Hello. My two older brothers both had surgery at a clinic called ㅌㄹㄷ, and this is a review from 1 year and 8 months after mine and 1 year after my younger brother’s. (I wrote this as detailed as possible, so the content may be a bit long in advance.)
My first surgery was around 2008 at a large hospital near Gangnam Station. That was when L-shaped silicone was used a lot, so I had surgery using L-shaped silicone. Ten years later, while searching online and in community forums about rhinoplasty, I came across information saying that L-shaped silicone is hardly used nowadays. Since I was older by then, I wanted safety and function rather than a trendy shape, so I visited a director who had been a university professor and was known as an authority on nose surgery. Ten years after my first surgery, I ended up having revision surgery in 2019. At that point I was male, and there was no major problem with the shape of my first nose except for asymmetry in the nostrils, so I thought that simply replacing the L-shaped silicone here would not be a big deal. I never imagined it would turn into such a serious issue later. At this clinic, I had surgery with silicone and ear cartilage, and on the day the bandage was first removed, I came in with my mother. The moment the bandage came off, even my mother was stunned. My slim nose had become incredibly blunt, and because the nose had been lowered too much, it had become a nose that could hardly be considered normal. Seeing both my reaction and my mother’s, the doctor said they would do revision surgery, but I felt I never wanted to have anything done there again. Just from one change to the nose, my entire impression had changed so much that it was hard to look at, and I suffered severe mental distress. Only people who have gone through it will really understand this...
From that point on, a truly difficult time began. Looking back now, I think I spent that period just waiting for the one year that is said to be the best time to undergo revision after a nose surgery to finally pass.
With help from a community and Naver cafes, I felt I should really research carefully this time, so I spent all day searching. That is how I learned about a clinic called Trend Plastic Surgery, and I read every review and the director’s personal blog site in full. I tried to make a consultation appointment, but it was booked up, so I think I waited about six months.
I had already searched for many reviews and information online before going, so I knew the director was said to be a very strict person, and I still vividly remember how nervous I was when I went. Before entering the consultation, they gave me a memo listing precautions, and there are a few rules to follow during the consultation.
Another tip: if you plan to bring celebrity photos, I recommend not bringing them. (I printed out celebrity photos and brought them, but it was basically meaningless...)
Before the consultation, the director asked me to draw the nose I wanted, but I could not draw it properly. (You do not need to feel too pressured about this either.) I knew the consultation would be long, but as I listened to the various things they explained, it took an hour and a half, though it felt short to me.
From the information I had searched online, I had heard that if you insist too strongly on your own requests to the director, they may refuse to operate. So I think I mostly just answered with short yeses and uh-huhs^^; (I guess that shows how strongly I wanted surgery at this clinic...)
But looking back now, I think the most important thing in cosmetic surgery is the aesthetic sense of the surgeon. From the patient’s point of view, of course, there can be many different opinions on this. You may wonder why the focus is not placed more on the nose shape the patient wants. But if you think about it the other way, if a surgeon only keeps doing nose surgery and tries to customize everything to fit each patient’s requests, there would surely be people who are satisfied, but also people who are not.
That is why I think the director at Trend operates based on the highest aesthetic standard that they personally believe in, rather than trying to match every patient’s request for this or that in detail.
Even so, the reason people still entrust such an important part of their face to this doctor is, I think, the success stories that are commonly found online. One really unusual thing about this clinic is that, even after surgery, I have never seen a review saying the shape was unsatisfactory.
There are mostly reviews from women, so I was also worried about how male noses would turn out, but it seems that a doctor who is good at female noses is also good at male noses^^:
I decided to use costal cartilage, silicone, ear cartilage, and scalp dermis, and since I already knew the price range beforehand, the total was not much different from what I had expected.
As for the cost, the surgery is on the expensive side. (Although that may be because I used costal cartilage.) But from my perspective, I had suffered so much that I felt the cost did not matter much as long as the result was good.
If anyone is worrying about the cost, I would like to say this. I think it is extremely rare for someone to be fully satisfied after one nose surgery. So if you end up having multiple revision surgeries, it is true that the cost can become a burden.
That is why, rather than taking cosmetic surgery lightly and looking only for the cheapest place, I sincerely recommend searching reviews and related information carefully and choosing a clinic where you can expect a good result even if the price is somewhat higher.
The part I worried about most while waiting for surgery was the operation time. As some of you may already know, the director’s surgeries take a long time. To be clear, they take several times longer than at other hospitals.
This is also stated on the director’s blog, but if the director is not satisfied, they do not finish the surgery. That was another thing I was very worried about, and I remember asking for advice from a family member who is a doctor.
I was anxious about whether a longer surgery time might be dangerous. So I looked into this in my own way for a long time, and kept researching it again and again. (I can be quite persistent about things like this...)
The conclusion was that this method is actually safer. It is done by a board-certified anesthesiologist, and even though it is nose surgery, they perform intubation.
The day before the surgery, I got a call directly on the director’s personal phone number, which surprised me. (They asked at that time how high and how long I wanted the nose to be.)
I do not remember exactly, but I went into the operating room at 10 a.m. and woke up after 3 a.m. the next day. The director called me personally around 5 a.m. to check whether I had come through safely. (How were they supposed to go to work the next day...)
Right after surgery, I had one symptom: the tailbone area was swollen and painful, so I asked the director about it. They said it was because I had been lying on the operating table for a long time, and that it would get better after 2 to 3 days, so I did not need to worry. I may also have been a bit heavy. They said this can sometimes happen in men who weigh more than women relatively speaking.
From the day after surgery, I had to visit every day for a week. If you are planning surgery there, I think this is something worth keeping in mind.
From right after surgery, the director personally handled all dressing changes and treatment. (It is not something a nurse does.)
I am a man, but the area where the costal cartilage was taken hurt, so I complained a little and the director gave me pain medication. If you are planning costal cartilage surgery, I think you do not need to worry too much. It is uncomfortable for about two or three days and then gets better quickly.
I have been to many hospitals since I was young and have had surgery at several other places, but I had never met anyone as meticulous as the director at ㅌㄹㄷ. They are so thorough about hygiene that they wash their hands so often their skin on the backs of their hands is in bad shape;;
Still, thanks to that dedication, I healed safely without inflammation, and the surgical result was also excellent.
The director pays a lot of attention to the columella compared with other places, and as they said, if you look at photos of celebrities with attractive noses, all ten out of ten have a visible columella. (Before surgery, I did not separately understand the importance of the columella.) If this does not make sense, try checking side-profile photos of celebrities.
I had heard that noses can feel stiff and uncomfortable after surgery with costal cartilage, but even as someone with a sensitive personality, I did not particularly feel any discomfort and have been living just fine.
If you have surgery at Trend, there is one more difference from other clinics: you have to do the taping properly.
I think I taped for about a month. It is not difficult, so you do not need to worry too much..
I suffered from severe stress and mental pain after a failed surgery at another hospital, but thanks to the director’s precise surgery and thoughtful aftercare, I was able to be freed from that suffering. I am still deeply grateful, and I remember that when I repeatedly thanked them on the day treatment ended, the director placed a hand on my shoulder, smiled, and said I did not need to keep thanking them like that. At first, during the consultation, they may seem very strict and a little blunt, but after surgery they are truly kind.
I do not know how fortunate I was to meet a doctor like this. No, I think I was really lucky that there is a plastic surgeon like this. Because I was so moved by my experience at Trend Plastic Surgery, I also asked the same director to operate on my own younger brother, and it has now been one year since his surgery. Of course, since he was satisfied in every way, including aesthetics, I recommended surgery to my family as well. He is my younger brother, and he is also extremely satisfied with the surgical result. (Everyone around us and in our family agrees.) The director really has outstanding aesthetic sense.. in today’s slang, they are top-tier for rhinoplasty... When I first asked for my brother’s surgery, the director said, “I’ll do it as if he were my own younger brother,” and I felt so reassured by that..
It has been 1 year and 8 months since my surgery, and because I needed to ask about another facial procedure this time, I contacted the clinic. The director called me personally and said the explanation might be long, so I should call back the next evening on their personal phone number.
Even though I called on a Sunday evening, they still worried about everything in a very careful way and explained things to me. I think it is rare these days for someone to do this much for a patient whose surgery was more than two years ago.
I am not very good at writing, so as I wrote this, the post became very long. Reading it back myself, it does look like nothing but praise. But that is because the result was so good, and I wrote this from the patient’s point of view, based on what I truly felt and experienced.
As someone who suffered from a bad cosmetic surgery like I did, I wrote this in the hope that I could help others, just as I received help through a community.
I swear to heaven I am not a broker or anything like that. (Trend is not the kind of clinic that does advertising or promotion in any meaningful way. They do surgery for only one person a day, and even then the schedule is so backed up that it takes a very long time.)
I wrote this in the hope that it might be of a little help to those who are planning surgery there or researching it.
Lastly, one more thing to add: No matter how carefully a doctor operates and no matter how good the hospital service is, I think cosmetic surgery has to produce an aesthetically good result.
In that sense, Trend Plastic Surgery requires you to visit every day even after surgery, so it may be a bit inconvenient, but I think the aesthetic result is certainly reliable.
I do not say this only because of my own result and my younger brother’s result, but because I have also seen the noses of patients who came in for surgery while visiting the clinic often over time.
I sincerely hope you get a good result, and I hope you finish this year well with not much time left.
Thank you for reading this long post.
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