First, if I have surgery this time, it will be my 3rd revision surgery, and up to now I’ve had all of them in Busan. Not in Seomyeon. If I had done it in Seomyeon instead, maybe I wouldn’t have gone through all this suffering. Anyway, this was my first time going to Seoul to do consultations in person.
I went around 6 clinics in one day and came back, but I still don’t know... I kept worrying until it felt like my head was going to explode, so I’m posting this.
First surgery Incisional + ptosis correction (probably? But I was young then, so I think they said even the canthoplasty, and maybe even ptosis correction, couldn’t be done. It was so long ago I don’t remember.) Well, since it was done at a neighborhood clinic, there was no way it turned out well... The double eyelids completely came undone, and my eyes were already asymmetrical, so of course they were still asymmetrical after surgery.
Revision surgery - I became an adult and that’s when I went completely off the rails Incisional + ptosis correction + medial canthoplasty + lateral canthoplasty + lower canthoplasty I stubbornly insisted that I absolutely wanted an out-line, and said it had to be an out-line; for reference, I have sunken eyes, and on top of that my eyelids are easy to lose their fold... Considering the rest of my eye condition, an out-line was clearly a high-risk line, but the surgeon said if I really wanted it, okay, they would do it... so I went ahead (idiot me...)
Up to that point, I think the extra skin was probably still okay. I don’t think I had lagophthalmos, and I don’t think I had lid retraction. But the important thing was that my asymmetry still wasn’t fixed. Even the double-eyelid line was uneven, and I wanted the outer and lower corners opened more too, so I had another revision the very next year.
Re-revision - done at the same clinic as the revision surgery, and I had it one year later right away I think this time it was incisional only (they also removed skin). After surgery, the swelling wasn’t bad and I thought it was okay, but when the swelling went down it somehow seemed like my eyes were still asymmetrical. And sure enough, the line thickness was uneven again... At that eye condition, I felt if I did any more it would really be a disaster, so I gave up on my eyes and kept living with it. After this surgery, I got lagophthalmos in my left eye and suffered for about 7-8 years. As time passed and the eyes sagged a bit, thankfully the lagophthalmos seems to be gone now.
Current eye condition My eyes are basically sunken, and the distance between my eyes is 14 mm, so it is very narrow. On top of that, I had a lot of skin removed, so there is almost no extra skin left. In fact, my right eye is even more sunken than the left, and the eyeball itself is relatively smaller than the left eye.
Because of that, the left eye looks bigger, and the double-eyelid line is thicker on the left and thinner on the right.
But because they removed so much skin from already sunken eyes, there isn’t enough spare skin, so the line becomes unclear and faded... And as expected, when the line loosened in that state, if I open my right eye forcefully when it’s swollen, it turns into a scarred, wrinkled eye with two scar lines.. The left eye is thicker in the front part of the line, centered around the middle of the eye, and the back part is relatively thinner. You know what I mean, it’s just a super asymmetrical mess
So the improvement order that mattered most to me was 1. Symmetry of the double-eyelid line (I know it can’t be perfectly symmetrical like eyes that had a successful surgery) 2. Tired-looking eyes because the pupil is covered -> clear eye shape (insufficient eye-opening strength) 3. After that, the line shape, but even then I couldn’t give up the out-line and wanted a semi-out 4. The back side of the right eye is higher than the left, so I wanted to ask whether a right lower/lateral canthoplasty would be possible 5. I still don’t plan to get a forehead lift last (I can’t anyway, with my eye condition there is no extra skin), but I wanted to ask about it
And now the re-re-revision consultations... Except for one of the 6 clinics I visited, everyone said the only answer is incisional + ptosis correction Still, the surgical methods were a little different, so I organized them (one syllable of the clinic name is hidden)
1. ㅌㅇX (English) - head doctor Incisional, but no skin removal / no forehead lift / no lower-lateral canthoplasty / in-out
A clinic that keeps talking about forehead lifts all the time but didn’t recommend a forehead lift, and said to wait about 10 years.. The line can only be in-out, not semi-out They said I should give up on the double-eyelid line; in other words, since double eyelids can’t be helped, make the eyes clearer with ptosis correction
I asked whether I wouldn’t get lagophthalmos, and they said they would prescribe eye-dryness prevention medication, and that after about 6 months it usually gradually gets better. They also said fat grafting could be done during surgery, but since I’m still young, they said to assume they won’t do it
At first they talked about lowering the left eyelid line, but after seeing the note that I wanted a semi-out, they said they would consider raising the double-eyelid line by 1 mm (hmm...) It probably won’t happen
In any case, I really did not like the way they set the line My left eye had already had a lot of incision work, so it was out-semi-out, but they were forcing it into an in-out line They proceeded by fixing the left eye and matching the right eye to it The price was the most expensive of all the places I visited
2. ㅇㅎX - 1 doctor Incisional, skin removal yes / no forehead lift / no lower-lateral canthoplasty / in-out
What was really surprising here was that everything I had always looked at in the mirror and thought, “this part is like this... this part is like that,” they described exactly that way (I swear on my parents and ancestors that I’m not a broker, it was just that shocking and such a relief) The improvement priorities 1 and 2 above were the most important to me, and they said they would specifically aim for symmetry + clarity They also said it would likely be an in-out line
They took eye photos on a tablet and explained while drawing the line, and it was really the direction I wanted. The problem was that I had almost no extra skin, but they said they would remove skin on the right eye at the minimum necessary level to improve the scar line.. For the left eye too, they said they would minimally remove skin to lower the thick front part of the line They said they would first fix the thick front line of the left eye and then solve the rest of it I said I was worried about lagophthalmos, and they said with that degree of skin removal, lagophthalmos would not happen, so not to worry
But... there seem to be too few reviews, so I’m torn... They had only recently started surgery and said to wait 30 minutes, but I feel like I didn’t even wait the full 30 minutes? It somehow felt like they came out in the middle of surgery.....? Overall I was satisfied with the consultation. The line they set was also good, as far as I remember The price was exactly what I thought was reasonable
3. ㅇㅁX - Dr. D Incisional, skin removal yes / no forehead lift / lower-lateral canthoplasty on the right eye only / semi-out
Here too, skin removal would be kept to a minimum They basically said there is no need to even debate it, and that the only answer is incisional + ptosis correction That surgeon’s personality is already famous, so I want to skip that part.. When I asked how they would do it, they started to explain but then stopped and said that they had explained everything up to now, but I wouldn’t understand anyway (Probably tired of saying the same thing every day) They said even more extreme things too, but I’ll leave those out
After the consultation, on the way up to the lobby I asked a staff member, “Is that doctor’s personality always like that?” and the staff member was like, “Ah... yes ” lol It felt like I had gone out and listened to someone complain after fighting with a friend They were so annoyed it was hilarious Just thinking about that doctor makes me laugh because it’s so absurd It goes beyond being unpleasant
Anyway, the method here was similar: lower the left line, raise the right line, match the symmetry, and sharpen the eye shape with ptosis correction And what was interesting was that they said lower-lateral canthoplasty would be possible only on the right eye They also said semi-out was possible, basically everything was possible ㅇㅇ
But if the surgery went wrong and I didn’t even know why and just thought it was ruined, that would be terrifying.. I almost fell for it because of the faint sense of craziness there Still, they brought up the price difference between peak season and off-season themselves, and hinted that it would be better to do it in the off-season, so I did think, oh? (The doctor’s push-pull game is insane;) The price was pretty good, within my expected range
4. ㅍㄹXㅇ - Dr. J Incisional, no skin removal / no forehead lift / no lower-lateral canthoplasty / semi-out, but they said it would probably look like in-out
Even the coordinator said from the consultation that my eyes might not be suitable, but the doctor said they would take a look, so I got the consultation Personally, I think this was the most realistic and conservative clinic, so I was a little drawn to it
They said because I have no extra skin, skin removal absolutely should not be done Literally just incise and re-set the line, then suture Ptosis correction would also be done with the minimum necessary only They said they weren’t confident going beyond that
They set the line on the right eye and asked if I liked it; I said yes, and they said they would lower the left line to match that line They would perform surgery by matching the left eye to the right eye
But my right eye still has a little extra skin compared with the left, and since the line is small, if they don’t remove skin and only reset the line, I worry the line on the right eye might loosen again over time as it sags.. So I started wondering even more whether I should go to a place that would remove skin on the right eye The price seemed to be set based on off-season pricing, maybe because peak-season reservations were almost full. It was within what I considered a reasonable price
5. ㅍㄹXㅂ - Dr. ㅇㅈㅇ Incisional, no skin removal - might proceed depending on the situation / no forehead lift / lower-lateral canthoplasty possible, but if done it has to be on both sides / in-out
Here too they said they would set the right eye line and match the left It was the same as the other clinics: lower the left line and raise the right line to match symmetry As for skin removal, they said the exact answer would only be known after actually doing surgery, and fat grafting was mentioned too, but they said it probably wouldn’t be necessary
Because my eyes are easy to lose the fold, they said they would fix it firmly Of course, you don’t know for sure until surgery starts I just wonder how it would have been if I had gotten a more exact answer
They also said lower-lateral canthoplasty is recommended if the goal is to make the eyes bigger and lower the outer corners, but if the goal is to make them longer horizontally, they wouldn’t recommend it because the bone is too close and it won’t be effective Here the doctor said that if the surgeon hasn’t done deep eye-area surgery much, they might even say my eyes are impossible to operate on The line they set was very much to my liking, and since they said the same things as the other clinics I had already visited... There wasn’t anything especially unique to report, but the idea was that lower-lateral canthoplasty could be done separately later, so first solve the double-eyelid area The price was the second most expensive after clinic 1
6. ㄴㅅX - Dr. ㄱㄷㅎ I went here on a same-day reservation because I had time before taking the train The head doctor’s schedule was already closed for January, so the staff recommended another doctor
They said they couldn’t really touch my eyes, and even if they did, the best they could do was to set a line on the right eye with natural adhesion.. What the doctor at clinic 5 said, that this is the kind of eye where an inexperienced deep-eye surgeon might say it’s impossible, suddenly came back to mind
Of course, I’m not saying this doctor is like that, but given the situation, everything lined up so neatly that I couldn’t help but feel a reasonable suspicion.. I really have nothing more to say
Price 1st >>> 5th >>>>>> 3rd >>> 4th > 2nd (6th excluded)
So I went to 6 places, but I still can’t decide on a clinic... For now, 6 is definitely out, and I had the highest expectations for clinic 1, but the consultation wasn’t satisfying, so I don’t think I’ll go there...
Additional clinics I’m considering are Dr. ㄱ at ㄱㄹㄷ Dr. ㅊ at ㄱㄴㅅㅇ Dr. ㄴ at ㅇㅔㅍ ㅇㅇ큐 - this one is famous anyway.. Dr. ㅂ at ㅇㅇㅇㅝㄴ Dr. ㄱ at ㅇㅇㄷㅔㄹ
That’s roughly it. Since I’m definitely an incisional-case eye, I left natural adhesion out unless there was a very strong reason, and chose clinics that way Other recommendations are welcome, and if you read my post, feedback about my eye condition would also be appreciated This got really long. I kept debating whether to write it or not, but after finally writing this consultation review, I hope it helps even a little, and I hope someone can help me too