Everybody has looked in the mirror at some point in their lives and thought they could do with a smaller nose or fewer wrinkles. Plastic surgery has changed the lives of many people – not only of those who wanted to look more beautiful and younger, but also of people who needed almost a new face after terrible injuries.

We hear a lot about cosmetic surgery these days. But what many people may not realise is that reconstructing someone's face has an ancient past. There are reports of treatments to restore a broken nose in ancient Egyptian documents. And the Romans could perform simple ear-repairing techniques.