While cosmetic surgery seems to be a modern invention for movie stars and millionaires, cosmetic surgery has a history that goes back more than 4,000 years. From early records out of India to today’s technological advances, cosmetic surgery has always been about improving the natural body or restoring a damaged or deformed body.

For thousands of years, people have sought to correct or restore the way the human body looks. Records show detailed steps of reconstructive surgery in documents from India dating from around 2,000 BC and the medical techniques perfected there spread to the Middle East and across Europe. Other documented examples of cosmetic surgery in the ancient world include the Egyptians, where basic cosmetic surgery was performed. The Romans used simple cosmetic surgery to repair war wounds, such as damaged earlobes. Procedures ranging from rhinoplasty to cataract surgery were being performed, and instruments became modified and improved over the years.

Modern cosmetic surgery became more commonplace in the early nineteenth century with better anesthesia and an understanding of sterile operating environments. Surgeries still focused on reconstructive procedures, such as repairing cleft palates, skin grafts, mastectomies and reconstructed noses and ears.

Interestingly, many of the breakthroughs in cosmetic surgery occurred as a result of war, during which surgeons sought to reconstruct tissues and organs of soldiers damaged by modern weaponry and chemical burns. During World War I, advances in facial reconstructive surgery allowed many victims of disfiguring facial injuries to lead more comfortable lives. Experiments and advances in reconstructive cosmetic surgery were perfected in order for patients to improve bodily function and achieve a more normal appearance.

The field of cosmetic surgery as officially organized in the United States in 1931 with the formation of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. Important regulatory practices were introduced and organized efforts were now in place to promote the future of cosmetic surgery.

As technology advanced and surgical procedures became much more commonplace, cosmetic surgery evolved. Elective cosmetic surgery emerged in the mid-twentieth century as a way for people to maintain, improve or enhance an otherwise healthy and normal body. Unlike reconstructive surgery, elective cosmetic surgery is more about shaping and sculpting the body to achieve certain beauty ideals. The most common procedures are liposuction, rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, breast augmentation and abdominoplasty. These body modification surgeries have increased in popularity every year, with more than 11 million elective cosmetic surgeries performed in 2006.