Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Children

Leonard B. Kaban served as Walter C. Guralnick Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS), Chairman of the Department of OMFS at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) and Chief of the OMFS Service at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) from 1994 through 2015. He is now the Walter C. Guralnick Distinguished Professor and Chief, Emeritus of OMFS at Harvard and MGH. He is also a senior emeritus oral & maxillofacial surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Kaban is the author or co-author of 5 books and over 385 original papers on such topics as hemifacial microsomia, jaw tumors in children, vascular anomalies, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, trigeminal nerve injuries, facial asymmetry and reconstructive surgery. In the past, Dr. Kaban has published his research on wound healing in a fetal cleft lip model and induced osteogenesis using demineralized bone matrix.

Dr. Kaban received his BA degree from Queens College, City University of NY in 1965, his DMD (1969) & MD (1973) degrees from Harvard and completed the OMFS Residency Program at MGH in 1974.  Dr. Kaban then joined the staff of the then Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Children’s Hospital.  He was the first full-time oral and maxillofacial surgeon at those institutions and built a successful OMFS service within the Division of Plastic and Oral Surgery.  Dr. Kaban was on the staff of the Craniofacial Center at Children’s Hospital in Boston from 1974 through 1985, when he accepted the position of Professor and Chairman of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (1985-1993).

In 1992, Dr. Kaban received the HSDM Distinguished Alumni Award, followed by the Silver Anniversary Award, in 1994.  In 2003, Dr. Kaban received the Dean’s Award from Harvard Medical School for leadership in the advancement of women faculty.  He has received the Research Recognition Award (1992) and the Daniel B. Osborn Award for Outstanding Educators (2004) from the American Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS).  Dr. Kaban was honored to give the Presidential Address to the International Conference on Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Durban, South Africa in 2001. In 2007, he received the Norman Rowe Medal and delivered the Norman Rowe address to the British and American Associations of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery joint meeting in Scotland.  In October 2011, Dr. Kaban received the Norton M. Ross Award for Excellence in Clinical Research from the American Dental Association.  In 2017, Dr. Kaban received the American Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons Clinical Research Award recognizing his innovative and significant contributions to the field over the past 40 years. Also, in 2017, the Leonard B. Kaban, DMD, MD Chair in Pediatric Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery was established at Boston Children’s Hospital with Dr. Bonnie Padwa as the first incumbent.