First of all, I have thick skin, so my alar base and nasal tip are blunt, and my nose has that bulbous-nose look, but it’s not super wide-spread either I have a certain amount of bridge height, but my nose is short and the columella sits sunken in, so it’s not a fully upturned nose, but my nostrils are a bit too visible? Since my 20s, my bulbous nose has always been a complex for me, and I even had a consultation at one place back then But I kept going back and forth between should I do it? and should I not? because I heard a lot that nose surgery itself has to be approached very carefully Only now, in my late 30s, did I finally start getting consultations in earnest again
I’ve been to six consultations from around July until today, and this won’t be an extremely detailed or meticulous review, but I’ll still write it out First, these were the conditions for the list I searched up on my own: 1. A private clinic run by a single director 2. A result that improves my face naturally, without looking overly obvious, rather than something flashy 3. A place with a low risk of side effects or revision surgery That was roughly it
1. ㅇㄷ (Only here did they recommend silicone) As soon as they saw my nose, they said this is a nose that can benefit from improvement and recommended surgery. They suggested raising the bridge with the septum and ear cartilage, and along with tip cartilage binding and alar reduction, also inserting about 2 to 3 mm of silicone. The reason they recommended silicone was that if you want a clear, defined look from the front, silicone helps : This was my first consultation, so I just came away thinking, oh, I guess so, I guess it’s possible. But after getting consultations elsewhere later, I felt there was no real need to put silicone in, so I passed on here
2. ㅇㄹ There aren’t many reviews for this place even in this community, so I think everyone is really curious about it, but I was very satisfied with my consultation here The director is extremely meticulous and detailed, the type who explains everything from A to Z, so it didn’t feel like a waste of the consultation fee They said that if you carelessly bind the tip cartilage, it could later end up with a pinched-nose shape, and the same goes for alar reduction: if the nose doesn’t really need it, you might just end up having trouble breathing later. They do not recommend silicone, and said the tip needs to be brought down slightly using only autologous materials from cartilage and the septum : I liked almost everything here, but one thing that bothered me was that the surgery time tends to be long.. They said that’s because even harvesting the ear cartilage is done very meticulously, so the operation naturally takes longer than at other places. It’s not that the long surgery time itself makes me suspicious, but just... I should say the long time feels burdensome Anyway, I liked most of the consultation content and the direction the director pursues, and so on
3. ㅇㄷㅇㅇㅇ Here as well, they said to use the septum to bring out the columella and do not recommend silicone; they thought slightly reducing the alar base would be better But they honestly said that with a nose like mine, it’s hard to expect a dramatic change, so there may be some improvement, but they don’t know how much I would personally like the result : The director seemed honest and to pursue natural, safe surgery, so the consultation content made sense to me, but since they said there wouldn’t be a big effect, I didn’t really feel like going through surgery there, so I just wasn’t particularly drawn to it
4. ㅇㅈ This was the first consultation I went to where they recommended autologous costal cartilage, so I was a little taken aback;; (It was something I had not considered at all) The problem is my nose is short, and it seems the amount of ear cartilage I have is small, so it might not be enough, which means a nose like this needs autologous costal cartilage to lengthen it But if autologous costal cartilage is used, the tip can feel hard when touched (and of course, using autologous costal cartilage also made this the most expensive option) : The clinic itself is famous for nose surgery, so I didn’t doubt the director’s skill, but since this was the only place recommending autologous costal cartilage, it felt a bit like, huh? So I decided to pass. And when I imagined my nose looking longer in the mirror, it somehow felt really awkward. I had this vague anxiety that I might end up with a Squidward-like feeling;;; And most importantly, the before-and-after photos they showed me... natural is good, but if it’s going to be improved, I still think the after photo needs to be pretty too, and the after photos just didn’t really appeal to me... (Maybe it was only the photos I saw;;)
5. ㅁㅌ The director was very honest and flat-out advised against surgery It’s an extremely difficult nose shape, and even if you accept the difficulty and spend money on surgery, the effect you can get wouldn’t be that great. The nose isn’t short in length, but the midface itself is short, so if you lengthen the nose it could end up looking awkward like a hawk nose, and if you lift the drooping alae, the nose gets even shorter and can look strange, with a pinched-nose shape. So they didn’t recommend surgery and didn’t even charge the consultation fee : I liked that they gave such an honest consultation... but because of that, I even thought maybe I should just give up and live as I am;; Anyway, I left thinking, okay, I guess so
6. ㄱㅇㅈ There also aren’t many reviews for this place, but to conclude first, I really liked the consultation This director said they do not use the septum and instead shape the nose with ear cartilage and fascia. I went expecting a very natural style, and they said they only operate to the extent that is possible with the nose shape you already have. For example, if the bridge is already a little uneven, they wouldn’t force it to be smooth by putting in silicone...? I got the impression that they don’t recommend unnecessary things and genuinely pursue improvement within a very natural range
After going around to consultations, it’s not that there’s a right and wrong, but each director has subtle differences in surgical methods and the style they pursue, so the more I went, the more confusing it got, and I couldn’t make a decision. I even started wondering if I should rethink nose surgery itself In the middle of that, the consultation at clinic 6 felt the most convincing, and during the consultation I somehow felt like this was it Whether my decision is right or not, I’ll only know after actually having surgery Anyway, what I learned from going to consultations was that the problem wasn’t simply a bulbous nose, but also the sunken columella and the short nose length (They actually said that rather than being a bulbous nose, the tip shape and degree of spread weren’t that severe)
For now, the remaining hospitals I’ve booked consultations with are ㅋㅂㅈ / ㄹㅂㄹ / ㅋㅇㅍㄹㅅ, but I’m thinking of just canceling ㄹㅂㄹ because it seems different from the style I want I don’t know how helpful this will be since it’s not as meticulous an in-person review as other people write Still, I wrote it in case it helps even a little to others with similar concerns to mine! I’ve only ever lurked and never written a review before, so if there’s anything problematic in the post, let me know~