I wrote a super long post and then lost it because I hadn’t saved it, so I feel very empty.. Anyway, I’ll talk about my nose history and why I ended up getting it removed. In 2008, when I turned 20, I had my first nose surgery at a hospital in Apgujeong. I later found out it was a combination of L-shaped silicone and ear cartilage. I spent my 20s with that nose, and I was satisfied and thought it looked pretty.
My original nose was small and low, so I don’t think the silicone being on the higher side felt that unnatural. I lived well like that for over ten years, and once it passed the 10-year mark, there was a strange feeling that it had become shorter and lifted, but it progressed so slowly over such a long time that people around me couldn’t really tell. I was the only one who knew, but it didn’t bother me much. *After more than 10 years, the ear cartilage in the tip also started to feel round when touched and became slightly visible*
Then last year, in May 2025, I had something stressful happen and suddenly developed BPPV. Not long after that, I started to feel a very severe tenderness in my nose, and my nose began to feel pulled. Then every day I could actually see it lifting more and more. Ah, I thought I had developed contracture. Right away I decided I needed revision surgery and started looking into it.
That’s when I started coming here a lot. And in July 2025, I had my nose revision surgery. Since I was staying abroad with my family for a while, I had to go back soon, so I only visited four clinics. And foolishly, since I was already going to have revision surgery, I wanted a higher, more refined nose, so I only went to clinics that did a more glamorous style. Among them, I had surgery with autologous costal cartilage at a clinic in Sinsa-dong.
At first, the swelling was so bad that I thought I couldn’t breathe well. But even after a month, two months, and then half a year, I still couldn’t breathe properly, and especially one side seemed to function at only about 20 percent, and the other side about 50 percent, so I felt like this was a serious problem. What about the shape, too..? It had completely become a witch nose.. Of course, there are places that use autologous costal cartilage and still make it look natural, but from what I saw, when autologous costal cartilage is used, they usually make it high, big, and stretched forward. Since my small nose was made that big and high, it looked even stranger, and of course the reactions around me were bad as well. More than anything, the terrible foreign-body sensation and the inability to breathe made me feel like I was dying. If you look at my previous posts, you can see related details.. Then in early July this month, I started having truly intense tenderness. Especially on the left side. I’ve given birth twice, and when it came to things like afterpains, I could endure it with painkillers and it would get better quickly. But this time, even after taking painkillers two or three times in a row, it wouldn’t respond.... I was seriously panicking,, and this was the first time in my life I felt my life might actually be in danger. I was in a country where it wasn’t easy to just go to an otolaryngology clinic or a plastic surgery clinic, so without thinking too much I made hospital reservations by KakaoTalk, bought a ticket right away, and entered the country. From the moment I arrived at the airport, I feel like I kept researching. And I agonized over whether I should have revision surgery or removal surgery. But really, the tip of my nose and even up to the philtrum felt hard, it was a witch nose, a squid nose, and there was severe tenderness. Oh, and one piece of cartilage was protruding, and another area was above the columella, so I couldn’t confirm it visually, but I went to ENT and confirmed that it was exposed. Anyway, since all of this happened within a year, I got irritated and angry, and decided to remove everything, so I started doing a massive amount of research. The reason I’m writing this post is that I got so much information from reading reviews written by everyone here, and I hoped my post might be of even a little help to someone, so I decided to write it. So the clinics I narrowed it down to were ㅅㅅㅇ, ㅅㅇ, ㅍㄹㅁ, and ㅇㄱㅈㅇㅇㅂ. Because of my circumstances, ㅇㄱㅈㅇㅇㅂ could only get me an appointment later, so I ended up not going there, and I visited the others in order. 1. ㅅㅅㅇ: As the reviews said, this was a case where a support structure absolutely had to be used, otherwise in my case it would especially lift even more. That’s what they said. The director explained things calmly and the consultation was done by palpation. The head manager also talked to me in a friendly way, listened well, and answered everything I asked. But still, it wasn’t the kind of place that made me want to put an exclamation mark on it. 2. ㅅㅇ: As soon as I walked in, I kind of flinched because of the bright feel of the modern(?) interior. The staff were all young, and the director also seemed fairly young, so I thought it would be either hit or miss.. haha This is just my personal opinion! Anyway, I also had a somewhat cold consultation here, just like the reviews said. Even while looking at the CT, there wasn’t much explanation, and they said total removal should be the priority. What happens later should be considered while watching the progress. And the tenderness might not disappear, and that could be due to another issue. It could be an ENT-related problem. They spoke in a cautious, somewhat ambiguous way. In fact, I got more information from the director’s videos that I had hurriedly watched before the visit. 3. ㅍㄹㅁ: Since this was my last visit, I was already exhausted, but the consultations with the manager and the director were so good. The director’s explanation was so clear that I could immediately picture it in my head, which left a strong impression. It felt like listening to a lecture from a professor. The moment he saw me, he immediately figured out what my original nose must have been like and that my facial asymmetry was tilted to one side, so it seemed the support structure and cartilage had been placed higher on that side. And while looking at the ultrasound, he regretted that the silicone and autologous costal cartilage had been inserted so ridiculously high and large, especially saying the autologous costal cartilage looked extremely thick. We discussed removing everything and doing alar repositioning. The manager was also kind and explained things well, so I had a very good impression of the clinic. All three said they could adjust to the date I wanted, so I had to decide quickly. The prices were ㅍㄹㅁ < ㅅㅅㅇ < ㅅㅇ. For now, after visiting the three, ㅅㅅㅇ was excluded because they said the support structure would need to be maintained, so I had to choose between ㅅㅇ and ㅍㄹㅁ. The cost difference between the two was fairly large, so logically I should have gone with ㅍㄹㅁ, where the consultation was also good.. but somehow my instinct pushed me toward ㅅㅇ. The reasons I excluded ㅍㄹㅁ were.. first, because I had seen a few not-so-good reviews about it on the community, and second, because the clinic where I had my revision surgery also had a good consultation, and the manager and director were kind and gentle, yet something like that happened, so maybe instinctively I chose the exact opposite, ㅅㅇ. *But this decision is entirely based on my personal experience, so please don’t worry about it.* So I had surgery at ㅅㅇ. The operating room was clean and the staff were kind. Like the reviews said, I was worried about waking up after using midazolam + ketamine and receiving local anesthesia, but it was better than I expected. Once the sedatives kicked in, I didn’t really know what was going on. By the end, I was awake! As you know, they show you the removed implant, and I really wanted to curse. I can’t believe autologous costal cartilage could be this big.. When I looked at the removal photos on the ㅅㅇ website, it didn’t seem like anyone had anything as large as mine.. And the alar cartilage was severely and messily damaged, and apparently the autologous costal cartilage had been layered on in a strange way. They said they didn’t know why it had been done that way and maybe they had gotten too ambitious. They were worried that because the alar cartilage was damaged, the shape of the nostrils might become distorted. Anyway, once I woke up after recovery, the hard feeling and discomfort I had felt in my philtrum and nasal tip disappeared immediately, which was great. The director had been chic during the consultation, but when explaining things in the recovery room, he explained everything kindly. Haha, honestly, I still don’t have confidence in living as a human fish.. But at least I think choosing full removal was the right decision, and through three nose surgeries, what I felt was that whatever shape your nose has, you eventually get used to it, and aesthetic stress is ultimately something only I carry. Everyone around me surprisingly didn’t care whether my nose was high or low or anything like that. Of course, it may also be because I’m now in my late 30s rather than my 20s. Still, I haven’t been able to let go of aesthetics yet, so if I think about going back to the nose I had when I was 19, or even something uglier than that, I may not feel confident, but I’m going to endure it because I learned a much bigger lesson in life. ㅅㅇ is a clinic that does not tie up the alar cartilage, so it may spread, and since I could see with my own eyes that my cartilage was badly damaged, I don’t know how it will turn out. I’m still recovering, and because I have to keep the nasal packing in for a full week, I’ll come back with another review after the packing and splint are removed.. *I’m not sure whether I can upload the removal photos they showed me at the clinic, but since other people did, I’ll post mine too* My surgeon from the place where I had revision surgery has been active on Threads lately, and every time I see it, my fingers twitch so much wanting to figure out how to destroy it. Anyway, I hope this gives a little help to anyone like me who’s thinking about removal. I’ve done a bit of venting. I hope everyone makes the best choice and gets good results.