After <45-degree side view> After <side view> After <front view>https://sungyesa.com/new/plugin/mobile/board.php?bo_table=b01&wr_id=990518 (If you want the day-1 review and pre-op photos, go here)
https://sungyesa.com/new/plugin/mobile/board.php?bo_table=b01&wr_id=992917 (Day-7 review, no photos, surgery progress record)
[❗️This post includes photos showing my face as is. Please do not repost it to other communities, and unauthorized sharing, reproduction, or distribution may result in civil and criminal liability✨️❗️]
Hi! I’m the person who posted a review last July about my low-nose ear-cartilage tip surgery at Goksaem. Only the tip was touched with ear cartilage; the bridge and hump were not addressed.
There are very few first-surgery reviews from this clinic, and a lot of people ask about the post-op course, so I made up my mind and wrote a review after 200 days.
1. Overall satisfaction with the surgery I had the surgery in early July last year, so it has been a little over half a year plus one month. The photos are 45-degree, side, and front views, and they were taken with a phone camera without makeup or Photoshop..!
To explain my satisfaction level, I would say it is 101% (heh)
What I’m most satisfied with is that it looks completely natural and there is no obvious sign of surgery! From the consultation with the director onward, I strongly related to the idea that a nose surgery is well done if other people look at it and react with something like, “Did you have surgery..?” or “Oh, you lost weight!” and seem unsure. That is exactly how mine turned out.
My family all say the nose surgery turned out really well, and even friends who have known me for a long time say that if I don’t bring it up first, they can tell I look much prettier but can’t figure out what changed. When I tell them I had nose surgery, only then do they say, “It turned out so well~.”
Even when I take selfies, it’s still amazing how dramatic the change looks along the side line of my nose.
2. What exactly changed?
2-1. Side profile line Originally, I had a very slight hump on the bridge, the tip was sunken, the cartilage was weak, and the nostrils looked pinched. From the side, the bridge was almost there and then the tip dipped down. It was called a hump, but it was so slight that it was basically like the old IU nose, with the tip drooping... such a small, unattractive nose (see the first post for photos).
I had long wanted to leave the bridge alone and just raise the tip slightly along the bridge line, and it seems to have turned out exactly as I hoped.
What I like most is that they did not touch the hump..! As you can see in the 45-degree and side photos, leaving a very slight hump in the middle of the nasal line seems to create a nose shape that is both natural and nicely defined.
During the consultation, another hospital suggested shaving the hump a little because of asymmetry (of course, they also said they were known for making it look natural there too, and that if I wanted, they could leave it unshaved) But I did not want to damage the natural bridge line, so from the start I liked that Goksaem wanted to leave the hump alone. In fact, naturally high noses often do not have a perfectly smooth line and have a slight hump; after surgery, when I heard people’s reactions, they said that because the hump was left there, it looked exactly like my original nose.
2-2. Front view From the consultation onward, they said there would not be a big change from the front, but after the actual surgery, the change was greater than I expected.
My nose was already quite small, so the width of the bridge area was not that broad, but as the tip height went up, it does feel like my nose became a bit more slender.
Also, because the nostrils originally had a pinched look, the nostril area was somewhat emphasized; they opened that area up in a fuller, more voluminous way, so after the surgery the nose somehow feels more like it did before surgery..
2-3. Scar under the nose Because it was done as an open procedure, a scar on the columella was unavoidable.. But unless someone lays me down and inspects it closely, the scar is not visible. There is no redness, and the scar is almost symmetric and straight. I did not upload nostril photos, but the symmetry is good!
2-4. Collapse after surgery People usually say that if you like the nose shape right after surgery, that surgery is actually a failure..?
Honestly.. I liked the nose shape so much on the first day that I worried it might collapse even more from there, but as you can see in the photos, it hardly collapsed at all..! As the swelling along the side line went down, the slight hump became visible and created a curve in the line, but that was exactly what I wanted, so I’m very satisfied.
Maybe because the surgery was done so delicately, there was almost no swelling to begin with, and there was some minor swelling visible from the front right after surgery, but now that half a year has passed, even that has gone down completely, so this seems to be the final result.
3. Is the ear okay? Among reviews of this clinic, there was one saying that because the ear cartilage was taken from the front, their earphones kept falling out. In conclusion, it seems to be about 90% fine!
I had a lot of cartilage harvested from my left ear and only a little from the right, and at 200 days after surgery I can feel that the shape of the cartilage in the two ears is slightly different. Especially when I run fast or do similar things, the earphone in my left ear sometimes falls out. (For reference, I use the Buds Pro 2.)
But it has never fallen out during ordinary daily life or while walking I use my earphones just fine~ so don’t worry too much! There is an incision scar, but because the incision is made along the cartilage line, it does not seem like anyone would ever see it.
4. What about the director’s aesthetic sense? I don’t think this can be stated definitively, because everyone’s aesthetic sense is different.
Someone who wants a flashy nose might think, “Why do that much surgery for that cost?” or “The hump is still there, so the nasal line is uneven. What’s so good about that?”
But for someone like me who wants a natural nose that looks like my original nose, the director’s aesthetic sense seems trustworthy enough.
Someone also asked whether they make it long or short, and from the before-and-after revision photos I saw during consultation, plus my own experience, it seems they simply adjust it to match the balance of each person’s face. (This was similar at the other hospitals I visited for consultation.)
Everyone’s face is different, and a nose that suits one person very well may not suit another at all.
5. Is it okay for a first surgery? Yes, I strongly recommend it.
Since this clinic is so well known for revision surgery, there are many people who wonder what it would be like as a first surgery.. but I think it is fine as a first surgery too.
Being famous for revision surgery means they are good at handling problematic noses and difficult noses, so I chose surgery believing they would naturally do a good job on a first surgery too.
Most importantly, the key question is whether you can trust the clinic, and I liked that this is a single-doctor clinic, the nurses and manager are also very honest, and above all they take an extremely conservative approach.
I wrote this in my previous post too, but because of a pimple on my nose.. my surgery was postponed by a week.. It wasn’t even acne, just a whitehead, and seeing them postpone it because of infection risk made me think it was definitely a clinic worth trusting.
After the surgery, the aftercare was also provided more often than in reviews of other clinics, and they checked my progress very carefully at regular intervals. I’m truly grateful that I was able to finish my first surgery at a clinic I trust even more after the surgery.
That said, this does not mean this is the only clinic that is extremely good!! In fact, while looking around in person, I was torn between the final two candidates. I think I chose this place on instinct after feeling the fit between the director and me. If there is another good clinic that fits you better, then that clinic is the better match for you, so I hope you choose carefully while considering all the information and what you yourself feel.
6. Other things I remember When I was researching on my own, I only looked up ear cartilage and the nose tip, so I don’t really know much about techniques like shield grafts or rotational osteotomy grafting. I only know that they raised the columella with ear cartilage and did cartilage repositioning (they did not touch the septum or anything else), and I don’t really know the exact surgical method they used.
Honestly, part of the reason was that I am not a medical professional, so I didn’t think asking about every technique one by one would necessarily change anything, and in practice, I seem to have gotten a satisfying result with just consent and explanation about the surgical scope, materials, and rough method.
Of course, if you ask the director about those details, I think they would kindly answer, but I left the detailed method as part of the trust between doctor and patient, so please keep that in mind!
Oh, and the pig-nose motion is possible to some degree, and when you touch the tip, it bends softly and well.
I hope everyone gets their precious face done beautifully!
+) I couldn’t find the clinic name by searching, so I left the clinic unnamed. Where it was done is written in the body, so you can find it with ctrl+F!