Dr. Joel Pessa

Dr. Pessa completed medical school and a five-year residency in general surgery at UMASS Medical Center. Before entering plastic surgery, he served as director of a cardiac surgery ICU. He was then accepted into and completed a plastic surgery fellowship at Duke Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. He continued to advance his training with fellowships in Hand and Microsurgery at the Christine Kleinert Institute, Cosmetic Surgery at NYU, and Craniofacial and Cleft Lip Surgery at Royal Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Pessa is recognized internationally for his work in aesthetic and reconstructive surgery. He has received the National Research Award twice and is acknowledged as an expert in lip injection, facial fillers, and botox chemo denervation. His book Facial Topography: Clinical Anatomy of the Face has been translated into five languages and redefined modern understanding of facial anatomy. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has been an invited speaker in Paris, Brazil, New York, Dallas, and San Francisco. He also serves as a reviewer for The Aesthetic Surgery Journal.

Dr. Pessa was a faculty member at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, regarded as one of the leading plastic surgery programs in the world, where he received the Best Teacher Award twice. He later worked within the University of Florida’s McKnight Brain Institute and Scott Lab, contributing to molecular biology and neuroscience research. His work is credited with identifying a novel circulatory system in human nerves, and his publication in PLOS ONE outlined how cerebrospinal fluid drains from the human brain.

Dr. Pessa’s research impact is recognized worldwide. His academic contributions place him in the top five percent of all aesthetic surgery papers ever written. His body of work includes 4,600 citations across 53 publications that have challenged long-held assumptions in areas ranging from human anatomy to advanced cerebrospinal fluid pathways in nerves and the brain.

His surgical interests include skin cancer, facial reconstruction, hand surgery, cosmetic surgery, and facial rejuvenation. Outside of medicine, he enjoys portrait drawing, writing, running, jazz piano, classical guitar, and puff pastry. Dr. Pessa considers it a privilege to work with and serve the people of Minot, North Dakota.