Relative to the history of medicine, plastic surgery is young, plump, glowing, baby-faced, snatched. The techniques employed by today's plastic surgeons were honed in the last century, when advances in artillery left survivors of war in need of reconstructive work such as rewired jaws, sutures and skin grafts to reposition tissue and patch holes. Those surgeries brought awareness to the importance of appearance not only to the functioning of a patient's body but to that patient's overall sense of health and wellbeing; there is a proven connection between what we see in the mirror (or on the screen), how others perceive us, and how we feel about ourselves.
Fast-forward to our current cultural infatuation with celebrities and influencers, the physical perfection they appear to embody and the everpresent rumours of the procedures they employ to maintain it, and it's no surprise that elective cosmetic enhancements increase in popularity year by year, a steady upward trend. In 2019, more than 2.6m cosmetic surgeries – from breast augmentations to facelifts to liposuction and more – were performed in the US alone, a 44% increase from 2018. And yet, despite the pervasive role plastic surgery plays in today's *very online*, celebrity-obsessed culture, for decades the field ran up against stigma, misinformation and marketing challenges. Until recently, it was considered déclassé for surgeons performing elective cosmetic procedures to advertise their services or educate prospective patients. “Growing up in Louisiana my father was a general surgeon,” says Dr Jonathan Kaplan, a plastic surgeon
