My nasal bridge was low, and my alar base wasn't very wide, but it was spread out; the tip was round, the nostrils were round too, and the alar wings were hanging down as low as the columella. While worrying about nose surgery, I think I spent almost six months looking at before-and-after photos from every plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam lol People say there are no clinics without side effects these days, but I still think that when you look at before-and-after photos, at least the doctor's surgical style becomes clear... In my opinion, ㅌㄹㄷ's before-and-after photos showed good improvement in the weak points.
Anyway, I waited six months for a consultation... lol I was totally shocked when I heard it would be six months just for the consultation, but time passed somehow, I had the consultation, and the clinics I had visited before had all told me I was not an easy case and that it would be hard to make my nose look sharply refined... But the director at ㅌㄹㄷ said that although it was difficult, if they did it this way and that way (they explained the surgical method in an extremely complicated way ㅡㅡ; I didn't really understand it at the time), it would be possible! So I decided to go ahead with surgery. The Photoshop-edited picture of my nose that they showed me on the monitor was just too... pretty. I screamed really loudly, like, "Wait, you're telling me my nose can become THIS??" (I was being extra.. ha)
Still, the cost was so expensive that I agonized over it for a month Right before that, I had consulted at ㅋㅅ, where the quote was 560? and even hearing that at first I thought it was expensive, but compared to this place it was at the level of seeming cheap ^^ In the end, though, that virtual surgery image kept haunting me, so I ended up having it done at ㅌㄹㄷ..
The surgery took about 9 and a half hours. I had heard that a short surgery time means the doctor is skilled, but this director said they operate until they are satisfied, and that just the piece-by-piece work on the autologous costal cartilage alone took 4 hours. Honestly, I was like, what could possibly take that long lol. But what I still remember is that after the surgery, they woke me up and showed me my nose right away before putting on the splint, and I was so shocked lol. I'm used to my nose now, but back then I had just woken up and my nose had changed 180 degrees..
I thought I had some columella to begin with, but when I saw the columella they made for me, I realized, ah, I didn't have a columella, and my nose really was terrible. They basically rebuilt the entire nasal tip from scratch.. Before, my nostrils were like ㅇ ㅇ, but now they're like 0 0. It looks incredibly natural, like someone who was born with a high nasal tip. I understood right away why it took 9 hours when they carve the materials little by little and build it all anew like that...
My nose isn't perfect after surgery and all that, but my old nose is no longer visible. It's so amazing. I didn't even have separate alar reduction, but because the columella was brought down, the diamond-shaped nasal tip that they're famous for emphasizing in consultations became clearly visible, and the nose itself looks slender.. The bridge is 4 mm? But because my nose was so underdeveloped to begin with, even now I still feel like it's low, but if it were any higher, since my forehead is on the low side, the forehead and glabella would end up at the same height and it wouldn't look pretty, so I just told the director to decide as they saw fit.
They used autologous costal cartilage + dermis + ear cartilage + silicone, and it doesn't seem like the patient really has much choice in these things lol If you're going to do it here, you can't be stubborn.. You just have to follow instructions. Because the director has a very firm aesthetic standard and surgical philosophy, if it doesn't match, voices may get raised during the consultation and the surgery might not happen.. (You can often hear arguments in the consultation room when you go for aftercare.. lol) I was honestly so scared during the consultation.. They kept picking at the wording, and it felt like I wasn't a customer but a student receiving a theory lesson on nose surgery. Sigh. I was too scared to say anything, but then they asked why I had no opinion about my own surgery, lol. But after actually going through with it, I can understand that attitude; once you do it, you realize nose surgery is not a typical operation..
Still, once the surgery is actually done, they become very gentle? lol Even though this was my first plastic surgery, I'd heard that things differ before and after payment, but here it seems the opposite.. I was lying in the recovery room after surgery, and the director even checked the temperature of the electric heating mat; I felt like I was at a neighborhood oriental medicine clinic (in a good way).
For three days after surgery, I went to the clinic every day, and after that it became every other day, then after a week it was once every three days, so the visits gradually became less frequent. Still, I go often. They see me directly at the 2-week, 1-month, and 2-month checkups too. Anyway, for the week after surgery, they nearly cleaned it every day, changed the IV and the splint. Even on Sundays, they came in by themselves to do the dressing. I heard they even come in on holidays.. I really thought that was amazing ㅡㅡ; Maybe because of that, my nose barely swelled at all. I usually puff up a lot when I sleep.. I also had almost no bruising, just a slight yellow bruise.
The downside is that the splint here is on the large side, so it was really uncomfortable It was hard to see properly lol, very stifling.. The large splint came off on day 6? But maybe because the splint was sturdy, they said it was fine to sleep on your side right away. I think I kept taping my nose for more than a month. They're really strict about nasal taping. Especially for surgeries like fleshy nose reduction where fat is removed, they give a detailed lecture on taping, saying it's like liposuction and that you have to secure it like wearing compression garments so scar tissue doesn't build up.. They even teach you how to tape at home and tell you to try it yourself, then check it.. so you can probably tell what kind of director they are^^..
But all the nagging they do to patients is really necessary, yet as a doctor it's all work that would be a hassle, and that just makes it even more obvious how serious they are about noses. I think everyone who got their nose done at ㅌㄹㄷ would agree with this lol Even when I got home late at night after surgery, the director personally called my phone from their private number at dawn to ask whether I was bleeding and whether anything was uncomfortable. Anyway, the aftercare is really, really thorough.
The conclusion is that I have zero complaints about my nose after surgery. I'm just grateful that they made a grown-up nose so naturally out of my child-like fleshy nose lol. It's also amazing that there's not even the slightest visible silicone at the bridge. (I don't think that's just about skin characteristics, because most of the after photos they show here are like that too... how do they do it?)
The downsides are.. 1. The director is scary before surgery. By their own words, they're sensitive from before surgery until the day of surgery. They said that on the operating table, they're a player, so that's why they’re so exacting, but the face they made when saying "player" was so serious I almost burst out laughing without meaning to.. ha 2. It's expensive..^^ If I tell people it cost 900, they ask if I got ripped off, so before I know it I end up defending the clinic and babbling that the director only does one surgery a day and that I went to the clinic almost every day for a week after surgery. In the end, it is expensive, but compared to what the clinic does, it doesn't feel overly expensive, so maybe it's not really a downside. 3. Because they mainly use costal cartilage, the nasal tip is very firm. Right now, if I grab the tip and move it, it does wobble slightly left and right, but it's hard. That's just unavoidable, really. 4. My mouth sticks out a bit, so they also used costal cartilage to fill the nasolabial angle (what people often call cat surgery), and as a result my mouth looks much more tucked in and refined, but even now, more than four months later, the philtrum still covers half of my upper teeth when I smile.. It looks like white chicks. They said this is something that requires the skin to stretch, and that it takes time to stretch, so I have to wait 6 months to 1 year for it to become more natural. For now I'm waiting.. praying every day for the day I can take off my mask to come sooner and for it to become natural before then.. ha 5. My nose never hurt even once after the surgery. Even the ear where they took cartilage from didn't hurt, and it was so painless that it was surprising, but the place where they took the costal cartilage from was the real issue.. Especially in the morning when I woke up, for the first week it was the absolute worst. Every time I had to get up from lying down, I had to pray... After one week it got just bearable.
Well, this is not promotional or anything at all, and after getting my nose done, I started wanting to get my chin done too lol Since I joined this community and there don't seem to be that many reviews about ㅌㄹㄷ, I'm posting this in the hope that it helps!!!