Facial contouring x3 + hollow cheek correction + cheek augmentation with autologous bone
*Wrote this entirely based on how I felt up to the day I wrote it *The swelling still hasn’t fully gone down, so my review of the results may change! *The surgery was scheduled around Seollal / winter break season, so it might be a little different from other off-peak periods?
<Day of surgery> I arrived at the hospital one hour before surgery, filled out the pre-op consent forms, waited, then met with the surgeon for the design and waited again. My surgery was at 11:30, but I had to wait a bit (If you’re preparing a padded tank top to wear under the surgical gown, make sure there’s no metal in the adjustable parts! There was a waiting room, and I brought my phone and charger in with me.)
*While filling out the consent forms, I was told that the postoperative CT would cost 20,000 won, so I asked whether the surgeon wouldn’t consult with me using the CT after surgery. When I said that, I wanted to know if I could only hear about the postoperative changes and not see them with my own eyes, they told me to bring it up when I talked to the surgeon after surgery, lol. (This is something I heard from the front desk staff on postoperative day 10. They said I could get a postoperative CT scan after 3 months, and before that it would come out blurry and not be visible - the staff member who explained this had a really bad attitude.)
During the pre-op design, honestly, it felt a little sloppy. At my earlier consultation, I had been told my face was asymmetric, that the right cheekbone was higher and wider, but on the morning of surgery they said it was similar and asked me which side looked wider to me. And because they didn’t draw the cheekbone design, I asked why not, and they said it would be based on what was written during the earlier consultation and what had been discussed.
But at the earlier consultation, they said my cheekbones were thick enough that they could reduce them by about 1 cm, whereas at the morning consultation on the day of surgery they said they were on the thinner side, and at the postoperative day 11 follow-up they said they had reduced them by 7-8 mm. Hahahahahahahaha I thought they would look at the CT in more detail on the day of surgery.
They said the hollow cheeks were severe and that some would still remain even after surgery, and that I should know the temple swelling would last a long time. TMI (I had two pre-op consultations. The first one with the surgeon was too short and felt rushed, maybe about 5 minutes, so on the day I went for bloodwork I had another consultation with the surgeon. I wrote down the things I hadn’t been able to ask the first time in my notes, showed them to the surgeon, and they explained each one, saying what would happen and how it would go - but it wasn’t very detailed or specific.)
Before the design, the surgeon called the nurse and asked whether someone was already inside, so it seemed like there was a surgery before mine. When I was adjusting the schedule with the coordinator during the pre-op consultation, I had been told I was the first slot, but that didn’t seem to be true.)
Before going into the operating room, they took photos from the front, side, from below, etc., and I waited. I kept waiting lol.
When you go into the operating room, they have you lie on the bed and tell you they’ll tie your hands and feet, then the anesthesiologist comes in, gives anesthesia, and I lose all memory. *The operating rooms seemed to be individual rooms, and the beds... didn’t feel especially clean or nice compared with other facilities.
The recovery room had private rooms and 3-person rooms? but contouring seemed to be in a private room. When I came to after surgery, the time was 5:52 p.m. It may have taken me a while to come to, but even accounting for that, the surgery time felt way too long. (I don’t know how many hours is normal, but in other reviews I think some people had 2-3 hour surgeries. If that isn’t the case, I’ll delete this part.)
I don’t remember being brought to the recovery room after surgery I had a pain pump attached and didn’t have pain / vomiting / dizziness My sore throat was just like a regular cold, maybe? They said it was important to breathe and get the gas out, so I think I unconsciously worked hard at that too. After 6 hours or so, they gave me water and a paper-cup syringe and told me to drink water. They said not to drink a lot at once, but to take small sips. I couldn’t gulp it down immediately anyway, but if you’ve been fasting and suddenly drink a lot, it seems like that could affect the surgical site. They explained it, but I don’t remember^^*
I deliberately burped and went to the bathroom often too.
*The staff taking care of patients in the recovery room were really wonderful, and they stayed on-site 24 hours.*
I stayed in the recovery room for one day and was discharged with a huge head bandage. I live outside the city, so I stayed in a hotel for about 5 days for bandage removal, stitch removal, etc.!
<Day 2 - start cold compresses / remove bandage / swelling laser / shampoo care> They removed the bandage and washed my hair! Then they put on the support strap. They said to wear the support strap 24 hours a day and only remove it when coming in on day 5 for cheekbone stitch removal. (The support strap seems to differ by hospital and by surgical method - there’s a video by a surgeon on YouTube.)
For food, I drank tube-style pumpkin juice I bought from the pharmacy downstairs at the hospital on the morning of surgery, and I could eat all the foods I had seen in reviews, like ice cream, convenience-store soup, milk, castella, etc.
I also took swelling medicine, but I didn’t really notice any effect. I worked hard at gargling, and everyone said the gargle solution tasted bad, but I’m from the generation that had fluoride treatment in elementary school, lol, so it didn’t bother me I also took half baths and went for a short 20-minute walk. Even if I couldn’t sleep straight through the night, I slept in short, deep bursts, woke up, then slept again, and that worked well for me (I think it was probably because of the support strap that I couldn’t sleep deeply the whole time.)
There are 2 hotels linked with this hospital, and both seemed to have recliners, but I just searched on Naver and booked through Yanolja, Agoda, etc.
<Day 5 - start hot compresses / remove sideburn stitches / swelling laser / radiofrequency?> I walked from the hotel to the hospital as a kind of walk. When they took off the bandage, I thought I hadn’t really been that swollen, but an unknown wasteland hidden inside the support strap appeared. I was a bit shocked at this point lol. It wasn’t quite like being horribly disfigured in Shallow Hal or anything, but still... still, I got a reality check and my heart shook. Seeing my swollen face made me so annoyed that walking felt pointless, so I just stopped going for walks lol.
Removing the sideburn stitches didn’t hurt, but they pressed hard on the hollow-cheek area to squeeze out and move the blood. (But I’m not sure if they did that blood-pressing on day 2 or not;;) The radiofrequency laser applies weak force to the bruised area, so it hurts at first / the swelling goes down unevenly and your face ends up looking like a badly made pottery jar lol
As for food, from day 4 onward I tore up a bulgogi burger with scissors and ate it, cut up jajang tteok-bokki? no, instant black bean noodles, ate snacks, and ate very well lol. Even if I couldn’t chew, I mashed things with my tongue and let them dissolve.
<Day 11 - remove intraoral stitches / meet with surgeon / swelling laser / radiofrequency>
I arrived at the hospital and waited. My appointment was at 11:30, but the QR check-in didn’t work, so I had to fill out the form by hand, and since I arrived at 11:33 I was told I was late and would have to wait because of the people before me.
TMI I get that waiting is one thing, but it was kind of funny that they said I was late because I went to the desk at 11:33 to say something. I said, even if I had spoken up at 11:30, I’d still have had to wait anyway, so why do they tell us to come at 11:30 and then make us wait? They said everyone has to be seen in order of arrival and asked me to wait. When I asked how long it would be, like 30 minutes?, they smiled and said it wouldn’t be that long, but I ended up waiting over 40 minutes, then had the stitches removed, waited another 20-30 minutes, saw the surgeon, and went upstairs to the care room.
Removing the stitches inside my mouth stung a little, and a few tears slipped out before I knew it. After removal, I waited about 20 minutes, and then the surgeon very briefly talked about where they reduced things and how much, and that a lot of swelling still remained.
I had hollow-cheek correction too, and they said that when you do that together, the swelling lasts longer than when you only do the cheekbones, and blood can also clump. So on the left cheekbone hollow area, I had a dark bruise and some clumping, and they inserted a syringe there and pressed my cheek to drain the blood, which hurt a bit. They said my current condition looked similar to before surgery and that the swelling would go down more, so not to worry. (Because of the swelling, it feels bigger than before surgery They said they reduced it, but even if I assume the swelling will go down, I keep having the sad thought that it’ll end up how much smaller than before...;;)
They said to come back in a week for another follow-up (apparently the surgeon’s follow-ups are only available on Fridays), and then I went to the care room for swelling laser / radiofrequency and came home.
From day 5 to day 11, my mouth opened about the width of one thumb, and day by day I could feel it opening better. Ex - I used to crush Home Run Ball snacks before eating them, but at some point I could just put them in whole in their round shape.
Mandu soup / tofu kimchi (with the kimchi cut up a lot with scissors) / sweet potatoes / melt-in-your-mouth snacks and so on, I could eat them all well, and after the stitches were removed I could really eat rice and all sorts of things comfortably!! Still, I don’t think I needed to make a point of chewing a lot.
While receiving care, the person next to me said they hadn’t gone outside for two weeks, couldn’t sleep well, had no appetite, and only drank soy milk so they lost weight, but I was the same as before lol. I guess it varies by person. But they said you should be eating and sleeping reasonably well for recovery to go well too.
This is all a bit disorganized and the information delivery feels weak, but swelling and changes in condition seem to vary too much from person to person, so I just wrote mainly about what I felt!
As for the hospital, the recovery room / care room / staff who took care of patients after surgery were all really good, but the front desk staff and the people who guided you inside the operating room were not friendly.
Especially since the coordinator had said I would get one more care session, and I had asked to deduct 100,000 won from the surgery fee, but they said it wasn’t possible because of the fixed price (though if you think about same-day surgery booking discounts, it doesn’t seem like it’s absolutely impossible). When I was making the reservation by phone with the front desk, it felt like there was no communication at all about patient care, and whenever I asked something I was curious about, they answered in a way that felt preachy? and snappy.
Honestly, the front desk people are supposed to be there for guidance, but they didn’t seem to have much information-delivery or customer-service mindset, and if you were polite to them they’d give vague guidance, while if you pressed them on details they’d explain the situation and ask for understanding, and that part was really disappointing.
Overall, it seemed chaotic because it was a busy season, so I wondered whether I might have gotten more professional care at a different time.
Part of why I chose this hospital was the surgeon’s confidence, and also because hollow cheeks were what led me to get surgery in the first place, but if the consultation were a little more systematic and reassuring, I think patients could trust more and discuss the surgical plan together more confidently.
You can only really know the surgical result once the swelling is fully gone, but this was my review up to day 11!!
*Autologous bone cheek augmentation* After being diagnosed and looking it up on YouTube, I saw people saying bone gets resorbed so they don’t really do autologous bone anymore, so I told the coordinator at the second consultation. They said it would absolutely not be resorbed, while the surgeon said the timing and amount of resorption differ from person to person lol. Anyway, I didn’t want to do it with an implant, so I went ahead with the bone procedure too.
I’m not sure if it’s swelling from the contouring surgery, but only the area around the cheek augmentation is raised, so I don’t look like a monkey or anything, and the area next to my nose around the nasolabial triangle is a little more swollen than the surrounding areas.
The end!