With a surprisingly long and well-documented history, it is a proven field of medicine. Reconstructive surgery techniques were being used in India by 2000 BC. And the first American plastic surgeon was John Peter Mettauer. In 1827, he performed the first cleft palate operation with instruments that he designed himself.
Then during World War I, Harold Gillies, a New Zealand doctor working in London, developed many of the techniques of modern plastic surgery while caring for soldiers suffering from facial injuries on the battlefield.
Since then, the number of people choosing plastic surgery - either for reconstructive or cosmetic reasons - has grown exponentially. According to some statistics, nearly 11 million people in the U.S. had plastic surgery in 2006, with breast augmentation at the top of the list.
If a plastic surgeon is "board-certified" by the ASPS, it means that doctor has more than six years of surgical training and experience, with at least three years specifically in plastic surgery. Many, like Dr. Tanya Atagi, have more. Do not trust your body, your face, or your overall health and well-being with anything less.
As defined by the American College of Surgeons, founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical education and practice, the letters FACS (Fellow, American College of Surgeons) after a surgeon's name mean that "the surgeon's education and training, professional qualifications, surgical competence, and ethical conduct have passed a rigorous evaluation, and have been found to be consistent with the high standards established and demanded by the College."
