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Our Craniofacial Prosthetics Unit (CPU) is one of only three in Canada to have a multidisciplinary healthcare team. Our team is specially set up to create custom-made, life-like prostheses for patients who are missing parts of their face due to cancer, trauma or congenital birth anomalies. Our team consists of a Craniofacial surgeon, anaplastologists, supportive healthcare professionals, psychologists, social workers and other healthcare professionals to assist in making you as comfortable as possible.

Types of Prosthetics

Think of a facial prosthesis in the same way you think of special effects make-up that is used to change the appearance of a movie star. The facial prosthesis is an artificial device used to replace a missing or malformed facial feature. Persons needing a prosthesis may have lost part of their face as a result of cancer, trauma or a congenital birth anomaly. Facial prostheses offer various advantages and disadvantages, compared to surgical rehabilitation, which should be discussed with your craniofacial team.

Click on the images below, or follow this link for more information about types of facial prosthetics.

Our care team

Our Craniofacial Prosthetics Unit (CPU) is one of only two in Canada to have a multidisciplinary healthcare team.

David Morrison David Morrison is one of two Anaplastologists at the Craniofacial Prosthetic Unit and has been certified with the Board for Certification in Clinical Anaplastology since 2004.

After initially serving a 5-year apprenticeship in a private orthodontic laboratory in England and qualifying with merit, David further qualified with distinction from Manchester Metropolitan University and was Student of the Year for both years consecutively. Thereafter David worked at the Maxillofacial Unit at Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust for 3 years before emigrating to work in Canada and provided sole technical intra- and extra-oral support at the Dept. of Dentistry, Princess Margaret Hospital for 3.5 years where he was the consecutive co-winner of the Judson C. Hickey Scientific Writing Award in the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry. In September 1999, David began working at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where his skills have been devoted to creating head and neck prosthetics. During this time, as well as serving on Boards of Directors for the profession, David has published and presented many technical and clinical papers within the profession of Anaplastology, both nationally and internationally, and has been the subject of numerous television news segments in their health sections to promote the unit, the profession and provide awareness to the challenges that patients with facial differences deal with on a daily basis.

Ann McLaren Ann Mclaren studied figurative sculpture at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Early in her career as a founding owner of Third Dimension Studio, Ann specialized in making life-like recreations for international museums such as the Florida Museum of Natural History, the DNA Learning Center, Cold Springs New York, and Nasa's Space Center in Houston, Texas, USA. Her work spanned constructing various dinosaurs and early hominids based on skeletal evidence to creating sculptural representations of well-known astronauts.

Ann went on to work as a special make-up effects artist for 16 years in a host of A-list feature films and television productions where she helped create memorable characters such as X-Men's Mystique. Working with Gordon Smith and his crew at FXSmith Studio in Toronto, Ann helped pioneer silicone filled prosthetics, which has since gone on to revolutionize silicone technology in the entire effects industry. The FXSmith team has been nominated for an Emmy Award, Artist Guild Award, Saturn Award and Gemini Award among others. A complete list of Ann's filmography can be found on the International Movie Data Base (IMBD).

Ann has taught sculpting to visual effects students at the Art Institute of Vancouver and sculpting and make-up effects techniques at the Vancouver Film School. She pursued her interest in Basic and Advanced Forensic Facial 3D Reconstruction and studied under legendary forensic reconstruction artist Betty Pat Gatliff. Ann also trained under internationally renowned forensic illustrator, author and sculptor Karen T. Taylor, advancing her skills in Comprehensive Composite Drawing, Advanced Two Dimensional Identification Techniques and Two Dimensional Facial Reconstruction. Ann employed these skills in creating age reconstruction portraits for local Police in their missing persons department. Ann's sculptural work can be seen in our nation's capitol where she worked as part of Jack Harmen's team responsible for the Peace Keepers Monument and the equestrian statue of Queen Elizabeth on Parliament Hill. Ann is a recipient of the Canada Council Arts Award.

While visiting an anaplastology clinic in the USA, Ann found her passion in anaplastology. There she learned to make custom breast prosthetics and later volunteered her skills back home in Vancouver at the BC Cancer Society's Wig and Breast Prosthetic Bank.

In 2014 she joined the Craniofacial Prosthetic Unit at Sunnybrook Health and Science Centre. Ann finds the field incredibly rewarding, being able to take her experiences and lifelong art practice and apply them practically in a way that makes people's day -today lives better.

Ann was the recipient of the 2021 Carter Wosk Applied Art and Award Design of Distinction.

Danny J. EnepekidesDanny J. Enepekides, BSc, MDCM, MPH, FRCSC
Chief of Otolaryngology
Chief of Surgical Oncology,
Regional Surgical Oncology Lead, CCO
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
University of Toronto

After completing his Otolaryngology residency at McGill University, Dr. Enepekides completed two and a half years of fellowship training in Head and Neck Oncology and Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery at the University of California-Davis and Hahnemann University in Philadelphia . He then assumed the position of Associate Director of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California – Davis. After 8 years in the United States, Dr. Enepekides returned to Canada and joined the University of Toronto's department of Head and Neck Surgery in 2007. He is currently the Chief of Surgical Oncology and Chief of the department of Otolaryngology – head and neck surgery. Dr. Enepekides continues to serve as a member of the American Head and Neck Society's Advanced Training Council. He has published over 45 peer-reviewed publications, written multiple book chapters, and has served as the reconstructive sectional editor for Current Opinion in Otololaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

EszterDr. Somogyi-Ganss earned her DMD at the Semmelweis University of Medicine, Budapest, and her PhD from the Karolinska Institute Center for Oral Biology in Stockholm before coming to the University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry to complete specialty training and an MSc in Prosthodontics. This was followed by a fellowship in Maxillofacial Prosthodontics and Oral Oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, full time   Teaching Stream.

Dr. Somogyi-Ganss will provide clinical leadership to the interprofessional craniofacial prosthetics team. Drawing on her past research and clinical experience, she will foster innovations and efficiencies in care such as digital scanning of anatomic sites and 3D printing of working models and other components of facial prostheses. She assisted in the development and carried out clinical evaluation of a novel navigation tool for the placement of intraoral implants, approved by both the FDA and Health Canada. She will extend this research to adapt a system for the placement of extraoral implants for facial prostheses and work with the CPU surgeons to develop an image-guided surgery program for patients who are candidates for implant-retained facial prostheses.

KevinDr. Kevin Higgins MD, MSC, FRCSC
Associate Professor Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Odette Cancer Centre
Chief of Head and Neck Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre
Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery
Endocrine Surgery Lead

Dr. Kevin Higgins is a member of the Head and Neck society and member of the Canadian Association of Head and Neck surgeons being in clinical practice as a consulting Head and Neck surgeon and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Odette Cancer Centre since July 1st, 2003. Dr. Kevin Higgins is an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery and Chief of the Head and Neck Site Group at the Odette Cancer Centre. Dr. Kevin Higgins main clinical interest is in Head and Neck Surgery and Head and Neck Surgical Oncology and as well and Microvascular Reconstruction of the Head and Neck including the pharynx and cervical esophagus.

Susan

Dr. Antoine Eskander is a head and neck oncologist (including thyroid and cutaneous oncology) and reconstructive surgeon with an interest in health services research, clinical epidemiology and quality improvement. He has extensively studied head and neck cancers and thyroid cancers in Ontario and published an ICES epidemiological atlas in conjunction with Cancer Care Ontario. As an otolaryngologist - head and neck surgeon his interests go beyond oncologic research. He is interested in studying access to care, disparities in care, adherence to guidelines, volume-outcome associations, and quality metrics. Ultimately, he would like these studies to lead to quality improvement initiatives that can improve the quality of care and outcomes.

JudyJudy Gibson is the  unit co-ordinator.
Bio coming soon. 

JudyJames VanderKleyn has been studying and practicing artistic pursuits since his formal training at Toronto’s OCAD University beginning in 1996 and yet he maintains it has been a lifelong education. Having served countless individuals, businesses, theatres, advertising campaigns etc. with their art and sculptural needs, James took to the film and television industry for two decades where he has produced a vast, unamassed body of work during which time he established his own special effects company and took part in many group exhibitions. He asserts that servicing broadcasting outfits like Discovery, History, National Geographic, CBC, CBS, E-One, Apple, Prime and the like, have driven him to perform at a high artistic maxim and that working with people such as those at FXSmith has pushed him to constantly aspire to exceed expectations. With the generous support of individuals at The Anaplastology Clinic LLC in North Carolina, James went on using the skillset imparted by his experience and took great joy in producing custom silicone prosthetic devices for Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab. Today, he is extremely grateful to his professional friends and colleagues for the opportunity to be serving those in need at Sunnybrook’s Craniofacial Prosthetic Unit.

Tom

Tom Czarnopys has been a professional artist since graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1982. He has exhibited his sculptural works internationally through art galleries and art museums, and the work appears in numerous catalogs and publications. Public collections include, some highlighted: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Ct, as well as private collections. In 1990 Tom was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

As the the owner of Tom Czarnopys Studio LLC, Tom’s photo-realistic sculptural works, FX props and models, were seen in over 600 television commercials , print ads, feature films, TV shows and natural history museums.

Beginning in 1987, Tom had the pleasure of working with Gordon J. Smith C.M. (Order of Canada. Member ) of special effects design company FXSMITH and his talented and innovative crew of world class sculptors and artists. Together they brought the first silicone-gel prosthetic make-up to film in 1994’s “Legends of the Fall” which became the film industry standard around the world.

In 2021 Tom became a proud Permanent Resident of Canada. He is thrilled to join the talented team at the Craniofacial Prosthetics Unit and looks forward to bringing nearly forty years of experience in innovative materials /processes and the latest digital technologies to help make a real difference in the lives of patients.


Location and contact

Craniofacial Prosthetics Unit

Odette Cancer Centre
2075 Bayview Avenue, T-wing, ground floor, room TG260
Toronto, ON M4N 3M5

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Contact

Judy Gibson
Phone: 416-480-4254
Email: judya.gibson@sunnybrook.ca