It's been one month since my under-eye fat repositioning. My under-eyes have sunken in noticeably, and the tear trough ligament wrinkles have gotten worse. It was my first cosmetic surgery, so I really chose carefully, over and over, but the result is devastating. I did it to look less tired and to improve even a little, but after the surgery, when I meet people, they just say I look a bit tired. Seriously... I watched YouTube and had a lot of consultations, but maybe I got older without getting any wiser; every day, I'm just upset inside. If I could have the surgery again,
I wouldn't go to a factory-style clinic. There seem to be several one-doctor clinics and specialized under-eye fat repositioning clinics that get mentioned a lot here, but I don't know what possessed me; the place I chose was factory-style. I only realized it after getting it done.
Don't put too much meaning into septum reinforcement. They just do it as part of the routine. I thought they were doing something impressive. During the explanation, they said they would fill the tear trough ligament area and all that, but they only removed fat and just stitched it up. I had double eyelid surgery and under-eye fat repositioning together. But I had no bruising and no swelling. I stupidly thought maybe I just naturally healed well. Other people say their front cheekbones feel sore, they get bruises and swelling, but for me, after two days there was no swelling, no soreness or hardness in the front cheek area. No bruising either. What recovery power... Why do you think that was? Because they didn't reposition it down to the lower area... After surgery, I didn't even have tape. Only the conjunctival area under my eyes felt hard, like a small bean. It took 3 weeks for that to soften, and because of adhesion, it took a month to fully loosen. Now it's exactly the same as before I had it done.
A lot of people say that if you do under-eye fat repositioning, you should do fat grafting together, and occasionally there are clinics that don't do grafting. At the place I went to, they said the cost was the same regardless of whether grafting was done. Usually fat grafting costs extra, though. I didn't do grafting. Because if side effects happen, it's entirely on me. The clinic says they repositioned it properly, it didn't sink in, and it only looks that way because I didn't do grafting, but I can't flip my under-eyes inside out to check. They say they did it but it looks like this because I didn't do grafting, so what can I do? During the consultation, the clinic said if they repositioned it, everyone gets good results.
And I didn't know this during the consultations, but there is traditional fat repositioning and regular fat repositioning. The traditional method is pulling down the three fat pads all the way to the tear trough, spreading them out, and repositioning them. Traditional also has external fixation and internal fixation. These days, it seems like external fixation isn't done much. Some clinics that do internal fixation said external fixation is an old method and asked who does it that way nowadays. So I thought I shouldn't do external fixation. Also, the doctors at clinics that did external fixation were a bit older, and I felt like some of them had a slightly stubborn, old-school vibe. So I think there were pros and cons. Clinics these days do repositioning and septum reinforcement, and many call it double fixation, so they look similar, but also seem different. Anyway, that's how it seemed. I also don't think it's actually right to divide traditional and regular methods so strictly into two categories. I'm just writing based on my consultations, surgery, and result, so please understand.
So if I were to do it again now, I would choose external fixation. With external fixation, at least I think I could roughly guess that the fat had been repositioned to a certain point. And since they have long experience and have used one method for a long time, I feel like they would have that much know-how. With internal fixation, there's no way to know whether they did it or not. Of course, this is just my thought as someone without medical knowledge, so don't put too much weight on it.
There must be so many cases where internal fixation, septum reinforcement, fat removal, and fat grafting were done well without side effects, making people look 5 years younger, improving their impression, and giving great results. There are tons of reviews like that. I had consultations at 8 clinics, chose after a lot of thought, and made a really big decision to have the surgery, but since my result wasn't like that, please just take this as, "So cases like this exist too." I had surgery thinking everything would just get better if I did under-eye fat repositioning, but please remember that there are also so many cases where it doesn't turn out that way. And if even the smallest thing bothers you, think again. Absolutely don't pay a reservation deposit right away. I kept telling myself there was no way my choice was wrong, consoling myself and deliberately ignoring the things that bothered me, and the surgical result turned out wrong. It's not anywhere else; it's my face. In the end, clinics take your money and do the surgery, and once it's done, their attitude before and after is different. It shouldn't be that way. But that's how it was. Whether they provide revision/after-service or not, whether aftercare is good or bad, it can't be undone. Especially because it's the face. These days, I envy people who succeed with their first surgery the most. I hope you all look into things a bit more wisely and thoroughly and make a choice that succeeds on the first surgery.