Thursday
October 26th, 2006 at 7:30 PM Dr.
Frederic H. Corbin was featured on The Insider,
Channel 2 CBS in an interview as an expert in Synmastia
corrections.
Beverly
Hills Times, November 4th, 2003
Headliners Cover
Story
by Jill Garneski
Dr. Fred
Corbin earns accolades for his charitable work in third world
countries, but says his most important gift is his ability
to change a patient's life in a positive way.
The Practice:
Visitors
to the Beverly Hills or Orange County offices of Dr. Fred
Corbin are greeted by a friendly, professional staff, with
comfortable reception areas. Men and women from all over the
world come to seek Corbin's expertise...
The
Pros and Cons of Nip and Tuck,
by Dr.Fred Corbin
Plastic
surgery is in the news, on television, on the Internet, in
movies, in magazines, in books and just about everywhere you
look. Society places a high value on youthful, healthy, slim
images of women and men. Today, looking and feeling younger
has never been easier. With antiaging programs, a healthy
diet, a regular exercise regimen and plastic/cosmetic surgery,
one can turn back the hands of Father Time..
Brea plastic
surgeon Dr. Frederic Corbin has been helping correct birth
defects of children and adults in Third World countries for
15 years.
For people born with physical deformities,
life can be an agonizing and often lonely struggle for acceptance.
For
those in Third World countries who lack even the most basic
medical care, there is often no choice but to live, however
painfully, with the birth defect.
But
thanks to a Brea plastic surgeon, some of those people have
hope.
Dr.
Frederic Corbin has been correcting birth defects of adults
and children in Third World countries for more than 15 years
through an international relief organization Operation Smile.
Every
few years, Corbin spends two weeks traveling to foreign countries
at his own expense to perform corrective surgeries at his
own expense.
"The
mission of the organization is to teach doctors how to perform
surgery, but practicality is that these countries don't have
the money to spend on surgery," Corbin says.
Through
Operation Smile, Corbin has traveled to such countries as
Africa, Ecuador and Mexico to perform a variety of operations.
Burn
victims, car accident victims and people with congenial birth
defects such as cleft lip and palate deformities are just
a few of the types of defects Corbin commonly treats. Children
and adults, he said, walk miles just to be seen by the doctors.
"When
your correct a cleft palate, you correcting (the person's)
speech," Corbin says. "For children in these countries
it has a great affect because now they won't be considered
dumb."
On
the last mission he went on to Ecuador, Corbin treated about
10-15 patients per day - a load normally carried by two doctors.
Burn
victims are the more common types of patient in Third World
countries. Because of the lack of electricity in homes, families
are forced to rely on fly netting and kerosene lamps.
ON
HIS OWN Twelve years ago, Corbin came
to Brea to help out a colleague's under-staffed practice and
decided to stay.
At the time, he was performing plastic
surgery at a hospital in Los Angeles and at his own practice
in Beverly Hills.
"I became disenchanted with HMOs.
I liked performing surgeries, not restrictions," Corbin
says.
So, he left the hospital and opened
a second practice on Central Avenue.
After graduating with a bachelor's
degree in biology from Brown University in 1965, Corbin received
his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine
in 1969.
In between residencies and fellowships,
he served as a staff surgeon in the Army.
The ability to change the quality
of someone's life is one reason he entered into plastic surgery,
he says.
"Plastic surgery is different.
It's the only specialty that deals with the whole aspect of
the body, the sexes and all ages," Corbin says. "It's
the quality not quantity of life - that's what I liked about
it."
HIS PRACTICE Locally, Corbin also
performs a variety of surgeries.
Corbin performs procedures that are
not normally performed by plastic surgeons, nurse Becky Fiene
says.
A recent example is a patient who
was told by doctors that he would need to have his leg amputated.
After Corbin looked at it, he concluded that the leg could
be saved with a unique procedure that he developed.
The leg was saved by a method in
which Corbin transfers tissue from one part of the body to
another, including the tissue, artery, vein and nerves.
Corbin also performs emergency surgeries.
Louie Mendoza had sustained a severe
dog bit to his left leg and was refused treatment at a few
emergency rooms, because he didn't have insurance. He phoned
a friend who advised him to call Corbin. After calling Corbin's
office, he was told to come in at once. He was immediately
operated on and the surgery prevented scarring and infection.
"I will forever be grateful,"
Mendoza says.
"You treat the problem and then
you worry about it later," Corbin says.
A car accident victim whose face
had been severely smashed had his whole face wired shut. The
patient used a fake insurance card, and never paid for the
service. Corbin never saw him again.
"I travel to foreign countries
at my own expense, and perform bizarre procedures," Corbin
says. "And I come back to the U.S. and what are you going
to do? Not treat them? I be a hypocrite."
Corbin provides a full gamut of plastic
and Reconstructive surgery and is not limited to cosmetic
surgery.