* Beyond the point where the skin is just rippling.. (photo attached)
Due to the folding phenomenon, I would have had to hide it and go around like that for at least 6 months.. and if I was unlucky, for more than 2 years, but the hospital insisted there was no problem with the surgery and even threatened to sue me for defamation. (Additional explanation at the very end)
To ease this, the doctor gave me filler as a stopgap measure.. but proper facelift specialists all shake their heads at this kind of response.
So I tried to dissolve the filler.. but the doctor refused, citing the risk of an allergic shock. I was in a bad mood, and it was basically a refusal of treatment.
** If I could turn back time 3 weeks, I would pay 10 million won and still want to go back to before the surgery.
1. Consultation process (8/17)
Maybe because it was a newly opened hospital, the interior (recovery room / operating room) looked somewhat chaotic rather than the exterior (front desk / waiting room). It felt less like something neatly organized and more like something hastily put together to fill out the setup?
* From the very first consultation day, I heard them swearing at a specific patient. Things like telling someone to call the police.. I did think something was a bit off at that point, but I just got swept up by the way they kept saying it would all be handled without any problem.
(1) They showed a great deal of confidence in the ear-behind square jaw technique, and I heard that not only simple angle osteotomy behind the ear, but also long-curve osteotomy and cortical osteotomy could be done as ear-behind square jaw surgery.
(2) Since there was no intraoral incision and they would use sleep anesthesia, I naturally viewed that positively.
2. Surgery day (11/1)
For personal reasons (liposuction), I had the surgery about 70 days after the consultation.
The interior still felt disorganized.
What was disappointing was that changing clothes took place in a recovery room that could accommodate only 2 to 3 people. It was not an enclosed space, just separated by curtains.
When there were men and women present, they sometimes recommended changing clothes in the restroom.
The operating room also had a chaotic atmosphere. Honestly, seeing how disorganized the operating room environment was did make me worry a little.
---
The nurses were kind, but when the anesthesia wore off in the operating room, it was quite noisy. There were 3 or 4 people chatting and laughing about all sorts of things.. so in one sense I felt reassured that the surgery had gone well, but.. it was unfamiliar for an operating room atmosphere.
--
I got the impression that the system was still not fully established.
3. Post-op course
(1) 11/1 (day of surgery)
Because ear-behind square jaw surgery and lower-face SMAS lifting were done together, the suture removal timing was about twice as long as what I had originally known for ear-behind square jaw surgery.
I had thought ear-behind square jaw stitches came out in 7 days, but it was 14 days.
This is somewhat understandable since SMAS lifting was performed at the same time.
But I think things like this.. should be explained in advance to patients who have compared it with intraoral incision and other methods. Especially for patients who care about quick recovery, I hope they take into account that stitch removal is a major factor affecting daily life.
I was told the surgery went well. Maybe because the clinic had only recently opened.. the atmosphere was chaotic and the system was not fully in place, but apart from that, I was relieved to hear the operation itself had been performed properly.
Of course, I still could not properly check my face because of the pressure dressing, so I plan to write the review step by step.
(2) 11/2 (day 1)
I visited for dressing removal and disinfection.
I can clearly feel that my contours improved. My side profile had been a complex for me, and it has definitely gotten much better. Even taking the swelling into account.
Since this was lower-face lifting, I had not expected much for my nasolabial folds.. but they had also been smoothed out a lot, which was surprising.
However, since it was still day 1, the area behind the ear and around the jaw was still very swollen, so I could see the skin wrinkling near my left ear.
It felt like the tightening was quite strong, enough to show a noticeable improvement in the nasolabial folds too. Right after surgery, these symptoms were not visible, so they said this would improve as the swelling went down over the course of at least a month.
* What worried me was that improving the nasolabial folds through an incision behind the ear.. would not realistically involve dissecting all the way into the nasolabial area, so it would have to be done by pulling the skin. Because of this, I wondered whether the amount of skin pulled was so large that it caused the skin near the ear to fold / ripple.
They took separate measures temporarily to cover this area.
-- Actually, I had wondered whether lower-face lifting would require a skin incision. If I pulled that area with my hand, the flesh / skin seemed to fold especially much. That is why I had actually asked the hospital about it in advance, because I thought it was not a problem with SMAS dissection but rather that the remaining skin might need to be cut away. --
There is pain at the sutured area near the ear.
(3) 11/3 (day 2)
I can feel the swelling increasing. I had heard that it usually peaks on day 3, and then the major swelling goes down quickly after that.. so I think I will have to keep that in mind until tomorrow.
Because the incision was behind the ear, there is no swelling in the midface, and only the lower face is very swollen.
(4) 11/4 (day 3)
The swelling has come up a lot. The lower face is swollen for longer than the cheekbone area. It looks like mumps.
The area where the skin is folded from the SMAS lifting is still noticeable around the ear.
The pain at the sutured area near the ear has eased a little.
Exactly after 72 hours, I can feel the swelling starting to go down. It seemed pretty bad, but I guess that was the peak.
--- Swelling is common in all square jaw surgeries, so I am not too concerned about that, but I think the claim that one can return to daily life 2 to 3 days after ear-behind square jaw surgery probably needs to be revised.
If it were really just a case of cutting the mandibular angle behind the ear and stitching it back up right away, the surgery would probably take under 30 minutes, so recovery after 3 days might make sense.
But.. considering that long-curve square jaw surgery and mini-lifting with SMAS dissection were also done, the surgery time and recovery period would inevitably be longer.
That said.. does ear-behind incision mean that only light walking is possible from the next day? Eating is not a big problem.
---
(5) 11/5 (day 4)
I went in for a progress check.
The swelling is at its peak, and beyond a double chin, something thick is bulging separately under the chin like a toad's neck. It is hard.
The folded skin near the ear, they said, was because the skin had been pulled very tightly without making a skin incision. They said it had been tightened that much for symmetry.
They injected filler as a temporary measure to reduce the awkward-looking area a little, but.. I do not really feel much difference.
They said this symptom may take up to 2 months to ease.
Since this affects daily life, I will likely have to keep covering it, and I am worried...
For now, by the time the stitches come out, the major swelling should have subsided, so realistically I am thinking about consulting whether the more traditional facelift method of skin incision is necessary.
The chief doctor is personally taking responsibility and trying to resolve it, so I plan to trust that and wait a little longer.
(6) 11/6
The pain has largely subsided.
I can eat regular food.
However, I have developed a new thick toad-like double chin that was not there before, and I had dismissed it as swelling, but when I touch it, I can feel something hard.
I saw a video saying that in bone surgery, sometimes the platysma muscle falls downward. That can make it look like a big toad-like double chin has formed.. so I am worried whether this might be that case.
I hope it is only a temporary symptom caused by swelling..
(7) 11/7
There is something like a tough muscle under the chin that I can feel, and because of that it looks like a toad's neck. I hope it is just swelling.
The director said it is only day 7 and that they would give me a swelling injection, so I plan to visit.
(8) 11/10
I do not feel that recovery or returning to daily life is especially fast just because it is ear-behind square jaw surgery. I still look more than 1.5 times larger than my original face, with a toad-like neck and broad square jaw.
Recovery is slower than for people who had square jaw surgery through an intraoral incision. Other surgeries recovered quickly, but square jaw surgery.. is really painful to look at in the mirror.
(9) 11/12
By day 11, the swelling is finally starting to go down in a noticeable way. The folded skin is still there.. but I am glad that my original facial shape is coming back.
Because I initially thought ear-behind square jaw surgery would make swelling go down very quickly.. I think that made me even more uneasy.
If ear-behind square jaw surgery takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes rather than 30 minutes, and if SMAS dissection is additionally performed for lifting..
In my case, I wonder whether the swelling takes longer to go down than with square jaw surgery through an intraoral incision.
(10) 11/15
The stitches were removed. The swelling has also improved a lot.
For the area where the skin was rippling, they said they would observe it for about a month, and if there was still a cosmetic problem after that, the director would take separate measures.
* 11/19 (the shameless reversal of threatening to sue for defamation)
I was told that the skin folding would definitely be resolved, so I should live like this for about 6 months.
Because of this, I was told to keep covering it, and to just think of people staring at it as ordinary swelling.
I was told that if it is not resolved within 6 months, additional measures would be taken.. but I do not know what those measures are supposed to be.
I heard that at another hospital, when they saw this condition, they said to first wait about a month for the swelling to go down, and if the skin folding still seemed likely to remain, then that area would need to be incised and the skin cut away.
This is a very trustworthy hospital, and the surgery cost involved is also considerable. I am also worried about the newly remaining scar in front.
---
They said that if I write anything bad in the review, they would sue me for defamation.
They injected filler into the folded skin area, and when I asked to remove that temporary measure, the doctors who focus on facelifts were greatly taken aback and shook their heads, so I requested that the filler be removed.
Then at first they refused treatment.. and then, mentioning the risk of shock from an allergic reaction if the filler were removed, they said it could not be done that day.
The CT images taken here before surgery in the past had been deleted.
I barely managed to secure an appointment for filler removal and left the hospital.. but the hospital's response is extremely strange.