In fact, * * * implants are made of silica gel shells, which are filled with physiological saline or silica gel. But not everyone agrees that silicone can even be counted as a plastic: it is more like a mixture of rubber and plastic. But the bigger flaw in this so-called origin story is that the word plastic surgery predates the invention of implants by decades. In fact, it also predates the invention of synthetic plastics.
The word plastic comes from Latin plasticus and Greek plastikos, which means "suitable for molding and can be molded into various forms; Related to molding ",according to the online etymological dictionary. When plastic first appeared in writing in the late16th century, it was spelled plastic engraving, which refers to the art of molding or carving with clay or wax. In the17th century, people began to use it to refer to carving artists and to describe their finished works of art. Plastic (plus plastic, plastic and other variants) has also become an adjective to describe any plastic material.
The earliest written record of the word plastic surgery comes from 1837 medical magazine The Lancet, which called it "a branch of surgery, and only surgeons can become real artists". In other words, plastic is not just a very plastic material used by surgeons. It also evokes the long-standing artistic connotation of this word. The same is true of rhinoplasty (nose reconstruction) and other related terms, which first appeared in printed matter in the1820s. Encyclopedia americana described it as "the art of repairing the nose".
Although plastic surgery didn't get a modern name until the19th century, before that, people had been trying to reshape their bodies at least thousands of years ago. For example, in Egypt around 1200 BC, Ramses II performed an autopsy.