First, to explain my nose: I have a severe hooked nose and a thick nasal framework, so out of 8 places, 6 said osteotomy was necessary (the places that didn’t recommend osteotomy were usually hospitals where I had consultations without a CT). My nasal tip is also droopy.
I showed photos, but I felt awkward about posting and deleting them, so I drew a picture instead. This is also just approximate, so please use it only as a reference.
$All prices are before discounts$
1. ㅋㅇㅍㄹㅅ-ㄱㅈㅇ 3.96 million KRW (4.51 million KRW if osteotomy is done)
There were a lot of reviews saying he was kind, so I had expectations, and he really was very warm and easygoing. I’ll mention this later, but at other places I often went after reading reviews and ended up disappointed. Here, even though I had expectations, the consultation exceeded them, so it stayed in my memory.
First of all, he was kind and young. Out of all the places I’ve gone to for consultations so far, he asked the most questions and examined things in the most detail. Before the consultation, many of the reviews/photos had a flashy vibe, so I thought I’d just treat it as a place to stop by, but when I went, there were also some natural-looking results like what I wanted. Of course, not many. If the ratio of somewhat flashy results (noticeable by my standards) was 8, the natural ones were about 2.
He did not recommend making the nasal bridge width thinner. Apparently it can look disconnected from the nostril/alar area. When he said what wouldn’t work, I accepted it too.
On CT, my nose was deviated, but my airway was wide, so he said functional nose surgery wasn’t really needed.
When I asked if osteotomy for the hump was absolutely necessary, he said if I’m pursuing a natural look, then just shaving it down would be enough… He said even with osteotomy, they don’t place silicone over that area, so I felt relieved.
The skin around my alar area is on the thicker side. And he said there’s a bit of flesh there. I said I didn’t want alar base reduction, and he said that once the nasal tip is lifted, that skin naturally lifts a bit too and improves somewhat, so it’s okay to decide after surgery.
He explained my existing nose shape in detail. He showed me the CT and explained this and that in a way that was easy to understand. Among the places I consulted that day, he was the only one who pointed out the external width of my nose. When looking at the nose from the front, the area that looks bumpy and shadowed when light hits from above, because of that we talked about osteotomy too, but he didn’t definitively tell me to get osteotomy. It was kind of like, if I want it, we can do osteotomy, but first let’s refine it.
He told me more than I expected, and it was pretty good, but unfortunately I passed because I think his aesthetic preference and mine are a bit different. I think the naturalness he pursues and the naturalness I think of are different.
No matter how much he says he’ll match my needs, each director has a shape they pursue, so how can that be ignored…? For eye and nose surgery, every doctor pursues something different, and I think satisfaction is highest when you choose a doctor with similar taste to yours (TMI - because when I was younger, I didn’t know this and got double eyelid surgery and it failed), so I’m looking a lot based on that standard. Even if I show photos and say, please do it like this, I don’t think it’s possible for none of the doctor’s own signature style, which they’ve done over and over, to be reflected at all.. That point played a big role, so I passed.
As expected, he said my nose is not an easy one. Something I hear similarly wherever I go..
He recommended a straight-with-slight-curve line, but I feel a bit burdened by having only the nasal tip high, so I’m debating. But with his style, this feels flashy to me, so that bothers me the most. Looking at photos, the front view is just okay, but the side view is flashy (by my standards). He seems to like a semi-ski-slope nose. He said it was straight-with-slight-curve… but by my standards, I’m not sure. The front is pretty. But the side feels a bit too much. Rather than people with hooked noses like me, maybe people with low noses or bulbous noses would suit him better. Of course, I also have a bulbous nose, but I really want it to improve naturally, and here it feels a bit noticeable.
There weren’t many before-and-after photos I liked. (If the side was not great, the front was pretty, and if the front was not great, the side was okay… that kind of thing.)
But the consultation was good enough that if our design tastes had matched, I would have thought about doing it here.
2. ㅋㅂㅈ 4 million KRW
The director was kind.
First, the overall style is natural. It falls neatly, but it’s not a very obvious style. It’s like a nose arranged naturally and appropriately.
It wasn’t certain whether osteotomy would be done, but he said he might do it after opening it up. He said my hump is big, so he probably would. There is no additional fee even if the hump is removed.
He said there were no functional issues. He said he would tell me if something came up after taking another CT, but based on what he saw for now, functional nose surgery wasn’t needed.
He said he would open it up, do something with the septal cartilage somehow (even if he explained it, I don’t know, sorry lol), and if it was insufficient, he would use ear cartilage.
The consultation ended shorter than I expected. The director was kind, but I kind of felt like he wanted to wrap it up quickly.
It was interesting because there were a lot of before-and-after photos and cases similar to mine. I also liked that there was no price haggling.
But I was a bit concerned that he mainly uses septal cartilage (I want to mainly use ear cartilage), and the consultation wasn’t as detailed as I expected.
3. ㅂㄷㄴ-ㅈㅌㅇ 4.7 million KRW (includes 1.2 million KRW for functional surgery) I debated for quite a while. This wasn’t originally a place I planned to visit, but the before-and-after photos looked like the degree of natural correction I had in mind, so I suddenly added it. The hospital was quiet and clean.
He was gentle-spoken.
He reminded me of Teacher Gwang-yong’s way of speaking from that Hansarang Hiking Club. Plain and mild. With firmness added, and like 1.3x speed.
But the chronic issue with ENT clinics - they keep recommending functional nose surgery. I said I’m okay… But rather than functional issues, he talked about deviated septum from an external/aesthetic issue standpoint. He honestly said there was no functional problem.
Anyway, the before-and-after photos were pretty good. Overall, he tends to produce natural results.
The director said that every surgery can have problems. My trust went up a little at this part. Usually, doctors don’t bring this up first themselves. I had seen some reviews saying he doesn’t talk much compared to other places, but maybe because I prepared a lot of questions, it wasn’t to that extent.
Everywhere recommends osteotomy.. When I asked whether he uses septal extension or columellar strut, he said he uses both, but the former more often.
And he told me I don’t really have a preference for nasal tip design lololol Of course, he said it in a way that didn’t make me feel bad lol He was right. My taste is closer to straight rather than straight-with-slight-curve, but whatever he showed me here, it all looked pretty without feeling burdensome, so I thought I could feel reassured about the design if I entrusted it here. So every time he showed me something, I said it was pretty lololol
Even including before receiving reimbursement through indemnity insurance, this place was around the middle price range among the places I visited. But if insurance reimbursement works, it becomes the cheapest. The consultant also emphasized that AS is 2 years, and said all aftercare is done by the director. If I didn’t have a preferred surgical method or information I wanted, it was good enough that I would have done it here.
Apart from the price, he calmly and honestly told me what was possible and what wasn’t. The system also seemed fast, he has a very long career, and unlike some hospitals, I liked that he didn’t act like, “Everything I say is right!! I’m the best!!”
But looking at reviews, there are people who had problems, and more than anything, I think there probably isn’t a good reason why the hospital changed its name (very personal opinion), so I’m holding off on choosing it.
Whew… I still have a lot of consultation reviews left to write, but I’ll stop here for today. If you have questions, leave a comment.
For reference, I still haven’t chosen a hospital.