Maria J. Troulis Named Chief of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital

August 19, 2015
Maria J. Troulis Named Chief of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Maria J. Troulis, has been named chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS). She also will serve as the next Walter C. Guralnick Professor and chair of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM). These appointments became effective Aug. 1, 2015.

“I am thrilled to be starting this new chapter in the department of OMFS at the MGH,” says Dr. Troulis. “I hope to make a difference and serve the field, my department and the MGH well. I am very fortunate to have inherited such a great department in this great hospital.”

Troulis earned her master’s degree and doctorate of dental surgery from McGill University in Canada. She then completed her residencies at Royal Victoria Hospital and Montreal General Hospital before coming to the MGH as a clinical and research fellow in Pediatric Craniomaxillofacial Surgery in 1997. She has remained part of the MGH community ever since.

During her career she has changed the face of clinical OMFS by pioneering the use of minimally invasive surgical techniques, both distraction osteogenesis and endoscopic procedures. Her work in this area has paved the way for what has become the rapidly growing use of minimally invasive alternatives for the reconstruction of the jaw. Troulis also refined the minimally invasive approach of endoscopic management of salivary duct stones, sparing many patients from invasive surgical procedures.

Among her many roles, Troulis serves on the MGH Executive Committee on Teaching and Education, as well as the newly formed Graduate Medical Education Committee and is a member of the Partners Education Committee and its Subcommittee of Evaluation and Feedback. Troulis teaches at Harvard Medical School, HSDM and the Harvard-MIT Health, Sciences and Technology program. Since 2005, she has directed the Harvard-OMFS Residency Program and during the past decade has transformed it into one of the most preeminent programs in the country. Her love and enthusiasm for teaching earned her Harvard’s Clifford Barger Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2008, and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine Distinguished Senior Faculty Award in 2010.

"Dr. Troulis is an exceptional professional and person. Her positive impact on students, residents and colleagues is exemplary, and her scholarship greatly admired,” says Bruce Donoff, DMD67, MD73, dean of Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and Walter C. Guralnick Distinguished Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. “We are so pleased that she is taking this leadership role at MGH and with Harvard School of Dental Medicine.”

Troulis succeeds Leonard B. Kaban, DMD69, MD73, who since 1994 has served as chief of OMFS at the MGH and as the Guralnick Professor and chair of OMFS at HSDM. Dr. Kaban will remain active in the clinic and lab.

See also: Faculty