Uplifting odyssey

Fascination with faces launched plastic surgeon’s career

BY KERRY FIRTH

Dr. Alan Durkin didn’t take a direct path to becoming a successful plastic surgeon. He excelled at math and science as a child, graduated magna cum laude with a degree in biology and landed his first job as deputy director of nuclear waste disposal in Illinois. But he felt unfulfilled and decided to go back to school and become a doctor. The big question was what kind of doctor did he want to be? 

“In medical school, your first two years are in a classroom and your second two years are in the hospital. Your third year, you break up into the six core rotations: pediatrics, OB, surgery, family medicine, internal medicine and psychiatry. I hated my first two years. My third year, I signed up for pediatrics and within three days, I hated it. I went into OB and that was even worse. Then, I went back into internal medicine, and I still wasn’t happy. I decided to try orthopedics but when I went to sign up for classes, I was told they were filled. The dean came out and said, ‘You are going to do plastics. Now, get out of my office.’ 

“The very first day I did plastics, I did a cleft lip in the morning and a facelift in the afternoon. The human face captured me, and I was hooked. I immediately concocted a plan to do surgery, cancer and plastics, and trained for 10 years.”

Durkin chose to serve the underserved, after completing his education. He liked being outdoors, so he chose the Navajo Nation in Arizona — where he handled everything from cleft lips to trauma emergencies. Before he headed out West, however, he had interviewed with Dr. Ferdinand Becker, a respected plastic surgeon in Vero Beach who owned Advanced Facial Cosmetic & Laser Surgery Center. 

“Dr. Becker called me every six months — for three years — until I finally agreed to move back to Florida and be a steward for his practice, as he transitioned into retirement,” Durkin recalled. “I took over the practice in January of 2011 and rebranded it to Ocean Drive Plastic Surgery. We’ve expanded exponentially through the years, adding on Ocean Drive Dermatology and Ocean Drive Med Spa. Our practice now fills 18,000 square feet of office space with 40 employees, including myself as the plastic surgeon, four injectors, two dermatology providers, six estheticians and two massage therapists, along with a talented staff of technicians and administrative personnel. 

“Half of our patients are from outside of Florida with a good number of them being international visitors. We’ve had clients come from as far away as Norway, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and South and Central America.”

INNOVATIVE

The majority of Durkin’s clients come to him for facial aesthetics, though he also does reconstructive breast and body surgeries. “We tend to gravitate towards the more complex issues of the human face,” he said. “The face is a game of millimeters, whereas the body is a game of centimeters or inches. So, if you are going to do face at high volumes, you better do it really well.”

Durkin is involved in multiple clinical trials of facial and breast aesthetic surgery techniques, and regularly publishes on both topics. His innovative thinking led him to repurpose a surgical mesh, commonly used in breast reconstruction, as a reinforcement for facelifts. The Meso BioMatrix Biological Facelift is now recognized by the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons as the technique best suited for patients with significant neck descent or those undergoing a secondary facelift. 

A distinguished lecturer, he recently traveled to China to meet with that country’s surgeon general, as an ambassador for a filler company that had expanded into the Chinese market. Durkin loves to mentor aspiring physicians and is a faculty member and a clinical assistant professor of plastic surgery at Florida State University College of Medicine’s Fort Pierce Regional Campus [at Indian River State College] and at Nova Southeastern University. Ocean Drive Plastic Surgery is now a graduate medical education site for Larkin Community Hospital’s Plastic Surgery [Integrated] Residency Program, where interns come to learn the intricacies of advanced plastic surgeries. Additionally, as chief medical officer for VO Medical Spas — a national organization with 40 locations across the country — Durkin is shaping the future of aesthetic wellness, by hosting regular training sessions for about 20 to 30 of their physicians.

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DR. ALAN DURKIN

Age: 51

Lives in: Hutchinson Island

Family: Married with two daughters

Education: Bachelor of science in biology from University of Miami, master’s degree in physics from University of Chicago; doctorate from University of South Florida, where he completed fellowships in both oncology and facial aesthetics

Hobbies: Water sports, weightlifting, chess

What inspires me: “Elevating as many people as I possibly can, in the safest and best possible fashion.”

What do most people not know about me: “Even though I’m a big man at 6’5”, I own a small dog.”

He has been nationally recognized for his contributions to plastic surgery and featured in prominent publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Living, Cosmopolitan, New Beauty, Vice Sports, HauteMD, and the New York Times, as well as local news in Florida.