Name: Mengyi TangEmail: mengyita@usc.edu

Cosmetic Plastic Surgery: Where Art, Science and Engineering Meet

Abstract: Nowadays, people live under the influence of the media promoting plastic surgery, which has affected their thoughts and aesthetics in terms of physical appearances. In order to develop their self-esteem and confidence, more and more people choose to do plastic surgery. According to the America Society of Plastic Surgeon, there are two types of cosmetic plastic surgery: one is the surgical procedure and the other one is non-surgical procedure.13 This article introduces the art, science and engineering of plastic surgery especially two types: one is the nose job and the other one is the double-jaw surgery. It also introduces two new kinds of surgical procedure: Rib Cartilage Rhinoplasty and V-line. Especially in Asia, those two are recently developed and become very popular in Asian countries like Korea, Japan and China. Those two new surgical procedures give readers more innovative perspectives on plastic surgery. From this article, readers can understand that plastic surgery is not just simply a surgery, but it is also the procedure of building aesthetics and reconstructing the face much like structural and civil engineering on the buildings.

Biography: Mengyi Tang is an international junior student, majoring in Industrial

Engineering. She is interested in cosmetics and anything related to cosmetics.

Traditional Surgical Procedure of Asia Rhinoplasty:

“ Rhinoplasty is the art and science of restructuring the nose. It is the part structural

engineering, part architecture and part sculpture,” said by Dr. Stuart Bentkover, a

Princeton and Harvard educated board certified Plastic Surgeon1. As the development of

technology and improvement of life quality, plastic surgery becomes more popular

around all over the world, especially in Asia. According to a 2011 study performed by the

International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, nearly 15 million cosmetic plastic

surgeries were performed in 2011.2 Korea, China and Japan are the top three Asian

countries performing the nose job. A couple of years ago, the silicon nose job was so

popular in Asia that it was called “Asian Rhinoplasty” or “Asian Nose Job”. Based on the

definition from Alpha-Health, “The silicon nasal implant will add the height to the nose

bridge and increase the definition in the nasal tip area.”3 The most commonly used shapes

of silicon are L-shape for both the nasal bridge and tip area, and I-shape for the nasal

bridge area.

Figure 1. Silicon Shapes and Before/After Photos3

As shown in Figure 1, it represents different shapes of silicon for nose job. There are L-

shapes on the left bottom of picture and I-shape on the right (The figure is from the

article What is an Asian Rhinoplasty and Asian Nose Job?). Depending on the different

persons and different types of nose shapes, surgeons usually will choose the best-suited

shapes of silicon to implant into the patient’s nose bridge and nasal tip area. The silicon

implant is a traditional nose job procedure performed for reshaping noses including

adding the height of nasal bridge and nose tip. However, there are some side effects of

silicon implants since silicon is not part of humans’ bodies so that they might be rejected.

As technology is improving, a new type of nose job was developed, which is called Rib

Cartilage Rhinoplasty.

New Type of Nose Job: Rib Cartilage Rhinoplasty

Rib Cartilage Rhinoplasty is not that common right now and was just developed a

couple of years ago. From the website of VIP, which is the specialized clinic of Rib

Cartilage Rhinoplasty in Seoul, “rib cartilage can be most useful choice of material to

perform the rhinoplasty in Asian nose such as short nose, damaged nose and infected

nose.”4 Rib Cartilage is strong and safe to support the nasal structure. However, ear and

septal cartilage are weak and maybe not enough for the short nose. In human body, we

have 12 rib cartilages and most commonly, number 7 is used for Rhinoplasty.4 When the

doctor performs the Rhinoplasty, he/she will get the number 7 rib cartilage and

reshape/sculpture it to fit the size and shape of the patient’s nasal bridge and if the patient

wants higher nose tip area, the doctor can also use the sculptured rib cartilage to add the

height of nose tip area.5 Since the surgery includes harvesting the rib cartilage, contouring

the cartilage and the also the procedure for rhinoplasty, the amount of time of this surgery

is longer than the traditional nose job, using silicon implanted rhinoplasty. The Figure 2

below shows the outcome of rib cartilage rhinoplasty for Asians. From the comparison of

before and after photos, the heights of nose bridge and tip areas in the right photo are

apparently higher than the left photo (This Figure is from the website of VIP International

Plastic Surgery Center in Korea).

Figure 2. Rib Cartilage Rhinoplasty Before and After photos4

Not only can rib cartilage be reshaped for the short nose, it can also be replaced for the

damaged or infected noses because of the rejection of silicon or donated cartilage.

Therefore, the rib cartilage is the most advanced technology for rhinoplasty, and

compared to other types of nose job, the surgical procedure is much more complicated so

the amount of time is also longer.

New technology of double-jaw surgery: V-Line

In spite of the new type of nose job invented, there is also new type of double- jaw

developed theses years. According to the article In South Korea, Plastic Surgery Comes

Out of the Closet, written by Choe Sang-Hun, “Double-jaw surgery — which was

originally developed to repair facial deformities, and involves cutting and rearranging the

upper and lower jaws — has become a favorite procedure for South Korean women who

are no longer satisfied with mere nose jobs or with paring down cheekbones to achieve a

smoother facial line.”6 Recently, in South Korea, V-line, one type of the double-jaw

surgery has become extremely popular among patients. From the website of ID clinic,

which is the most famous V-line clinic in Seoul, Dr Park Sang-Hoon is the first surgeon

in Korea to perform the surgery as cosmetic plastic surgery.7 In the past, it was difficult

to reduce the chin because of damaging nerves, however, V-line surgery using the new

technology called T-osteotomy to perform the double-jaw surgery.7 V-line surgery can be

performed due to several reasons such as broad chin, flat chin, long face, or short face.

The method of V-line surgery is “cutting off the angular part of the patient’s side face and

correcting the wide chin at the same time.”7 Figure 3 is from the Grand Clinic in Seoul,

and it shows the outcomes of the v-line surgery.

Figure 3. Before and After Photos of V-line from Grand Clinic8

The wide chin can be reduced and the angular part can be cut off from the comparison of

before and after photos (The Figure is from the website of Grand Plastic Surgery). From

the website of Grand Clinic, the cutting area of the double jaw and chin depends on the

specific shape of the patient’s chin and the procedure performed by the doctors.8

Plastic Surgeries in South Korea:

In South Korea, cosmetic plastic surgery is very popular no matter is surgical or non-

surgical like injection. As reported in the Economist, there were over 360,000 total

cosmetic plastic surgeries performed in 2010, and South Korea ranked as the top country

with the most numbers of cosmetic plastic surgeries based on the population size.9 Also,

despite the people in Korea had surgeries, there are more and more patients come from all

over the world to have their surgeries performed in South Korea. In the figure below, the

data was from a 2010 survey conducted by International Society of Aesthetic Plastic

Surgeons, which is also called ISAPS.10

Figure 4. Plastic Surgery Statistics9

Moreover, in Korea, cosmetic plastic surgery becomes part of culture, for instance,

Korean mothers even let their daughters to have plastic surgery as their birthday gifts to

change their appearances. Parents may promise their daughters to have nose job done if

they pass exams or have good grades. Moreover, patients can even borrow money from

bank and pay for the cosmetic plastic surgery. From a 2009 survey conducted by Trend

Monitor, in Seoul there are one of every five women aged from nineteen to forty-nine had

cosmetic plastic surgery done.11 Recently, there are even some Korean reality TV Show

recorded the procedures of cosmetic surgery and the comparison of patients’ before and

after looks. In Korea, cosmetics plastic surgery is not just simply a surgery, it becomes

part of culture, and more and more people prefer to undergo surgeries when they are not

satisfied with their faces.

Conclusion:

The term “plastic surgery” was originated by Pierre Desault to describe procedures to

repair facial deformities in 1976.12 In the past, fewer people would have plastic surgeries

done because of the lack of technology of cosmetic plastic surgery. However, with the

development of technology, and the promotion of media, more and more people desire to

have better looks by having plastic surgeries done such as double eyelid surgery,

rhinoplasty, breast augmentation and etc. In the recent years, people are more open-

minded and the plastic surgery becomes very common all over the world. With the more

advanced technology, more and more cosmetic plastic surgeries can be invented such as

rib cartilage and V-line (mentioned above). The cosmetic plastic surgery will be safer and

guaranteed for patients with the new invention of technology. In the future, cosmetic

plastic surgery will become part of culture all over the world, and more people will

choose to improve their confidence and pursue better looks by undergoing plastic surgery.

References

1. Stuart Bentkover, “Bentkover: Facial Plastic Surgery.” Accessed October 28, 2013.

http://www.drbentkover.com/

2. “Top Plastic Surgery countries: International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons

Release Report.” The Huffington Post. Accessed October 28, 2013.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/31/top-plastic-surgery-countries-

world_n_2590757.html#slide=2008289

3. “What is an Asian Rhinoplasty and Asian Nose Job?” Accessed October 29, 2013.

http://www.alpha-healthasia.com/article/what-asian-rhinoplasty-and-asian-nose-job

4. VIP International Plastic Surgery Center in Korea. Accessed October 29, 2013.

http://www.beauty-korea.com/content/page.asp?tID=103&sID=294

5. Vicent P. Martin, Alan Landecker, and Jack P. Gunter. “ Harvesting Rib Cartilage

Grafts for Secondary Rhinoplasty.” Plast.Reconstr.Surg 121 (2008): 1442. Accessed

October 30, 2013.

6. Choe Sung-Jun. “ In South Korea, Plastic Surgery Comes out of the Closet.”

Published On November 3, 2011. Accessed November 1, 2013.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/world/asia/in-south-korea-plastic-surgery-

comes-out-of-the-closet.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

7. ID Hospital. Accessed November 1, 2013. http://eng.idhospital.com/face/face02.php

8. Grand Plastic Surgery. Accessed November 1, 2013. http://eng.grandsurgery.com/v-

line-jaw-reduction/

9. Beth. “South Korea Tops Plastic Surgery Tables”. Published May 3, 2012. Accessed

November 2, 2013.

http://www.koreabang.com/2012/stories/south-korea-tops-plastic-surgery-tables-

again-netizens-react.html

10. International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. Accessed November 2, 2013.

http://www.isaps.org

11. Mikaela Conley. “Nip/Tuck Nations: 7 Countries With Most Cosmetic Surgery.” ABC

News. April 25, 2012.

12. Grobman P. Vital statistics. New York, NY: Plume Books; 2005.

13. America Society of Plastic Surgeon. Accessed October 28, 2013.

http://www.plasticsurgery.org/cosmetic-procedures/nose-surgery-.html