`Breast Expert' Accused of Smuggling

Frederic H. Corbin calls himself "the Breast Expert."

But after more than two decades of helping women achieve the look they want, the plastic surgeon finds his own image in need of sculpting.

Corbin, 62, is accused of smuggling illegal silicone breast implants into the United States and placing them in his patients. Federal prosecutors also allege that the doctor, who has offices in Beverly Hills and Brea, falsified patients' medical records so they could receive American silicone implants that doctors were testing. If found guilty, he could face as many as 10 years in prison.

Silicone implants were taken off the market in 1992 over concerns they might cause autoimmune diseases if they leaked. The ban has spurred a black market for the implants, which are considered more natural in appearance and feel than saline-filled ones approved for use in the nearly 300,000 U.S. women who have cosmetic breast surgery every year.

Federal regulators appear close to approving silicone implants, but the process isn't moving fast enough for some women.

"Silicone gel is the preferred implant when you talk about the Coke-or-Pepsi test," said James Wells, a Long Beach cosmetic surgeon and past president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. "If you give them the choice between a gel and a saline implant and cover it with a towel, just on texture and feel they will more often than not pick the gel implant."

The Food and Drug Administration allows silicone implants to be used in research studies or for reconstructive surgery for women who have had mastectomies. But silicone implants are widely available outside the U.S.

U.S. women regularly travel to Mexico for breast augmentation at discount prices. At the Tijuana clinic Medica Norte, a receptionist said 80% of the women who came to have their breasts enlarged were American and almost always chose silicone.

Some women buy their own silicone implants outside the U.S. and ask their doctors to put them in.

Reached by telephone, an employee at the pharmacy Sara Imports in Tijuana, said he sold European silicone implants to two or three U.S. women every month.

"My impression is that people will do what they want to do if they think the benefits outweigh the risks," Wells said.

The federal government has prosecuted only a handful of cases against doctors and alleged smugglers. One of the largest seizures took place in 1995 when an Oklahoma doctor was caught smuggling more than 500 Brazilian implants from the Bahamas.