SAEDNEWS: You’ve probably seen it on social media platforms like Instagram: aged versions of your friends’ faces, generated with an app called “FaceApp.” But have you ever wondered whether medical science could actually reconstruct your face from scratch?
Since 1997, when the idea of facial transplantation first captured imaginations through the movie Face/Off, several face transplants have been performed worldwide, restoring a new face to people who had lost theirs for various reasons.
This photo shows a face awaiting transfer from donor to recipient, destined to live on Katie Stubblefield. It became one of National Geographic’s top photos of the 21st century.
Face/Off is a 1997 action film directed by John Woo, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, in which a police officer and a criminal undergo complete facial swaps in a thrilling narrative. What was once pure cinematic fantasy inspired real scientific research, and after eight years, the first face transplant became a reality. In 2005, a woman in France received a full facial transplant to repair severe facial damage.
Face transplantation may be among the world’s most unusual and frightening cosmetic surgeries. Yet accidents or medical conditions that destroy the face make such procedures a life-changing necessity.
