This post is long. I had early release from it.. I had my first surgery at a large hospital in March 2018. Even then, I only wanted a slight refinement of my nose, not a complete change in shape. But the result was a too-pointy nose with 4 mm silicone plus donor rib, septal cartilage, and ear cartilage... Of course, the people around me said my nose was pretty and asked why I would want to remove it. Even though it was sharp and noticeable, I had no side effects and the shape itself was okay.
I consulted two hospitals that specialize in removal, and by chance I also went to a large hospital near Gangnam Station, consulted twice, and ended up scheduling surgery.
At the large hospital they mentioned AlloDerm and Medpor, so I crossed them off right away ^^; The removal-specialist hospitals had almost the same overall explanation. Replace the silicone with a lower one, remove the rib cartilage and ear cartilage, and keep only the septal cartilage to shape the tip. Because of my job, there is a visible component to my face, so full removal was unfortunately not possible. During the second consultation, I said I wanted to keep the ear cartilage and use it as a horizontal support to open up the pinched area, and the doctor said that method would have almost no effect in my case, but that we could do it to preserve the ear cartilage. In the end, the revision was just silicone replacement and donor rib removal.
I had the surgery in mid-November. The result was that the lowered silicone was exactly right and the nose shape was fine, but... the tip was bent to one side. Or maybe tilted? The central axis was leaning completely to the right. As the swelling went down, it became more and more visible, so I contacted the hospital. They told me to come in... After looking at it, they said that even if we waited 6 months, the result wouldn’t be much different from this. Rather than waiting 6 months and ending up back in the revision-surgery category, let’s do an early release now and redo it. They strongly emphasized that. Honestly, I also wanted to correct it early if possible.. They seemed more worried that I might say I’d rather wait. So at the end of November, I had an early release and the surgery again.
The surgery ended very successfully. When I first had it done, they said the pinching could be improved but not completely disappear, and in reality it only got somewhat better. But with the early release, because of the bend, they loosened the right alar cartilage to its limit, and the pinched area on the right was almost completely released. The tip shape was also set to the moderately full nose shape I wanted. I do wish the left side had been released that much too, haha. Still, my original nose had lines that were somewhat pinched-looking to begin with, so it didn’t bother me much.
Of course, there was the slightly tougher period of an early release, but instead of saying they wouldn’t do it and that they hadn’t done anything wrong, they were concerned and said let’s do it quickly, and when I told them after the stitches were removed from the early release that they had been through a lot, they said no, the patient had been through much more... That made me feel very different from the hospital where I had my first surgery. At the first hospital too, when I asked because my nose shape looked strange, they acted like there was absolutely no problem. I realized again how important every word can be.
I worried a lot, but they were so kind, and I’m happy that the surgery was satisfying. Oh, it was also great that I didn’t have to wear a nasal splint during recovery. It was really comfortable. I got a lot of help here, so I’m leaving this review in the hope that it helps others too.^^ I hope everyone has a happy year-end.