Life in Plastic: The True Origin of Cosmetic Medicine
My first love was plastic surgery - and I always find it interesting to see the connotation associated with it today. People call women “plastic” as an insult, evoking the image of a Barbie doll, shaped and unnaturally molded to a male-centric ideal.
That is not what plastic surgery (or aesthetic medicine) is, was, or should be.
Plastic comes from the Greek “plastike”(teckhne) the art of modeling or sculpting, meaning return to form and function.
We know how much I love my medical history, and the origin of all cosmetic treatments really stemmed from the devastating facial traumas that were seen after the World Wars.
More articles on Medical History
Over a century ago, one fascinating case marked the dawn of cosmetic intervention as we know it today — and it involved paraffin wax.
In 1904, Dr. Benjamin T. Burley published a case report in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal detailing the use of paraffin injections to restore facial volume in a young woman suffering from bilateral facial atrophy.
This is more than just a curious footnote in the history of injectables — it’s a reminder of the human drive for aesthetic restoration, the early efforts to balance safety with innovation, and the long road we’ve walked from paraffin to the safe use of hyaluronic acid fillers today.