First of all, I had a closed procedure 2 years ago: cartilage binding + Megaderm. My nose has a lot of flesh and is on the thick side, so it was a procedure that did not suit me at all, but back then I was too lazy to research clinics and just wanted something as fast and convenient as possible, so I didn't do any legwork and went for it... So for the revision surgery, I wanted to be extremely careful and looked for places with a long-serving head doctor at a one-doctor clinic as much as possible.
When I went around for revision consultations, every doctor asked why I had used Megaderm and where I had done it... lol. They all said it was a nose that absolutely should not have been done that way... Anyway, my nose has a low glabella, but the tip is relatively high, the alar lobules have a lot of flesh, the columella is tucked in, and the nasal sidewalls are thick... But my nostrils are small, so I can't do alar reduction.
I'll share my consultation reviews for ㅂㅇㅇ / ㅅㅍㄹㅅ / ㅎㅌ / ㅈㅇㅈㅇ / ㅅㅇ / ㅇㄷ.
1. ㅂㅇㅇ / ㅇㅈㅈ doctor (yes, the clinic famous for closed rhinoplasty) I had to wait too long for the chief doctor, so I saw another doctor. He did say I do have a bulbous nose, but he kept calling my nose a "nose blob," which made me feel bad..
At first I had failed with a non-incisional procedure, but I still had some lingering attachment to non-incisional methods, and since cartilage from the ear seemed good to crush and insert, I went for the consultation. They said to redo the cartilage through a closed method, remove fat, take ear cartilage from both left and right, and place it into the nasolabial angle and nasal tip.
But because the glabella is low, silicone would probably be good, and if I didn't want silicone they said to insert the temporalis muscle? I was completely like, huh... T_T
Anyway, they said the line that could be made from my nose would be made as much as possible in the style of a photo of Kim Yoo-jung's nose (a nose with a low glabella and a high tip).
Even though it was closed, it was still too expensive, so I thought I probably shouldn't do it. Also, what I realized after consultations at other clinics was that a bulbous nose absolutely needs open surgery...
2. ㅅㅍㄹㅅ (ㅜㅡㅓㅡ) CT cost included It's a one-doctor clinic that has been around for more than 20 years, and even the consultation manager was not young and had worked there for over 10 years, so I felt completely confident.
I also liked that I met the doctor right away instead of seeing the consultation manager first.
The doctor explained things as thoroughly as possible and even used cotton swabs to hold and point out details several times, so the consultation was very careful.
Because my face is asymmetric, the alar lobules are uneven, so they suggested external alar reduction?... I don't really remember because I wasn't keen on it.
They said silicone was definitely necessary, and for the columella and nasal tip they would use septal cartilage and ear cartilage.
But on the CT it seemed sufficient, and they said if the septal cartilage was not enough they would have to use rib cartilage, which made me go hmm... The extra rib cartilage cost was in the high 1 million won range. And because my face is asymmetric, they said to fill in the hollowed area near the left nasal bridge with ear cartilage. This was the only clinic that mentioned that while I was going around for consultations, so I wasn't sure whether doing that was good or not.
Still, I liked that they were trying to improve the asymmetric parts of my face as much as possible, but I kept wondering whether it was okay to keep adding this and that onto my nose..
Also, because the side of my nose is sunken, they said I absolutely had to do nostril base reduction together with a graft to the cheek area, which seems to be this doctor's style, like trying to make the cheek filler-like area a set. My friend also consulted here and was told to do the cheek-area graft, and I saw posts in other consultation reviews saying the same, so that made me hesitate.
I do normally worry about the cheek-area hollowing, so I was wavering.
Overall: the consultation manager was caring and kind like a mother + the doctor had a strong opinion but explained things well tailored to my nose + the price was reasonable, so I thought about it a lot.
3. ㅎㅌ / ㅎㅅㅊ doctor (CT cost included) A coworker had consulted here and said they would do it there, so I went too. But it turned out the doctor who operated on my coworker and the doctor who consulted me were different.
I had high expectations, but the doctor spent maybe 10 minutes on the nose consultation and then left quickly... that felt a bit off. Of course I should have held him back and asked more, but it felt like he just said what he wanted to say and then rushed out.
When I said I was unsure whether to use silicone, he said that although the glabella is low, the nasal bridge itself is not that low, so if I was worried about side effects I didn't necessarily have to use it.
He said that correcting the tip with septal cartilage and ear cartilage would improve the bulbous nose a lot, but it was too expensive..
The consultation ended really fast, but the before-and-after photos and the doctor's way of speaking made me feel he was proud of being good at bulbous noses, so I trusted him somewhat. But with every added item and every extra item and every extra extra cost, it got too expensive.
And since they wouldn't even use silicone... I put it on hold.
4. ㅈㅇㅈㅇ (ㅏㅕㅜㅢ) (CT cost included) At other clinics, they said my septal cartilage seemed sufficient, but here, even on the CT, it looked insufficient, and because my columella is deeply sunken, they said it would really end up small, so they said rib cartilage must be used. So I was like, huh...
Of course it's a revision surgery... but it felt like I had a nose from a first surgery where none of my own tissue had been used, so why was I already being told to use the nasolabial angle area?
But they said it had to be made sturdy for the future, and because my columella is too sunken, rib cartilage absolutely had to be used, so hmm...
Aside from that, the doctor drew the nose very prettily and said it could come out like this... and spoke very slowly and in an easy-to-understand way, which I liked.
Normally I look at before-and-after plastic surgery photos to make up my mind, but I had another consultation coming up soon, so I couldn't see them and left.
Apart from the suggestion to use rib cartilage, I liked the doctor's explanation, confidence, and the price, but maybe because I couldn't see the before-and-after photos, I still couldn't decide for sure.
They also said if I didn't want silicone, I didn't have to use it. It seems like there were no extra add-on fees here? The price was the same whether silicone was used or not.
With rib cartilage included, the price was reasonable, so I was even more tempted, and it became my second choice.
5. ㅅㅇ (ㅣㅜ) (CT cost included) My friend had surgery here and it turned out completely naturally and well. Even though 4 mm of silicone was used, there was no sign of it at all.
The doctor also showed before-and-after photos and asked, "How many mm do you think this used?" I said 2 mm because it looked so natural, but he said it was 4 mm, and that this was how naturally he did it.
The before-and-after photos were all natural and pretty, and the doctor seemed very proud.
But my nose was said to be a really difficult one for surgery, like top 20%, with many limitations (thick nasal sidewalls, high tip).
Anyway, they suggested putting in 4 mm of silicone, but because the alar lobules have thick flesh while the glabella area is thin, they said to use dermis. This was another first for me... Since the silicone might show through, they said to use dermis, or something like Aloderm instead of silicone, and I thought hmm..
My goal is to make my nose smaller, so I said alar base reduction (outer wall) would be good, but they said that could be done later after the nose surgery.
Also, at first when I had the CT, they said the septal cartilage seemed sufficient, but after I told them that the previous clinic said it looked small and that rib cartilage would be needed, they suddenly changed their wording and said that if the septal cartilage is insufficient, rib cartilage may have to be used~ It felt like sales tactics to me.
But they had said the same thing to my friend, that rib cartilage could be used if the septal cartilage was insufficient, and my friend did surgery using septal cartilage, so I trusted them somewhat. Still, the fact that they said rib cartilage could be used after I brought it up, even though they had said my CT seemed sufficient, felt a bit off.
It would have needed silicone or dermis + septal cartilage or rib cartilage + ear cartilage, and that was also way too expensive
If rib cartilage were added, it would have been close to 10 million won... The doctor himself seemed to have a good aesthetic sense, and the before-and-after photos all looked good to me, but because rib cartilage might be used and because of the cost, I was conflicted again.
Also, the consultation manager said that my nose would need to be made much higher for the bulbous nose to improve, but because it is a nose that cannot be raised too much, the difference before and after surgery would actually not be very large. So I thought, then what? Do I really need to pay around 10 million won for a surgery that won't show much? and excluded them.
6. ㅇㄷ (ㅖㅏ) (no CT) It was a very long-standing one-doctor clinic that had been in the same spot for over 20 years, so I trusted it. Here too, I liked that I could talk directly with the doctor without going through the consultation manager.
The doctor was a total chatterbox.. lol. He talked a lot, but that actually made me trust him more.
Because this was the last clinic I consulted, I had heard a lot of things, so I asked many questions like, "What about this? What about that?" and he said none of it was really necessary.
He said these days clinics all take CT scans and photos, but honestly, if a layperson looks at them, nobody knows anything. He said it doesn't show how much septal cartilage there is, so everyone is just guessing.
He just felt my nose briefly and said my own septal cartilage would be enough.
He also said rib cartilage was not needed, and that if rib cartilage were used, the stork-like nose shape I dislike would appear, so I should absolutely not do that.
I asked about the cheek-area graft too, and he said he does that kind of surgery all the time to remove it, so don't do it.
Then I looked at the before-and-after photos, and the shape was completely natural and matched my preferred style, which I really liked.
The cost also seemed reasonable at this level... and I was worried because there were really not many rhinoplasty reviews here, but when I asked, 80-90% of the patients came through recommendations from acquaintances, so they don't do review events at all, which is why there are no reviews.
The doctor himself doesn't like anything too flashy or obvious. I had been worried that if I made it too natural, it might not show, so maybe I should make it more definite, and the doctor explained very well why that would not be okay, so I decided to do it here!
Cost-wise, it seems to be roughly in this order: ㅅㅇ, ㅎㅌ > ㅈㅇㅈㅇ, ㅂㅇㅇ > ㅇㄷ, ㅅㅍㄹㅅ
Tips for choosing a clinic... First, if the doctor seems too greedy for money, I don't think that's a good sign. Also, if they keep telling you to do too many different things, that also doesn't seem right... Of course it may suit me, but would that really be good in the long term?
And you absolutely need to look at before-and-after photos of cases similar to your own nose. I think matching my aesthetic sense with the doctor's is important.
I rushed into my first surgery without thinking... It improved not even a little, but I still ended up paying revision costs
If you're thinking about nose surgery, please make sure to research at least 5 places.