reassert your own identity.
And that doesn't mean that who you are should be
completely wrapped up and how you look, but being comfortable
in your own skin. It's you know, it's important, and
it's crucial for mental health too. And if you'd rather
(29:03):
just dabble in a lower key approach, you can always
try facer size. I mean, if it works for Tristan,
it can work for anybody.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I mean, he looks younger every single minute, like he's
Benjamin Buttoning right in front of our eyes.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
All right, well, that's probably enough unsolicited beauty talk for
one day, but we still have plenty left to chat
about in today's fact off, so let's get to it.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
According to Colors magazine, Iran is the nose job capital
of the world, and apparently the procedure is expensive enough
that it carries a bit of a status cloud with it,
So Colors puts it this way. People will wear their
post surgery bandages for months like a badge of honor.
Some even wear the bandages without undergoing the surgery.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
All right, well, they are all sorts of people who
are obsessed with celebrities and get plastic surgery to look
like them. You see stories of them all over the Internet,
of course, and you know people paying to look more
like Justin Bieber or Kylie Jenner or Lindsay Lohan. But
you know, one of the most surprising cases is this
Chinese writer and superfan who has spent almost a quarter
(30:14):
of a million dollars to get ten surgeries to look
like guess who William Shakespeare. And apparently the only place
he refuses to spend is the haircut. For some reason,
he doesn't want the Bard's receding hairline, but he's been
willing to grow his hair out just to kind of
amplify the look.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
That's great, you know. Weirdly enough, there's a surgery to
switch your left and right fingerprints by slicing them off
and grafting them on the other And I guess authorities
only found out about this in two thousand and nine
when this woman who'd been kicked out of Japan for
overstaying her visa re entered the country and then was
caught for a different crime. Her name was Lynn Wrong.
She paid fifteen thousand dollars for the surgery to mask
(30:57):
her fingerprints, and it's been dubbed Japan's first biometric fraud crime.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
All right, well, did you know the inventor of botox,
who was this ophthalmologist named Alan Scott, never really cared
about wrinkles. So he had this patient who'd undergone three
surgeries for double vision, and this was his way of
using almost like this natural duct tape to patch up
the eye. So Scott says he isn't sure who was
more nervous about the experimental treatment, him giving it or
(31:26):
the patient receiving it. But once it was successful, Scott
sold the concept to allergant, who immediately realized the skin's
smoothing benefits.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
So here's something I hadn't realized. Animal plastic surgeries are
actually a thing, and people have been getting Tommy tucks,
eyelid lifts, and laser nostril procedures for their dogs for
a while now. And the treatments aren't purely cosmetic. The
treatments actually prevent bacterial infections and help the dogs with
wrinkled noses breathe better. It tends to be a booming industry. Apparently,
(31:57):
in twenty eleven, people spent sixty two million dollars on
plastic surgery for their pets. But I'm actually gonna tell
you about one story where it made a huge difference,
and this was at the Vancouver Aquarium. There was this
one eyed yellow tail rockfish and the vets there noticed
it was getting bullied by the other fish in the tank,
like they'd steal its food, they'd attack it from that side.
(32:18):
And it was just low confidence, I guess. But the
doctor sewed this big, bright yellow prosthetic eye into the
socket and now the fish is fatter, he's doing well,
and he isn't getting bullied anymore.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Oh, that's a great story. Actually, I think that's good enough.
I think I'm gonna let you take the fact off today. Mango.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Well, I'm happy about it. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Well, that is it for today's show. If you've got
facts for topics you want to share, you know, we
always love hearing from you at Part Time Genius and
HowStuffWorks dot com or find us on Facebook or Twitter
for from Gabe, Tristan, Mango and me. Thanks so much
for listening.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
The struct to the bottle, but the sacri
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
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Mangesh Hattikudur
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