About Dr. Constantian
Meet Plastic Surgeon – Mark B. Constantian, MD, FACS
Mark B. Constantian, MD, FACS practiced in the Nashua, New Hampshire as a plastic surgeon since 1978. He is retired now and his office is permanently closed. He is a native of Massachusetts where his father and great-grandfather practiced medicine. Dr. Constantian is a graduate of Columbia College, and received his Bachelor of Medical Sciences degree from Dartmouth Medical School and his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
He completed his general surgical training at the University of Virginia Hospital and Boston University Medical Center, his plastic surgery training at the Medical College of Virginia, and was certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery in 1979.
Dr. Constantian teaches regularly at regional, national, and international plastic surgery meetings, is Past President of the New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, The Northeastern Society of Plastic Surgeons and The Rhinoplasty Society, a past member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and has been an Associate Editor of the International journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He is Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery (Plastic Surgery) at the University of Wisconsin Medical Center.
Learn more about Dr. Constantian by viewing his full Curriculum Vitae.
My Most Recent Text
Childhood Abuse, Body Shame, and Addictive Plastic Surgery
My Rhinoplasty Text
Rhinoplasty: Craft & Magic
Surgical Teaching Videos
Memberships and Affiliations
Plastic surgeon Mark B. Constantian, MD, FACS is a member of the following professional organizations:
Active Memberships
Honorary Memberships
The Sheen Connection
Jack H. Sheen, MD, has been my close friend and mentor since 1978, when we met after I went to observe him perform surgery just as I finished my residency. Watching him work was like watching magic. I was captivated by his technical facility and I admired his way of looking at rhinoplasty, which at the time was unconventional and revolutionary. Over the next 3 decades, his ideas and techniques became the standard around which modern rhinoplasty was built, and his concepts of airway reconstruction, of individualizing aesthetic goals to meet the patient’s needs, and of respecting ethnicity, are now so common-place that it is easy to forget how unusual they were in the late 1970’s.
The grafting techniques that he pioneered, however, were so difficult that many surgeons turned to open rhinoplasty in order to be able to execute them; hence the resurgence in the open approach.
However, I have spent my career trying to learn and expand Dr. Sheen’s concepts, and to teach them to other surgeons. I have learned how to obtain the results my patients want through the closed approach, as Dr. Sheen did, and use that approach exclusively because it shortens the recovery time for the patient and allows me to fine-tune surgical results in a way that I do not personally believe is possible through open rhinoplasty.
Surgeons who advocate open rhinoplasty believe that access to the skeleton is easier through that approach. However, both surgeon and patient pay a price for that access in recovery time, swelling, scarring, and the inability to fine-tune results. When the surgeon can see the undisturbed surface, as is only possible with the closed approach, accuracy is higher. Further, the open approach has unfortunately NOT decreased the prevalence of secondary deformities; in fact, they are now worse than when I went into practice. Despite its popularity, open rhinoplasty has not proved to be the “solution” to the difficulty of rhinoplasty.
When he retired in 2003, Dr. Sheen paid me the high honor of referring his own patients to me. While his vote of confidence has not changed the way I practice or perform surgery, it has given me the opportunity to continue to complete the work that he started.
-Mark B. Constantian, MD, FACS
Career Highlights
SPECIAL AWARDS, GRANTS, AND OTHER HONORS:
Honorable Mention, Junior Basic Science Category, American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons Educational Foundation Scholarship, 1977.
Recipient of Southern Medical Association Research Project Grant 1977.
Recipient of A.D. Williams Research Project Grant, Medical College of Virginia, 1977.
Recipient of Paralyzed Veterans of America Grant, 1977
First Prize, James R. McClelland Memorial Essay, Northern Virginia Academy of Surgery, 1978.
First Prize, Bigger – Lehman Award, Virginia Surgical Society, 1978.
Recipient of Carl Moyer Award, American Burn Association, 1978.
Recipient of the Tiffany Award, American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Inc., 1998.
Recipient of the Founders’ Award, New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Inc., 2000.
Recipient of the Founders’ Award, New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Inc., 2001.
Recipient of the Tiffany Award, American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Inc., 2003.
Recipient of the Founders’ Award, New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Inc., 2003.
Recipient of the Founders’ Award, New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Inc., 2004.
Recipient of the Founders’ Award, New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Inc., 2009.
America’s Top Doctor – Plastic Surgery – The Best in American Medicine – 2001 / 2002 / 2003 / 2004 / 2005 / 2006 / 2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015.
Recipient of the Millard Award for Best Paper, Canadian Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2010.
Recipient of the Samuel Stal, MD, Award for the Best Paper, The Rhinoplasty Society, 2013.
Recipient of the Tiffany Award, American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Inc., 2014.
Clinician of the Year, American Association of Plastic Surgeons, 2015
Recipient of the Founders’ Award, New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Inc., 2015.
Recipient, Key to the City of Nashua, 2015
Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, The Rhinoplasty Society, 2016.
Recipient of the Robert M. Goldwyn, MD, Lifetime Achievement Award, New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Inc., 2016.
Recipient of the Samuel Stal, MD, Award for the Best Paper, The Rhinoplasty Society, 2018.
Recipient of the Founders’ Award, New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Inc., 2019.
Honorable Citation, American Society of Plastic Surgery, Inc., 2019.
Local Plastic Surgeon Performs Live Surgery at Symposium in Belgium
Nashua, NH – Mark B. Constantian, M.D., F.A.C.S. traveled to Ghent, Belgium to participate in international symposium along with 19 surgeons, six from the United States and 14 from Europe, Mexico, and the Far East. He was one of seven surgeons who performed live surgery at the Fifth Controversies, Art & Technology in Facial Aesthetic Surgery, September 4 – 6, 2015.
Live surgery meetings are always very popular because the attendees are eager to see so-called “experts” actually perform what they teach. The surgery was performed in a private, very well-equipped clinic, and then transmitted by satellite back to the convention hall where the attendees were watching and could ask questions while I operated.
Although I have performed live surgery a number of times before in the United States and overseas, for me personally, it is a difficult format because I only meet the patient the day before surgery, which is completely different from the very personal type of practice I have always run. The patients are inevitably anxious, and I need to win their confidence and then do my best to deliver the results that they would like under completely unfamiliar circumstances. My scrub nurse, Donna J. Morton, LPN, accompanied me on this trip, which made the surgery infinitely easier. Fortunately, everything went extremely well and the patient is very happy.
Serving Nashua for 37 years and having treated over 11,000 patients, Dr. Constantian became only the second private practice plastic surgeon in New Hampshire when he arrived in 1978. He specializes in reconstructive and cosmetic nasal surgery and has been cited in Allure Magazine, The New York Times, and Ladies Home Journal’s More Magazine as one of the top rhinoplasty surgeons in the country. He has also been listed yearly since 2001 in Castle Connolly’s Guide to America’s Top Doctors. Dr. Constantian is the author of three textbooks, the most recent of which, Rhinoplasty: Craft and Magic, was published in 2009, and he has received 17 previous regional and national awards for his basic science and clinical research. Dr. Constantian is currently writing a new book on the relationships between childhood trauma, body image, and plastic surgery.
Dr. Constantian maintains his private practice at 19 Tyler Street in Nashua, and is Past President of the New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, the Northeastern Society of Plastic Surgeons, and The Rhinoplasty Society, an international educational group. He is the author of more than 70 published papers and 30 textbook chapters, and was the recipient of the Clinician of the Year award from the American Association of Plastic Surgeons in 2015. Dr. Constantian and his wife Charlotte reside in Hollis.
Local Plastic Surgeon Receives Clinician of the Year Award
Nashua, NH – Mark B. Constantian, M.D., F.A.C.S. received the Clinician of the Year award from the American Association of Plastic Surgeons at its Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona on April 12. The American Association of Plastic Surgeons is the oldest plastic surgical organization in the world, founded in 1921.
“I was absolutely stunned to be notified earlier this year. When the President called me and told me that it was his honor to select the Clinician of the Year, my first thought was that he was going to run some names by me and ask my advice.
“What is unusual in my case is that most of the Clinicians have been in full-time academic positions, not private practice, and almost none perform primarily aesthetic surgery. Aside from the recognition by peers for whom I have such great respect, those facts make it an even more rewarding honor. I have loved my work, teaching, and writing, and I am glad that it shows.”
Serving Nashua for 37 years and having treated nearly 11,000 patients, Dr. Constantian became only the second private practice plastic surgeon in New Hampshire when he arrived in 1978. He specializes in reconstructive and cosmetic nasal surgery and has been cited in Allure Magazine, The New York Times, and Ladies Home Journal’s More Magazine as one of the top rhinoplasty surgeons in the country. He has also been listed yearly since 2001 in Castle Connolly’s Guide to America’s Top Doctors. Dr. Constantian is the author of three textbooks, the most recent of which, Rhinoplasty: Craft and Magic, was published in 2009, and he has received 17 previous regional and national awards for his basic science and clinical research. Dr. Constantian is currently writing a new book on the relationships between childhood trauma, body image, and plastic surgery.
Dr. Constantian is now retired from his private practice in Nashua. He was a Past President of the New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, the Northeastern Society of Plastic Surgeons, and The Rhinoplasty Society, an international educational group. He is the author of more than 70 published papers and 30 textbook chapters. Dr. Constantian and his wife Charlotte reside in Hollis.
