Plastic Surgery & American Beauty At 1921 Summary

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Karina Matos Professor Gardner SSC.495- C 4 October 2012 Plastic Surgery & American Beauty at 1921 In Beth Haiken’s article “Plastic Surgery & American Beauty at 1921” argues that plastic surgery was mainly for women and that women weren’t able to get the surgery unless they had an injury or facial wound. The author believes that the main issue in the 1900s was many surgeons weren’t aware of side effects, who would be able to have work done, what the different types of surgery, and the effects of surgery on the society. The emphasis that the plastic surgery had on people was brought upon them when soldiers were getting facial wounds during WW1 and was becoming a medical phenomenon. Surgeons said that many people were reading…show more content…
The problem that surgeons faced was, “The so-called saddle-nose deformity was particularly difficult to treat because adding to the human body was more difficult then subtracting from it.” The surgeons attempted to build up the noses by using prostheses or bone and cartilage grafts, but these were challenging, time consuming and often not successful. Grafts were shown to not work well so doctors soon began to use a drug called paraffin, which they would inject into the patients skin and a lot easier for them because it required no incisions at all. Paraffin soon after was the go-to material choice for the treatment of the…show more content…
He said, “is desired simply to improve appearance, and therefore is not definitely within the field of that type of surgeon, who feels that it is his duty to heal rather then beautify.” Adalbert G. Bettman of Portland, also a surgeon disagreed with Tiek, he then tried to convince his colleagues that there should be no boundaries in this profession. He was innovative and creative with the field and tried to assure his colleagues that removing wrinkles and correcting deformities was probably one of the most important works in plastic
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