A new face

[00:00.36] Everybody has looked in the mirror at some point in their lives and thought they could do with a smaller nose or fewer wrinkles.

[00:07.63] Almost 10 million operations were performed in 2014, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

[00:16.90] Eyelid surgery topped the list of the five most popular procedures, which included breast augmentation and rhinoplasty.

[00:25.67] We hear a lot about cosmetic surgery these days.

[00:28.42] But what many people may not realize is that reconstructing someone's face has an ancient past.

[00:34.69] There are reports of treatments to restore a broken nose in ancient Egyptian documents.

[00:39.70] Considering that safe anesthetics and antibiotics were only discovered in the 19th and 20th centuries, it was a truly painful and risky business to go under the knife in the past.

[00:51.73] But as far back as the mid-15th century nose jobs were carried out using skin taken from the upper arm.

[00:59.49] Plastic surgery went through a revolution during World War One.

[01:04.26] The trenches protected the soldiers' bodies, but many who stuck their heads up were exposed to explosions.

[01:11.27] New techniques were developed by Harold Gillies who ran an award at the Cambridge Military Hospital in Britain, and later a whole hospital dedicated to helping disfigured soldiers.

[01:22.55] Many wounded men at that time couldn't stand looking at their own faces.

[01:26.56] There were no mirrors in the hospital.

[01:29.31] In parks near the hospital, some benches were painted blue to signal to patients with facial injuries that they could sit there. And it was a way of telling local residents to prepare for the shock of seeing someone with a disfigured face.

[01:43.34] Plastic surgery has come a long way since then.

[01:46.35] It reconstructs what does need reconstructing but it also makes people with no particular problems feel more confident.

[01:53.62] Bigger breasts? Straight nose? Facelift? In many cases, cosmetic surgery isn't a necessity at all, just a choice.

[02:02.14] But when done properly by capable doctors on patients who have a realistic goal, it's believed that plastic surgery can heal psychological wounds almost as much as physical ones.