Paul Tessier

For the Canadian Olympic rower, seePaul Tessier (rowing).

Paul Tessier(August 1917 – June 6, 2008) was a French maxillofacial surgeon. He was considered the father of moderncraniofacial surgery.

Biography

Born inHéric,Loire-Atlantique,Dr. Tessier first attended theEcole de MédecineinNantes,Loire-Atlantique, eventually receiving hisDoctor of Medicinedegree from theFaculté de Médecine de Parisin 1943. In 1942, during internship he started operating on people withcleft lip and cleft palateandDupuytren's contracture.He joined the pediatric surgery service at Hospital St. Joseph in Paris in 1944. From late 1944 to 1946, he worked at the Center ofMaxillofacial Surgeryof the Military Region of Paris in Hospital Puteaux. In 1949, he returned to Nantes to become a surgical consultant inophthalmology.

Dr. Tessier started to improve surgical techniques to correct craniofacial deformations in the mid-1950s. He performed his first craniofacial operation in 1967. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he developed the following methods:

• Using autogeneous (patient's own) bone grafts instead ofsiliconeoracrylicto modifyskulland facial contours.
• Transcranial and subcranial correction oforbital hypertelorism.
• Techniques for correctingTreacher Collins syndrome.
• Correction ofcraniofacial clefts.

In the 1970s, he began traveling to theUnited Statesto demonstrate his procedures. Today, his techniques are applied not only toplasticandmaxillofacial surgery,but also other specialties such astraumaandneurosurgery.He was an honorary member of theAmerican College of Surgeons,theRoyal College of Surgeonsat London, and theAmerican Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Positions and awards

• International Society of Craniofacial Surgery,Founding Member
• European Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons,Founding Member
• Jacobson Innovation Award, 2000