He was a German physician and dentist. He served as the royal court dentist of Prussia and was a pioneer in dentistry, an instrument designer, a developer of techniques in maxillofacial and dental surgery, and the first officially appointed dentist. He was the most renowned dentist of his time in the fields of conservative dentistry and tooth extraction.
In Berlin, the “Philipp-Pfaff-Institut” was established—a joint educational facility of the Berlin Dental Association and the Brandenburg State Dental Association—named in his honor. In 1990, the “German Society for Dentistry Philipp Pfaff” was founded in Berlin. At the dental museum in Zschadrass, Saxony, Philipp Pfaff’s treatment room was faithfully reconstructed and opened to the public in 2016, on the 250th anniversary of his death.