Tuesday 29 October 2013

Brief History of Cosmetic Surgery in India

It's believed that the roots of contemporary cosmetic surgery lie in India. Ayurveda (literal meaning: ayu - life, Veda - knowledge), among the Samhitas from ancient India, consists mainly of three parts - Medicine, Surgery and Gynecology / Pediatrics. Acharya Sushrut (or Sushruta - around 400 to 600 B.C.) may be the originator of the surgical procedures mentioned within the Sushrut Samhita. He is deemed to be the father of surgery on the planet. To him is ascribed the world’s first rhinoplasty operation. The Sushrut Samhita describes over 120 surgical instruments, 300 surgical treatments and classifies human surgery in 8 categories. Acharya Sushrut is considered to be the disciple of Dhanwantri, to whom most Indian doctors pray to because the God of Health.
The surgical treatise compiled by Sushruta became so famous it's translated into Arabic.
Another method of rhinoplasty in India, as practiced by Tilemakers utilized the graft of buttock.
After Sushruta, yet another scholar called Vaghbat, who wrote Ashtanga Sangraha and Ashtanga Hridyans, wherein he described rhinoplasty as done by Maharishi Atreya and emphasized the need for the supply of an inner lining by turning on the nasal skin.
When the British ruled India, the rhinoplasty method produced by Sushruta was modified by local surgeons utilizing a rotation flap from the adjacent forehead. This process was practiced by the Marathas of Kumar near Pune, certain Nepali families and Kanghairas of Kangra (Himachal Pradesh).
The very first modern plastic surgery departments were established in India in 1950 at Patna and Nagpur. At the moment, a notable contribution was in the surgeons attached to the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune.
Ever since then, India has made lot of progress in cosmetic surgery, and Indian cosmetic surgeons have led to the advancement of world surgery procedures.

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Is Plastic Surgery Really Less Regulated Abroad than in the US?


Many of our visitors to this site ask themselves this exact same question.
We are told frequently that surgeons in america are better trained, qualified and controlled than in any other country on the planet. But, we are usually told this by plastic surgeons operating in america, or professional bodies representing the plastic surgery industry in america.
We don’t seem to hear this quite as often from non-biased sources. This is just because as a statement, it is very misleading.
The truth is that in the US, plastic surgery is basically unregulated. A harsh truth, and lots of people won’t want to believe it.
But I’ll repeat it again.
Plastic surgery in America is unregulated.
Sure, you will find voluntary organizations that you can pay to become listed on, that give a veneer of regulation.
A surgeon could be Board Certified, but doesn’t need to be.
Any doctor with a licence to rehearse medicine can legally perform any method that the patient would like to have done. Since plastic surgery is lucrative, and also, since it is elective, and therefore not interfered in by medical insurers, many doctors have selected to move into the field of plastic surgery.
Even if a doctor says that they are “Board Certified”, this really is fairly meaningless. There is several board, and boards are merely assembled so that their members know that they are “Board-Certified”.
President of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, Angelo Cuzalina (himself originally a dental surgeon who switched to cosmetic surgery) is on record as stating that of the AACS’s members only around 8% are board certified, estimating that in america there are between 50,000 to 100,000 doctors performing cosmetic surgery procedures who aren't board-certified plastic surgeons.
Even more shockingly, many of these plastic surgeons were trained by doctors who aren't, themselves board certified plastic surgeons.
Regulations change from State to State; but nonetheless very few regulators appear prepared to restrict the freedom of doctors using their company specialties ”having a go” at plastic surgery. It's more left to the doctor’s personal ethics and discretion to determine whether he is sufficiently skilled to carry out a cosmetic procedure.
Until this stops to be the case, the plastic surgery industry in america really has no claims to being anymore regulated than any other country.