Beautiful People
I stated that I was from this community and had the consultation.
The director used two toothpick-like sticks made of wood to mark a natural line for me. The line he first drew was an in-line line, and the director said a high line would not suit my eyes. I agreed with that too. My eyes were the kind that would definitely become sausage-like if the line were too high, haha.
Still, it was a truly natural in-line line. Fortunately, I had been considering an in-line or, if possible, an in-out line, and if a line like a subtle double eyelid line seemed to suit me, I was prepared to accept that too, so please keep that in mind, everyone.
After that, I brought up outer canthoplasty. Looking at my eyes, I wanted to address the sagging skin at the upper inner corner of the eyes plus a slight hook correction. My eyes do not have a severe hook, but I thought the hook would deepen if I got double eyelid surgery with an in-line or as I aged.
I also wanted to fix the sagging skin at the 45-degree angle of the inner corner? the Mongolian fold? But since it was non-incisional buried double eyelid surgery, the director tilted his head slightly, tried marking the line, and said it would become heavy-looking if done wrong, trailing off.
On the right eye, he lifted the inner corner with outer canthoplasty and also tried setting the double eyelid line from the inner corner. But he did not seem especially eager to raise the line starting from the front of the eye. The director also said this could become burdensome. I think I felt uncertain about it too.
Still, I feel that the 45-degree area at the inner corner needs to be resolved at least to some degree. If I decide to have surgery here later, I plan to visit again and have them mark it more clearly. Or I may ask whether incision-based surgery would be better.
Anyway, after more marking, the director said he would design the right eye first and then design the left eye to follow it.
If the director is right-handed, he tends to design from the patient’s left eye first; if left-handed, from the right eye, so keep that in mind. I only learned that because the director told me.
And the asymmetry in my eyes’ height. This is not an issue of one eye not opening or closing as much, but rather that the eye positions themselves are different. When I asked whether that could be corrected,
he said the right eye’s inner corner could be brought into approximate alignment with outer canthoplasty, along with a slight correction of the hook, and that the upper eyelid line could be adjusted by correcting the right side a bit more with ptosis correction and the left side a little less than the right to match it.
For a moment I remembered a side effect story about ptosis correction... that review about uneven eye-opening strength. Anyway, taking everything together, the shape of eye I wanted was roughly sketched out, but the 45-degree inner-corner area is something I need to bring up again.
In the consultation with the manager, she first explained that you can watch on YouTube how the surgery is done. Other than that, she answered everything people usually ask, so I had no questions left. If I go back for another visit, I can ask more then.
Here is what the manager explained in rapid-fire fashion.
- If the symmetry is off or it reopens, 2 years of aftercare support - CCTV is installed, and both local and sedation anesthesia are available, but local is recommended - If there is swelling, they will give a swelling injection - It is okay to stay in the recovery room as long as needed before leaving - Stitch removal after 7 days - Follow-up visit in 2-6 months - Bruising will likely last 7-10 days
And something I learned during the consultation was that if fat removal is not done, you just get a single line exactly as marked, and that fat removal is needed to create a leaner look. But what exactly is the part that becomes leaner? The director seemed to mean the eye socket / eyelid area, while the manager seemed to mean the double eyelid line... I thought I should look into that more.
The director was very kind during the consultation. He marked the line several times too. But if the 45-degree inner-corner issue is not resolved... that makes it a bit of a difficult clinic for me to decide on.
Iwabaek
I did not say that I was from this community. They only knew I had come from the Gangnam Unni app. If I end up doing it here, I plan to say so at the second consultation.
As soon as I entered the consultation room, the director looked at my eyes and immediately pinpointed the exact line I wanted, which startled me. At the same time, I thought: how many patients must have come here for him to identify, right away, the exact line I wanted, and how many of them must have thought, “Ah, that’s it!” I know it may have seemed rude to the director, but to me it felt like a kind of showmanship.
Anyway, for that reason, I was left speechless. Whether it was showmanship or he really could do it because it was the line I wanted, he had picked the exact line I wanted.
My impression of the above situation is half-joking, so please take it as a not-very-funny joke, but anyway,
what the director then suggested was incision double eyelid surgery, fat removal, and front-and-upper outer canthoplasty. For me, whether the double eyelid surgery was incisional or non-incisional did not matter much.
I thought non-incisional would be nice, but the director said it would loosen later. The manager seemed to agree and naturally chimed in with a word of agreement. Honestly, I already thought my eyes were the type that should be treated with incision.
Looking back now, I think I can see why the line drawn at another clinic was a little unsatisfying. Since that doctor used non-incisional buried suture surgery, there must have been limits in setting the line. It also seems they did not give much consideration to the 45-degree inner-corner Mongolian fold? sagging skin.
I will skip more talk about the other clinic...
I felt fat removal was necessary. I am still young now, but when I think about the eyelid area hollowing out as I get older, I hesitate; still, this eyelid fat is also part of what makes my eyes look sleepy now.
And then there is the front-and-upper outer canthoplasty, which I keep wavering about. For reference, my lacrimal caruncle is fairly visible. Especially in my left eye. My left eye absolutely should not show any more of the caruncle. The right eye can show a very small amount if I do only a slight front canthoplasty. A small front canthoplasty would also make the spacing between the eyes look more even relative to the bridge of the nose.
But that is not my main goal. The real purpose of the front-and-upper outer canthoplasty for me is to improve the 45-degree Mongolian fold at the inner corner. I, the director, and the manager all understood that point properly. So that part felt satisfactory.
However...
One thing I questioned in the director’s explanation was this. My eyes are sleepy-looking and likely a mix of mild pseudoptosis and true ptosis.
Actually, I have not been to an ophthalmologist yet, haha. But my eyelids do droop a bit, and when I open my eyes naturally, the lash line covers 30-40% of the iris. I can open my eyes clearly without wrinkling my brows or forehead, but I can feel the muscles around my glabella and brow area thinking, “I am working hard now ^^”.
In that situation, he did not mention ptosis correction first. So I brought it up.
I asked whether, since I have sleepy eyes, ptosis correction would not be done.
. . .
Here I want to talk about the structure of this director’s consultation room.
If everyone goes to Iwabaek for a consultation, you will likely be in the following situation.
When you consult with the director, the manager stands beside him. This is probably because when the director gives the consultation, the manager listens and catches what should be explained to me, and then the manager follows up. But that felt quite pressuring.
There is a strange sense of pressure. The chair the patient sits in is low, and the director’s chair is high. And since the manager was standing, I felt oddly intimidated being surrounded by them. Maybe I am the only one who feels this way, but it seems worth considering for a more comfortable patient consultation.
The issue that can be caught from these two paragraphs is that there is quite a difference in eye level between the director and me.
I am about 173 cm tall. My legs are not especially long relative to my upper body, and I have put on some weight, including around my hips, so I am actually rather tall when seated. That is why, throughout school, whenever I sat in the front row, it was normal to hear things like,
“Could you bend down a little? I can’t see the board ”
Even for someone like me, when I sat in the consultation room, I had to look up at the director. Unless I tilted my head far back, I had to raise my eyes quite a bit to meet his gaze.
So perhaps, to the director, my eyes did not seem especially droopy, sleepy-looking, or ptotic.
Ah, and when the line was being marked and shown in the mirror, the mirror was held slightly upward rather than straight ahead. To explain it more clearly, it was exaggeratedly held at a kind of flattering-angle view.
Thinking about it while writing, maybe the mirror was tilted upward to show the line under the assumption that the sleepy-eye issue had already been corrected. Probably.
Still, since the price consultation with the manager ended up including ptosis correction, it seems the director naturally considered ptosis correction to be part of the double eyelid surgery.
But that is my inference, so if I really end up having surgery here, I will pay for another consultation and make sure to hear it clearly the second time.
After that, I told them my personal wishes.
My two eyes are asymmetrical, and the vertical height is different as well. The right eye sits lower than the left eye.
So I said I wanted to reduce that gap through double eyelid surgery, ptosis correction, or front-and-upper outer canthoplasty.
When the director heard that, he gently held my head and tilted it slightly. Then he said my head was crooked, and that if I straightened it, that part would hardly be noticeable at all.
He spoke in a way that suggested they would try through surgery, but could not promise a satisfying result. And he emphasized again that it would not be perfect. I was not expecting something perfectly flawless either. I was thinking more of a level of visual adjustment through double eyelid surgery, ptosis correction, and front-and-upper outer canthoplasty.
My purpose for this surgery is, first, to improve my sleepy eyes, and second, to improve the left-right height asymmetry. The double eyelid? That part is unavoidable.
Speaking of the double eyelid and the line height, at first the director seemed to be thinking of a semi line? a semi-out line. There was something like semi written on the chart, and I wanted to take a photo of it, but the manager said I could not, so I could not.
But the important thing is that I had never considered a semi-out line. A thick line really would not suit me. So both when consulting with the director and with the manager, I said I wanted an in-line or something like a subtle double eyelid line.
Ah. The director did not repeatedly mark the line many times. Maybe only about three times. But I think that was because I liked the line.
Later, while talking with the consultation manager, I said I was thinking of an in-line or a subtle double eyelid look, so it will probably be conveyed. But if I really do get surgery here, I think I would need to go back for another consultation and say once more that I want an in-line, a subtle double eyelid line, or an in-out line, but with the lash line visible from the 45-degree area at the inner corner.
The consultation with the director was not very long. About 10 minutes. Looking back now, I think I did not properly express what I wanted or what I was thinking. It was a shame, but there was nothing to be done.
Next was the consultation with the consultation manager.
At Iwabaek, there did not seem to be much brokerage talk on this community, but what the consultation manager said sounded like broker talk. She said the doctor has 23 years of surgical experience, that they use Iwabaek’s own method so only a small incision is made and the scar is minimal, and so on. Of course she was kind. Even if that is the kind of thing a consultation manager is supposed to say, I have been reading so much online that I probably felt that way as a side effect.
It was ironic, but the manager was also working, so I just let it pass. It was important information, but in the end, unless I was standing next to the director watching him operate, I would not really know what surgical method they used.
Still, there was one thing I paid attention to.
That front-and-upper outer canthoplasty again.
The manager said:
1. At other clinics, front canthoplasty cuts the actual front skin into a triangle, which leaves scars. 2. At Iwabaek, the director performs the front-and-upper outer canthoplasty starting from the inner tissue rather than the visible front skin, so it does not leave scars.
The first method is the kind of procedure people complain about as having front canthoplasty complications. It is also an old surgical method and can leave scars, and with a high probability the shape can turn out strange. If everyone has been browsing a lot, you probably know what kind of method it is and what kind of eye shape it can create.
Then the second method, a way of doing front-and-upper outer canthoplasty by removing the inner tissue of the eye? Is that some kind of medial epicanthoplasty? I do not know exactly what surgery that is. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.
But do clinics still do it the first way these days...? Does that still happen?
After that, the manager showed me some successful case photos. Among them were photos that had been uploaded to this community... At first, seeing that, I thought, ah, the person who uploaded photos here must have provided them as a model for the clinic. But as time went on, I started having slightly more negative thoughts.
Anyway, the post was long, but to summarize the facts:
1. As soon as I entered the director’s room, the director immediately marked the line I wanted. 2. He did not bring up ptosis correction first. (I have some mild ptosis, but I have not been to an eye clinic...) 3. Looking at my eyes, he recommended incision surgery because non-incisional surgery would likely loosen over time. 4. According to the consultation manager, Iwabaek has its own incision method and front-and-upper outer canthoplasty method. 5. Because I did not say I was from this community, they did not quickly explain aftercare and similar details; instead they focused on case photos and persuasive explanations. 6. Also, while other procedures may have 1- or 2-year aftercare support, canthoplasty apparently does not.
I am sorry to those who wanted details about aftercare or how long you can stay in the operating room. Since this was my first consultation for cosmetic surgery, I was too flustered to take proper notes or ask proper questions.
It was a consultation review with more of my impressions than hard facts because I went in without making a proper list of questions in advance.
If you are going to consultations next time, or in the future, definitely write your questions down somewhere. I booked for last Friday, then worked part-time on Saturday and Sunday and had assignments, so I did not have time for that. I was impulsive from the start.
Still, for 10,000 won in consultation fees, I think I bought information about my eyes, the surgeon’s style, and the consultation experience.
The end
It was such a rambling post that I do not know whether it will be helpful, haha