I also got a lot of information through this community, so I’m going to share my clinic scouting review here.
First of all, I’m a man, and even by my own objective standard I’m on the unattractive side. For men, the eyes and nose should look clear and open to be handsome, but mine are both very small.
At first, I looked for clinics through the apps where there are a lot of media ads, but there were only good reviews and ad-like posts everywhere, so I just couldn’t choose from there. So I tried looking around in a Naver Cafe, but because of the same reason I still didn’t really get a feel for it. It’s also hard to get male plastic surgery information there since it’s mostly oriented toward women.
Then by chance I found this community and got really good information.
I live in the provinces, so I tried to minimize in-person clinic visits by doing a lot of online research first. My standard for online research was, of course, whether the surgery was good, but also whether the consultation was kind and thorough. Even if there were many posts saying a clinic or doctor was good, if I saw even one post saying the consultation was rude, I removed it from my list. I decided to visit clinics known for good consultations and choose one among them that just felt right. But what I learned while researching online was that there may be places with decent surgery but poor consultations, yet there doesn’t seem to be a place with great consultations but bad surgery.
To explain how I did the online research, I actively used the "find a clinic, three million miles" tab here. Honestly, there’s nothing better than numbers for understanding things at a glance. So I went through the community and reviews, collected the clinics and doctors that came up often, and then used the clinic search page here to look at each clinic’s ratings and opinions, the number of participants, overall score, trust-adjusted score, and the surgery rating for that clinic to narrow down the places I would visit.
The clinics I narrowed it down to were Yeoksam-dong ㅈㅇㅈ, Seocho-dong ㅇㅇㅂ, Sinsa-dong ㅍㄹㅇㅂ, Yeoksam-dong ㄱㄴ, and Nonhyeon-dong ㄹㅂㄹ. Those were the five places.
To get to the point first, I decided to have my surgery at ㄱㄴ in Yeoksam-dong. The consultations at ㅈㅇㅈ, ㅇㅇㅂ, and ㅍㄹㅇㅂ were all kind. At ㄹㅂㄹ in Nonhyeon-dong, consultation appointments were already full until after mid-May, so I couldn’t even get a consultation there.
I made all the consultation appointments by phone, and what was a bit surprising about ㄹㅂㄹ was that the person who answered the phone wasn’t rude or impolite, but they also weren’t especially friendly. Since consultation bookings were full through May, I figured that must be why.
The first place I visited was ㅈㅇㅈ. I was a little surprised at first that a whole five-story building in the middle of Seoul was just ㅈㅇㅈ. But since it was the first 10 a.m. slot, I couldn’t really tell whether there were many people or not. There, they recommended a forehead lift because I open my eyes using my forehead, along with epicanthoplasty and ptosis correction (doctor ㅇㅇㅈ). For the nose, they said they would use silicone and the septum, and I can’t remember clearly whether they said autologous costal cartilage or donated costal cartilage, but I think they let me choose (doctor ㄱㄱㅇ). They said CCTV could just be shown for free, and the aftercare period was 2 years. First of all, the clinic manager was extremely kind, and the doctors also consulted very diligently. So if the other clinics had felt less thorough than here, I probably would have gone with this place. I had put down a 100,000 won deposit, and when I canceled, they handled it well, so I already got the refund back.
The second place I visited was ㅇㅇㅂ. What surprised me here was how many people there were. It might have been because it was the 3 p.m. slot, but there were also a lot of foreigners and they had interpreters too. And the interior itself seemed the nicest compared with the other clinics. But there were so many people and the layout was a bit awkward, so it was very chaotic. Even when they called me, I couldn’t tell where the call was coming from, and I wasn’t sure where they wanted me to go. As for kindness, of course they were very kind. Here, they said that because the distance between my eyes and eyebrows was sufficient, a forehead lift was not recommended, and that a brow lift, or under-brow lift, would be more suitable. That was what the consultation manager told me, and I think doctor ㅂㅇㅎ said the same thing. They also talked about epicanthoplasty and removal of fat from the eyelid area, and said that ptosis correction could be done afterward if I wanted it. I got a consultation for the nose from doctor ㄱㅈㅇ, and like the later clinics as well, they said the surgeries that needed to be done were mostly similar at all four clinics. The surgical methods were slightly different, but this place didn’t seem very different from ㅈㅇㅈ. Whether to use donated costal cartilage or autologous costal cartilage for the nose was a personal choice, but they said donated cartilage is often used for a first surgery. The aftercare period is 1 year, and they do have CCTV, but they said they can’t show it. Recording it on a camcorder costs an additional 200,000 won. As for the actual surgical content, this was the second clinic I visited, so I wasn’t sure which method I should use and didn’t really feel like one place was clearly better than another. But regarding the CCTV-related part, I got the feeling that this clinic didn’t really appeal to me. Here too, when I said I wanted to cancel, the manager responded kindly, but the deposit refund still hasn’t come through yet.
The third place I visited was ㅍㄹㅇㅂ. It’s in a very tall building near Sinsa Station, maybe on the 15th floor? The view was really good. There was a bit of a wait for the consultation here. I don’t remember exactly, but I think I consulted with doctor ㅇㅈㅎ. The doctor said that it would probably be enough to just do epicanthoplasty and incisional ptosis correction. At the previous two clinics, they had mentioned forehead lifts and brow lifts, but here they said those weren’t necessary. For the nose, it was similar to the first two clinics, and here they said that if I wanted autologous costal cartilage, I could use it, but they mainly recommended donated costal cartilage. They said donated cartilage is better for a first surgery. The aftercare period is 1 year, and they can show CCTV, but because it needs to be recorded, you have to request it in advance. The consultation manager and the doctor were both kind, but the surgical plan was so sparse compared with the first two clinics and the later clinic that I didn’t feel like I should definitely have surgery there. Some people might call it overtreatment if they are trying to make more money, but the other three clinics also gave similar explanations, and the other clinics explained the reasons for the additional procedures logically, so rather than feeling like it was overtreatment, I felt more like this was the kind of consultation those clinics simply didn’t provide. There was no mention at all of consultation fees or deposits here.
And the last place I visited was ㄱㄴ. I went here the day after I consulted at the previous three places. While I was consulting at those three places, I didn’t get a strong feeling that I should definitely do it here, so I agonized over it a lot the night before, but after the consultation here, I immediately felt, “Ah, this is where I should do it.” At first, because it was right by the station, there were so many buildings and so many signs that I was really confused just finding the place. And there was a language academy on the upper floors of the building, so there were lots of printed materials related to the academy, which made me wonder at first if this was even the right building for the clinic. Also, since my appointment was at noon, I went there, and although the consultation manager was kind, I had to wait an hour for the doctor, so honestly my first impression was very bad. At one point the manager said that the doctor was doing a very thorough consultation and was running a bit behind, and apologized, but that was already after I had waited about 30 minutes, and I was hungry too, so I was thinking, “Let’s just get the consultation and go.” But after the consultation, I realized that the doctor really had been being thorough, and that became the reason I decided to do it here. I consulted with doctor ㅇㄱㅎ, and here too they recommended a forehead lift, incisional ptosis correction, and epicanthoplasty, and for the nose they mentioned autologous costal cartilage and ear cartilage. To explain what I liked about this clinic, ㅈㅇㅈ also recommended a forehead lift, but there they focused on explaining what a forehead lift is and that although it is usually known as a surgery mainly for older people, younger people also get it a lot these days. That kind of explanation made me less certain about whether I should do it there. In contrast, at ㄱㄴ they explained why I personally needed a forehead lift, which made me trust them a lot. When a person opens their eyes, the effort should be concentrated in the eyes alone, so the eyelid should open inward as if it is being drawn into the body, but because I open with forehead strength, I need a forehead lift. That gave me a lot of confidence here. Also, for the nose surgery, the other clinics all said they would use the septum, and they didn’t mention ear cartilage for the nasal tip. They mainly recommended donated costal cartilage and said autologous costal cartilage was optional. Here, doctor ㅇㄱㅎ said first that because my nose is small, autologous costal cartilage is recommended. At first, I was surprised because they recommended autologous cartilage unlike the other clinics, but the reason was very logical, and they also said that if I really wanted donated cartilage, they could do it with donated cartilage. The reason I should use autologous costal cartilage is that my nose itself is too small, so if donated cartilage is used it may be too soft and the nose could collapse, which might require revision surgery. If a person’s nose is originally large, donated cartilage is fine, and because it is cheaper it can actually be better, but in my case, because my nose doesn’t extend much and is small, the chance of the nose not collapsing is higher if autologous costal cartilage is used. That gave me a strong sense of trust. Also, at the other clinics they said they would use my septum, but doctor ㅇㄱㅎ clearly explained that because my nose is already very small, the septum itself is small too, and if it is cut and used to build up the nose, it could collapse. They also explained that ear cartilage should be placed at the tip of the nose so the tip becomes rounder, and that ear cartilage does not affect the shape of the ear. You might wonder whether the reason I gained trust in this clinic is simply because it was the last clinic I visited and I had already told them what the other clinics said, but of course I did tell the doctor things like, “I heard this and this at the other clinics.” Still, there were also things the doctor said first, before I even brought them up, and I was genuinely surprised inside and thought, “Wow, I need to trust this doctor.” Another thing that made me trust them was that because I came from the provinces, the managers naturally knew I would prefer to have eye and nose surgery together, and they explained it that way, but this clinic first explained logically that if I had a forehead lift, my face would swell and they wouldn’t be able to design the eye line properly, so I should do the unrelated forehead lift and nose surgery first, then the eye surgery a week later. Honestly, this clinic was the most expensive compared with the others, and the price difference was quite large, but after talking with the doctor I decided to have it done here. The aftercare period is 1 year, and the doctor said that if they operate first and something goes wrong, they will perform revision surgery again and help for free. The manager said they would show the CCTV without any conditions.
Among the posts I read while researching online, I saw one saying that the more skilled doctors are, the more they realize there is more they don’t know than what they do know, so it’s better not to trust clinics that seem excessively confident, and I kept that in mind while going to consultations. I didn’t really get that feeling here. Well, I haven’t had the surgery yet and only have the schedule set, so I’ll only know after the surgery whether this was really the right choice and whether it’s a good clinic. But if you’re afraid of something going wrong, how can you ever get plastic surgery? You just have to try it.
Anyway, I wrote out in quite a lot of detail how I did my online research and clinic visits, and what I felt during the process. I hope it helps people like me a lot. Honestly, I’d say this community helped me the most, but there wasn’t much information about male plastic surgery, and I couldn’t find anyone who wrote about it in as much detail as I did. And this is just my personal opinion, so other people may not feel the same way. If anyone has questions, I’ll answer as much as I can.