First of all, my nose is small, and from the front you can see a bit of my nostrils. My midface is short, so my nose is a bit short too.. Maybe that’s why my nostrils show a little.. From the front, I wanted my nostrils not to show too much, and my overall image is on the rounder side, so I didn’t want my nose to look too sharply upturned and polished either. My alar base is also very round, so I wanted alar reduction too I didn’t like how my nose spread out like a garlic nose when I smiled.
1. ㅂㅇㅇ (one-doctor clinic) This was the first clinic I looked into, so it was the first one I had a consultation at. Consultation fee: free! I really liked the advantage that they perform the surgery with a closed approach and don’t pack the nose, so this was the first consultation I went to. They didn’t take a CT or anything, just photos and then did the consultation.
Consultation goes in the order of manager > surgeon > manager, and they said to use 3 mm silicone and both ear cartilages. Because there wasn’t any Photoshop or anything like that, and they just talked while looking only at my nose photos, I felt a slight drawback in that I couldn’t really picture what the result would be after surgery..
It was my first clinic visit, so I went with very high expectations, but I was a bit disappointed... And they showed me before-and-after photos of surgeries done there, and the results looked more truly natural than glamorous. They showed me a front view, and it felt less like a dramatic change and more like I had shaded my nose? It seemed so natural that when I asked the consultation manager whether it could be made a little more glamorous, they said because my forehead is on the flatter side, forehead fat grafting would be recommended.
They said if I booked by August, the price would be reduced from 4.5 million to 3.5 million with the review-event discount.
2. ㅂㅌㅇ (one-doctor clinic) There was a little waiting time, but they also took CT images! The first consultation fee was free. Honestly, while I was consulting, this was the clinic I almost ended up choosing.. Consultation order: manager > surgeon > manager At first, I didn’t talk much with the manager; after the CT scan, I showed reference celebrity photos of the line I wanted and went almost straight to the surgeon consultation. Because they explained things while looking at the CT images, it felt more trustworthy, and even though I hadn’t mentioned the areas I was worried about, the surgeon looked at them, pointed them out right away, and explained in detail how they would address those parts during surgery. They use custom silicone here, and they drew on top of the CT images to show me, so I could somewhat predict the line I’d get after surgery. They even measured how many mm of silicone they would insert based on that CT drawing. The custom silicone takes 2 weeks to make, and they said it is produced in two height options. The drawing they made for me was 2.8 mm, and one of the two would be made at 3 mm.
For the tip, they would use the septum cartilage + ear cartilage. Actually, I had some resistance to using septum cartilage. Removing septum cartilage seemed like it might make the nose collapse, and I don’t have rhinitis at all. Even on CT, the surgeon said my septum was very straight My biggest annoyance is nasal congestion whenever I catch a cold, and I’d heard that if septum cartilage surgery goes wrong, the septum can bend and you end up breathing through one nostril for the rest of your life..
When I asked about that, they said they wouldn’t remove so much that it would collapse; in fact, they leave more behind for safety, so it felt like they prioritize safety.
I brought photos of Shin Se-kyung and Lee Hyori, and Shin Se-kyung was a bit closer to a straight-but-slightly-curved line, while Lee Hyori had a more emphasized tip, so it felt like my desired nose was closer to a half-curved line. When I asked which of the two would suit me better, the surgeon looked at my brow line and forehead line and said a straight-ish line with the bridge slightly softened into a half-curved shape would suit me best, then immediately adjusted the CT drawing!
As for cost, since it’s custom silicone, the price was pretty high.. My skin is also a little thick, so for tip fat removal + custom silicone + lowering the nostrils so they don’t show + septum cartilage + ear cartilage, it came to 4.84 It was my first surgery and they were using septum cartilage and ear cartilage, so I was surprised by that price.. But well, for a nose I’d be happy with.. I do think it’s possible And I really liked the consultation too.
3. ㅅㄱ (ㅇㅈㅊ) This was actually the clinic I most wanted to go to, ranked number one.. I really liked the line.. It seemed to make things just glam enough and just nicely compact, so I went mainly because I liked the shape so much. Here too, the order was manager > surgeon > manager There wasn’t much waiting, and normally they make you wait outside, but here, as soon as I went in, they guided me straight to the consultation room, and I liked waiting inside the consultation room. I talked with the consultation manager about the things I was worried about and got photos taken. There was no CT here. After a little wait, the surgeon came in. I showed the Lee Hyori photo from the start and said I wanted a slightly half-curved line. They tried to show me the expected result after surgery using Photoshop on my photo, but unfortunately it seemed like the surgeon had only recently started using Photoshop.. They said Photoshop was difficult to use.. And the surgeon was extremely kind and gentle, so I felt at ease. I was actually a bit tense that day, so the surgeon cracked a few jokes to help me relax. But when it came to surgery talk, they immediately explained everything very seriously. Honestly, it felt like I was sitting in a university class right now. My major is in health and medical fields, so it really felt like I had gone back to my university days and was listening to a lecture..
They explained surgery in such detail that I felt like, am I supposed to go into surgery right now?.. and they drew diagrams to explain how they would place the septum cartilage, how they would place the ear cartilage...
The downside is that here, when checking the septum, the surgeon personally confirms it with a cotton swab, and it really hurt.. It was enough to make tears well up a little, but it just hurt and felt uncomfortable. Still, they can confirm the septum size on CT, but things like its strength are better checked by touching it directly.. It hurts, but maybe that makes it more definite and better..
But when they checked my septum, the size was fine, but it was a bit soft, so they said if I wanted a result like the Lee Hyori photo, using septum cartilage and ear cartilage alone probably wouldn’t let them raise it much, and if I wanted a clearly higher result, autologous costal cartilage would be better. Honestly, for my first surgery, autologous costal cartilage? I had never even considered it.. But then they started explaining autologous costal cartilage. I even learned how they harvest rib cartilage.
The fact that it leaves a scar seems like such a big downside, but the advantages felt so strong that I kept hesitating. But I wasn’t really aiming for Lee Hyori’s height; I wanted that kind of line, and the height I wanted wasn’t extremely high. The surgeon also said septum cartilage and ear cartilage weren’t impossible to use, so it would be best for me to choose between septum cartilage + ear cartilage or autologous costal cartilage. Ugh.. If septum and ear cartilage couldn’t be used at all, I’d just give up and use autologous costal cartilage, but when both are possible, do I choose something that may be a bit disappointing, or something definitely beautiful but painful? That gave me decision paralysis.
In the end, I told the surgeon I’d use autologous costal cartilage, and they kept asking if I had any more questions, but all the questions I brought were already scattered to the wind.. Oh, and for the bridge, I decided on 3 mm silicone.
Then I talked with the manager again, and the cost of autologous costal cartilage was quite a bit higher than I expected.. Even with the review event, I remember it being around 5.69 million? If I had surgery with ear cartilage + septum cartilage, it was around 4.5 million? and with the review event they said they’d reduce it to 4 million. When I talked again with the manager and asked whether surgery with septum cartilage + ear cartilage would still raise it, whether it would be okay, and whether it would suit my face, the consultation manager said that even with just septum cartilage + ear cartilage, it could still be raised enough, though the result might be more natural than autologous costal cartilage, but that septum cartilage + ear cartilage would also be fine. While talking with the manager, I felt that a straight-ish line might actually suit me better than a half-curved one, so we changed the plan to a straight-ish line and surgery with septum cartilage + ear cartilage.
I changed the line and had already told the surgeon we’d use autologous costal cartilage, then switched back and said I’d use ear cartilage + septum cartilage, so I’m sorry the consultation manager had to keep going back and forth to ask the surgeon again Sorry for being so indecisive..
Anyway, the line we designed with the surgeon was so pretty, and honestly I had already decided from reading reviews that I absolutely had to visit here, so I just made a same-day reservation and left. I didn’t even know I’d end up booking on the same day, but I just did. So the surgery is scheduled for December, and now I’m just waiting for the date while my curiosity keeps growing.
And I still haven’t fully decided between autologous costal cartilage and septum cartilage + ear cartilage.. But I think I’ll probably use septum cartilage + ear cartilage
I feel like I just wrote this post all over the place, but if you have any questions, ask me!
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