As soon as I turned 18 (senior year of high school), I went to Chung-Ang University Hospital this April for a genioplasty consultation. I thought that if there were nerve damage or major bleeding, a university hospital would handle it better, so from the start I just came up from the provinces and only had a consultation at Chung-Ang University Hospital!
It’s already been 7 months since I went, but right after the consultation I was so busy preparing for the CSAT and studying for certifications that I’m only writing the review now, after the CSAT ended.. ㅠ
First of all, I live in the Jeolla region, so I took the SRT up to Seoul at dawn. Maybe because it was a university hospital, or maybe because that was right around when the controversy over increasing medical school admissions had just started and was reaching its peak, after registering for treatment in the morning, doing the pre-exam consultation, doing various tests, hearing the test results, and consulting about whether to have surgery, I ended up waiting at the hospital for almost 8 or 9 hours total. But all consultations were one-on-one with the professor!
The tests I received included taking dental impressions, a 3D facial contour scan..? and I think basic X-rays and CT were also taken. They took facial photos from every direction too, and the total test fee was well over 200,000 won ㅠ Even after the tests, I waited about 6 hours to hear the results. The professors looked extremely busy, and from what I saw from outside, it really seemed like they personally performed the surgeries from start to finish. While waiting, I saw many people who had already had surgery and came for follow-up checks (almost over 30 people..?), and everyone’s surgery looked so well done. Aesthetically, it didn’t seem different from what plastic surgery clinics do, and seeing their faces look fist-sized made me feel like the surgical results could be trusted..
When the test results came out, Professor Choi OO explained them to me, and he told me very honestly and directly that I was a case where genioplasty was not possible. My nerve was positioned far too low, so even if they tried, T-osteotomy or setback surgery was completely impossible, and literally the maximum they could cut was 0.2 mm, which is about the same as just passing sandpaper back and forth twice. It could actually ruin my facial proportions, and even at the maximum it would only be 0.2 mm, so opening the chin just to cut that 0.2 mm would carry too much cost and too much risk of sagging skin.. But he said that if I wanted, we could try surgery as much as possible without putting major strain on the nerve. Even while saying that, he discouraged me from surgery, so I think I cried a lot. Since I was young, I had been teased so much, and especially during middle school I always covered it with a mask. I had been hurt a lot by comments like “your chin is really a shame,” “you’re pretty if you just cover your chin, but when your chin shows, it’s not good”.. But the professor looked at my face and said that if it was a very big complex, two-jaw surgery was also an option. He said, in fact, for a face like mine, even if it weren’t for the nerve, two-jaw surgery would be a more suitable case than facial contouring. I had already heard this from the orthodontics professor before consulting with Professor Choi OO. (But I remember that orthodontics professor really had no filter and spoke kind of carelessly..) To continue, Professor Choi OO said that my face would indeed have major improvement and effect with two-jaw surgery, but he did not want to recommend two-jaw surgery.. He said that if I did two-jaw surgery, the effect would definitely be big and I would become much prettier, but my jaw was also not severe enough to warrant such a major surgery as two-jaw surgery.. My lower jaw protruded slightly, but only to a level without malocclusion, and the orthodontic treatment I was already doing was in its final stage. He also said that two-jaw surgery cannot reduce the inherent length of the lower jaw.
He said that although my face is slightly long, it did not seem like a face that should be considered a complex, and he discouraged me to the end, saying I have a pretty smile... He also said that it was good that I came here for a consultation from the beginning even though it was hard, because if I had gone to an ordinary plastic surgery clinic, they would definitely have ignored the nerve line and cut the chin bone, which was chilling to hear..
So in the end I gave up on surgery. I did spend the whole day waiting, going back and forth, and lost several hundred thousand won on transportation and test fees, but I found it meaningful enough, and when I think that I almost had my facial nerve cut by going to some random plastic surgery clinic, I don’t feel the test fee was a waste.. I did gain sadness that I couldn’t resolve my complex because I couldn’t have surgery, and sadness that I can never touch my chin for the rest of my life, but I think I was greatly comforted by what Professor Choi OO told me.. And all the tests were done very thoroughly, and even when examining me visually, he checked with a ruler, so it felt systematic. Before the consultation, there was also something like a questionnaire test. It asked whether I had a mental illness? or depression, whether I had temporomandibular joint disorder, whether I had orthodontic treatment, things like that.. Now I’m just accepting it and living well, but I wanted to recommend it so much to everyone here, so I just rambled on and wrote this. Even taking the test fee and waiting time into account, I think it would be good to go there first for a consultation before going to a plastic surgery clinic! It seems very good for checking your exact condition. If I hadn’t already done orthodontic treatment, I think I would have just closed my eyes and done two-jaw surgery, but unfortunately I couldn’t.. If you have anything else you’re curious about regarding jaw contour consultation at Chung-Ang University Hospital, leave a comment!
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Translating
Would you like to scrap this review? +0
This review is a surgical review pursuing natural beauty.