Craniofacial surgery is a sub-speciality of plastic surgery. It traces its beginnings to a group of surgeons who were interested in the treatment of birth defects in children involving the skull and face. In the late 1960's, Dr. Paul Tessier from Paris, France, reported on techniques he had developed to treat children with rare birth defects. Following these initial reports, many surgeons from around the world traveled to Paris to learn these new procedures.
Building on these beginnings, and the contributions of other surgeons, the field of craniofacial surgery was born. Today, new and refined craniofacial techniques are used not only to treat birth defects in children, but also to help neurosurgeons resect tumors that were previously believed to be unresectable, help reconstruct the face and skull following trauma, and even expand the scope of aesthetic surgery.
