In short, after the forehead lift surgery, there was no eyebrow lifting effect. I had five incisions in the scalp and had Endotine inserted, so I took on the risk of side effects like hair loss and worked up the courage to undergo a forehead lift, but the result was no change, and I’m seriously depressed. I’m an international student, and the stress from this made me take a leave of absence from the fall semester. All that was left was a side effect of my forehead becoming bumpy…
It hasn’t been long since the surgery, but because of the nature of a lifting procedure, I thought it was more likely to go down over time than to improve. Even when less than a week had passed after surgery and there was no change, I told the clinic. The answer, as expected, was to wait… When I waited two weeks until the stitches were removed and told the director directly that there didn’t seem to be much change, he only said it was because of my skin and acted as if there was nothing more he could do. I felt let down and, beyond that, as if they were being irresponsible. That was when I first started thinking I should go to another plastic surgery clinic and hear whether my drooping upper eyelids truly had no chance of improvement with a forehead lift because of my skin.
I found another plastic surgery clinic known for forehead lifts, and the doctor there told me to make various facial expressions. After looking at me, he said it seemed the dissection had not been sufficient and that the muscle called the corrugator muscle also seemed not to have been handled properly. After I showed him photos taken right after the surgery, he shook his head and said that at the beginning they have to pull it quite strongly, and that at this degree there was ultimately no real difference before and after the lift, so he recommended revision surgery. After looking at the surgeon listed in the surgical chart, he even said that this doctor must do a lot of nose surgeries, and asked why he did a forehead lift here, telling me to discuss it well with the director..
After that, I realized it might not just be my skin’s fault and that the surgery itself could have been done incorrectly. The things discussed with the director during consultation, such as expectations, surgical method, and surgery time, were in a sense a contract, and since there was no change in eyebrow position and no active postoperative follow-up for that issue (honestly, that was even more upsetting), I felt it might be a breach of contract, so I requested a full refund. Later I was told through a staff member that a full refund was not possible, and when I brought it up again by KakaoTalk, they requested a meeting, so I met at the clinic.
Postoperative aftercare at a clinic seems like an important part for consumers, so I’ll share my experience in as much detail as possible.
If it goes into a dispute, it becomes troublesome for both sides, so I went to the clinic wanting to resolve the issue amicably, but the director’s unreasonable claims and domineering attitude made it extremely difficult. He raised his voice and shouted so much… I was so scared that I even asked him not to shout. With such a domineering attitude, I thought it was much more likely to end up in legal dispute rather than an agreement, and it seemed serious enough to be used later, so I even needed to record it. If you go to complain after being dissatisfied with a surgery, I think having someone with you would be helpful rather than going alone.
I did not suddenly act on impulse and get surgery. I first had a consultation in April 2019. At the time, the necessity of the forehead lift and the surgical plan they recommended were convincing, and I had a good impression of the director because he gave such a thorough consultation. Five years later, my eyelids had drooped even more, so I trusted the director and went there of my own accord, which is why the change in attitude was so, so, so shocking.
Beyond the attitude, their argument, to put it simply, is that because the surgery was done well, they cannot refund me. They say it was not a failed surgery, and that because my dissatisfaction is only with my subjective expectations, they cannot give a refund. They base this mainly on two points. One is that since I said my eyes became easier to open after the forehead lift, there was nothing wrong. The other is that my skin is extremely thicker than average and has poor elasticity, so there is only no difference before and after surgery; the surgery itself had no problem, and therefore this is dissatisfaction with my subjective expectations.
I could not agree with any of that. Because,
1. One-sided distortion of the purpose of the forehead lift surgery
They said, “A forehead lift is not about lifting the forehead a few millimeters; it is a surgery that makes it easier to open the eyes,” and then, if I remember correctly, they said I had said that opening my eyes became easier.
I did not even mention eye-opening strength during the consultation; I talked mainly about the thickness of the eyelid area, in other words drooping eyelids (and this was recorded in the consultation chart provided by the clinic). This is just the doctor arbitrarily changing the main purpose of the forehead lift and insisting that because that was satisfied, everything is fine.
Even in expert columns, it clearly says, “Unlike eyebrow lift surgery, the main purpose of forehead lift surgery is eyebrow lifting. That is, it pulls up sagging eyebrows while also lifting the eyelids together.” (Hidoc expert column, Kim Chang-yeon, 2021, https://mobile.hidoc.co.kr/healthstory/news/C0000655060).
Even on D.End Plastic Surgery’s website, the third indication for the forehead lift Endotine procedure says, “If you want to improve drooping eyebrows and drooping eyelids.”
A feeling that it became easier to open my eyes? Honestly, I’m not sure. If I had wanted functional improvement first and foremost, I would have gone to an ophthalmology clinic to be diagnosed with ptosis and looked only into a simpler, cheaper eye-correction procedure. In fact, they were trying to sell eye-correction together with the forehead lift (in the Excel file with the price list, the surgery name itself was categorized as forehead lift + non-incisional eye correction), so I thought it was odd and, after the consultation ended, I remember asking the director again for additional explanation about why eye-correction was necessary.
Since this was a surgery that caused no change in the double-eyelid line and supposedly reinforced the function of opening the eyes by tying up some muscle, I didn’t fully understand it as a patient, but I just trusted the director and thought anything extra would probably be better.
In other words, from the beginning, my top priority was eyebrow lifting rather than improving eye-opening strength, so even if I generously concede that opening my eyes became easier, I do not think the fact that there was no change from the surgery can be justified as a successful operation.
2. I was not informed before the surgery that my skin condition could lead to poor results.
The director said the surgery itself went well, but my skin is thick, lacks elasticity, and is firm like rubber, so the result could be unsatisfactory.
Then, as a board-certified plastic surgeon, shouldn’t they have told me, or at least have told me that because my skin characteristics could affect the surgery, I should lower my expectations? If my skin really had such unfavorable characteristics beyond the average, that is naturally something a plastic surgeon cannot overlook.
When I asked why they had not told me in advance about my skin and that it could affect the surgical result, he asked back whether I didn’t already know my skin was thick, and said, “Am I God?” and that you only know after performing the surgery, which left me speechless.
Yesterday I had a consultation for revision forehead lift surgery with a professor at a university hospital who specializes in facelifts, and he also said revision surgery would be possible, and that a board-certified plastic surgeon can to some extent predict the prognosis of a lifting surgery by looking at the patient’s skin. If my skin really has those unfavorable characteristics beyond the average, then of course it is something a plastic surgeon cannot overlook, so I think they should have told me during the consultation.
Or, during the consultation, there were before-and-after photos of a woman in her 20s whose forehead lift + non-incisional eye correction surgery the director showed me. When I said then that at least I could expect the same degree of difference between before and after as in those photos, he said, “If surgery made everyone look exactly like the photo, would everyone become a celebrity?” That did not feel logical, and honestly it was really upsetting…
Finally, he said that since I was so dissatisfied even though it was a successful surgery, he would do a brow lift for free two days later. He told me to decide in ten minutes, and that if I didn’t like this offer, I should take legal action, so I barely bought myself a day to think because it was my face. Hah.
How many people, when getting even one plastic surgery, agonize over it, study it, search for clinics by initials, and do all kinds of online and offline research… How could I decide on a brow lift surgery that middle-aged people might consider in just one day? There are so many things to look into, like whether it is really the right surgery for me, and if so, how my impression might change.
Still, the director must have thought about it and offered that surgery to me even though he wouldn’t receive extra money and would have to set aside additional time, so I tried to think seriously about it and, after the meeting, asked the desk staff to show me before-and-after photos of middle-aged women who had undergone brow lift surgery. But their impression had changed quite a lot, and the eyelid area had become narrower, so I started to wonder whether this was really the surgery I needed.
Most importantly, I had carefully researched forehead lift surgery because I wanted to improve the eye area without narrowing the distance between the eyes and eyebrows, and after much difficulty finally decided to go through with it. So I really did not understand why they would instead suggest a brow lift, which could remove skin below the eyebrows and make that distance even narrower.
I don’t know about plastic surgery in other areas, but I really do not recommend a forehead lift. If the main purpose is to improve eye-opening strength and the skin is thinner and more elastic than mine, so the result is satisfactory, then fine. But if not, aftercare does not go smoothly. The trust relationship is also damaged, and no matter how skilled the surgeon is, I no longer want to leave my face in that person’s hands.
So I declined the free brow lift offer for various reasons, but most of all because of the trust issue, and I have begun preparing for legal action...
This post was written on the basis of consumers’ rights guaranteed by our Constitution and the Framework Act on Consumers, and I state that it has no purpose of defaming the medical institution in question other than sharing information and helping other patients.