In Memoriam: Christian Guilleminault (1938-2019)
It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Christian Guilleminault, MD. Dr. Guilleminault passed away on July 9, 2019 due to complications from metastatic prostate cancer. He was 80 years old and is survived by his wife and two sons.Dr. Guilleminault was a pillar to the field of sleep medicine – his foundational research transformed clinical treatment of sleep apnea. Dr. Guilleminault was also very involved with the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, speaking at numerous conferences and courses. In 2012, he was honored with the AADSM Pierre Robin Award, acknowledging his extensive contributions to dental sleep medicine research.
In memory of his legacy, several AADSM members have reflected on the impact Dr. Guilleminault has left on our field:
“Christian Guilleminault was truly a giant among men. The author of over 600 peer reviewed papers and multiple book chapters, his love of learning and research remained undimmed throughout his long career. As lead author on the seminal 1973 article in Science that identified a new syndrome represented by insomnia with sleep apnea[1]; in 1976, he and his collaborators termed this, sleep apnea syndrome[2]. He was interested in all aspects of sleep medicine from pregnancy and sleep, maxillofacial surgical approaches to treatment, to forensic sleep medicine. His most recent area of concentration, pediatric OSA, has been an important topic for his entire professional career. Dr. Guilleminault has been instrumental in shaping the world of sleep medicine as we know it.
A strong enthusiast of dentist involvement in the treatment of OSA, he has authored articles with many dentists including Stacy Quo, DMD, and Paola Pirelli, DDS. Dr. Guilleminault leaves his field in the hands of the hundreds of researchers who have been personally touched by his genius and irrepressible curiosity.”
A strong enthusiast of dentist involvement in the treatment of OSA, he has authored articles with many dentists including Stacy Quo, DMD, and Paola Pirelli, DDS. Dr. Guilleminault leaves his field in the hands of the hundreds of researchers who have been personally touched by his genius and irrepressible curiosity.”
-Dr. B. Gail Demko, DMD
“We lost a friend and a partner to dental sleep medicine. Christian was a French medical doctor with a training in both neurology and psychiatry. In the early seventies, he started the development, with Professor W. Dement, of one of the most famous sleep laboratories in the world.
During all the years that I was fortunate to chat, lecture around the world and review papers and share meals with Dr. Guilleminault, I was always very impressed by his exceptional acuteness to grasp the future of sleep medicine, to see what most doctors did not seen on sleep traces, to suggest unusual paths to diagnose and treat sleep disorders.
He was an innovator, a pathfinder! For us as dental sleep doctors and researchers, we lost one of our strong supporters, a defender of our role in sleep medicine. It is why my faculty of dental medicine, Universite de Montreal, gave him an honoraris causa in 2013. I always cautioned his friends, although he got an honorary dental degree, they should not ask him to fix tooth pain!
Christian, merci for what you done, our sleep medicine patients have a better sleep and quality of life due your continuous search of excellence.”
-Dr. Gilles Lavigne, DMD, PhD, FRCD (oral med), FACD, FCAHS, hc (U Zurich), OC (cm)
“Christian Guilleminault was a tremendous teacher, mentor, innovator, scientist, researcher, author and physician. I've never known anyone as accomplished, as driven, as productive, as curious and as relentless. Oral and head and neck surgeon, Kasey Li, introduced me to Dr. Guilleminault over 20 years ago. Most everything I learned about sleep medicine, I learned from him. Many, many others will echo the same. He was dentistry's biggest champion in sleep medicine, often citing that stomatology was a discipline of medicine before dentistry became its own field.
For many years, he used to say that he didn't care about the teeth, but his focus was the airway. I had many conversations with him about the relevance of the teeth, but so did Gilles Lavigne, Michele Herve, Paola Pirelli, and with other dentists he collaborated. Finally, I thought he changed his ambivalence about the dentition. Over the last week in helping to clear out his office, I saw cupboards of both well-known and esoteric dental textbooks, and faded reprints dating back to the 1950s falling out of binders, of US and European articles on craniofacial growth and development. I then realized that he had never been ambivalent, but early on he understood the importance of the dentist and orthodontist's role in the treatment of SDB, even before the dental profession did.
Earlier this year while speaking at an orthodontic meeting, he said that no one owned the upper airway. He challenged the audience to own the space in which we work, while encouraging education, treatment and taking risks. He had a profound impact worldwide and an even more profound effect on me. Although his passing left an unspeakable sadness, I am forever grateful to have learned, co-treated, collaborated, lectured and traveled with Dr. Guilleminault. He was a remarkable person.”
-Dr. Stacey Quo, DDS, MS
“Dr. Guilleminault was obviously a pioneer in the field of sleep medicine, but also a visionary who loved to keep pushing the field forward. He was a great supporter of dentists and their role in sleep medicine. While these were great accomplishments, his true legacy to the field is the hundreds of dedicated clinicians and researchers from around the world he trained and inspired. His greatest passion was to teach and share his knowledge. He had an insatiable curiosity and cared for all patients with his fellows and students. He was the definition of a generous mentor, but also a wealth of knowledge on any topic - a curious explorer of the world. He was a gregarious man who loved nothing more than to share a good laugh and a great glass of wine. He will be missed.”
-Nelly Huynh, PhD