1 year review of Yanyundol double jaw surgery and genioplasty (2-step osteotomy)

When I was in high school, I had buck teeth and crooked teeth, so I went to an orthodontic clinic for a consultation about that. Back then, they told me that because of my underbite and malocclusion I would need double jaw surgery, but I was not in a good financial situation, so I only got orthodontic treatment. As an adult, my teeth became aligned, but my underbite and malocclusion remained, and I had severe appearance-related complexes. Because of that, of course I had no confidence, and my self-esteem was very low. I was afraid of feeling other people’s eyes on me. When I walked around the street, I kept thinking, 'Oh, this is insane... it feels like everyone is only looking at my face and will think I’m ugly.' While working at a construction site, there was a lot of dust, so I wore a mask at work, and the people I worked with said I was handsome. I also remember that at a restaurant or at some point, someone saw me without a mask and reacted as if they had seen a scammer wearing a mask. During the pandemic, I wore a mask when I went out, and I think I liked it because covering my face felt a little better then too. That’s how severe my appearance complex was.In August 2024, life had become difficult, and while thinking about how to find some motivation, I came to the conclusion that I should finally get the double jaw surgery I had not been able to do before. But as I looked into it, I kept hearing things like 'double jaw surgery is dangerous' and 'people have died during double jaw surgery,' and I was also worried because of the controversy around ghost surgery and shadow doctors that had been a big issue for some time. So when I was looking for a hospital, I decided that whether there was CCTV in the operating room was important, along with whether it was not a factory-style clinic, whether an anesthesiologist was on site, and whether there was a safety system. While looking through various sites, Naver cafes, and apps to get information about double jaw surgery hospitals, I thought oral and maxillofacial surgery would be more specialized in jaws than plastic surgery, so I narrowed it down to three hospitals with at least somewhat similar before-and-after cases.I was a case where you could say there was no clear boundary between my neck and jaw, and I had an underbite, malocclusion, and mandibular hypoplasia. There was no one as severe as me, and I thought it would have been better if I had an underbite, because creating something that does not exist is not easy at all.After struggling to choose, I first decided on three places: Yanyundol, [Clinic A], and [Clinic B], and went to Yanyundol first for a consultation.During the consultation with the coordinator, when checking whether improvement would be possible, they told me that my gums and philtrum were long and that when I smiled, a lot of teeth showed, which was a gummy smile. I had only been focused on my jaw, so they answered well about the parts I had not known about and the questions I had prepared, and said that if I had surgery it looked like it could have a dramatic effect.In the consultation with the chief doctor, they carefully examined the problems with my face and checked things like 'Please look over there,' 'Please look to the side,' and 'Please look forward again,' which made me feel that this was different from a typical consultation. I also had consultations at the other two places. In fact, all three places I chose had the basics like operating-room CCTV, an anesthesiologist on site, and safety systems well in place, and as far as I remember, they were not factory-style hospitals either.Because I had so little jaw, they told me they would also consider genioplasty together with the double jaw surgery and discussed how many millimeters the jaw could be advanced. Yanyundol said 15 mm, while the other two said 8 mm and under 10 mm, so when I considered everything, the place I chose was Yanyundol. I was about to consider going somewhere else too, but I canceled that and ultimately made my final choice.In August 2024, I was told that presurgical treatment would be possible, and when I went to the cooperating orthodontic clinic for a consultation, they said presurgical treatment was possible, but because there was a chance of a side effect such as relapse, they recommended preoperative orthodontics for a more stable result. After thinking it over, I accepted that and started with preoperative orthodontics.During orthodontic treatment, because my lower jaw was structurally narrow, they also installed an arch-expansion device in the lower jaw to widen the dental arch. In April 2025, the orthodontic clinic recommended that it would be good to do the double jaw surgery around May, so I contacted the hospital again and was told that a surgery date at the end of May was available. Once I received the message saying I had to transfer the deposit, I started worrying again. When I looked at reviews about whether to do double jaw surgery, genioplasty only, or both together, there were cases where genioplasty only worked well enough, so I had a lot of concerns. I even thought about redoing the consultation and choosing again, but I canceled the consultation and ultimately decided to proceed as originally planned with double jaw surgery + genioplasty + secondary angle correction.I confirmed the surgery date for the end of May, and the coordinator asked me to send any face image or celebrity photo I wanted, so I sent a celebrity photo I had been using as a reference. That photo was attached to my chart and reflected in the surgical plan. In the final consultation with the chief doctor, he honestly explained, using that photo as reference, that it might be difficult to reach the desired result with the existing double jaw surgery and genioplasty alone. For a case like mine, where the lower jaw is pulled far back and the lower-face volume is insufficient, he judged that a two-step osteotomy genioplasty would be necessary. Of course it was a more difficult method, so there was an extra cost, but in the end the plan was adjusted that way and I had surgery with double jaw surgery + two-step osteotomy genioplasty.The hardest thing after surgery was breathing. My nose was swollen and blocked, so I could not breathe through my nose, and my tongue inside my mouth was also swollen, so breathing through my mouth was difficult too. Pain medication was continuously administered, so the pain was tolerable. After two days in the hospital, I was discharged, but at home it was so hard that I could not sleep at all. I kept going back and forth to the bathroom, and in the middle of the night I was overwhelmed by anxiety, thinking, 'Am I going to die because I can’t breathe?' I had all kinds of thoughts, and even thought, 'I made a useless surgery, I regret it. There is a reason people say to live as you were born.' But I endured it, and what I got after getting through that hard time was a surgery where 21 mm was brought forward from the chin, to the point that the chief doctor said it was unprecedented. I had seen many reviews, but I had never seen anyone advance that much, and my condition was said to be one where no one with such a lack of chin had appeared before.It has already been a year since the surgery, but even now, when I look at photos of my old face, I think, 'How did I even live like that?' Seeing how different I look now makes me tear up, and I think I really did the surgery right. I do regret not having done it sooner, but before surgery I received many comments saying I was handsome, which I had never heard before, and now people around me have gotten used to it so I do not hear it much anymore, but I am satisfied.A few days ago, I went to the hospital for my one-year follow-up. They took X-rays, CT scans, and photos, and I met with the chief doctor. He said I had essentially finished the first phase, the bones had all fused properly, there were no problems, and it would be good to have the pin removal done this year. The chief doctor’s last words still stand out to me: 'You are really a handsome man now, and I feel good.'Before surgery, the worst thing was that because of my appearance complex, I hated myself for not being able to love myself. I had rock-bottom self-esteem, social anxiety, and all sorts of problems. After surgery, having that resolved and being able to be free from other people’s gaze feels amazing. If there is anyone out there who has been struggling for a long time with an appearance complex like mine, I hope they do not delay any longer and do their research well before getting out of it.