Review of removing Gore-Tex and having revision surgery with silicone + autologous costal cartilage

15 years ago, I had surgery only on the nasal bridge with Gore-Tex. At the time, Gore-Tex was newly becoming popular, so I think many people must have had surgery with it. Because of that, I can roughly guess the age range of people now worrying about Gore-Tex removal. (I’m in my early 40s.) During my first surgery, they made an incision in the middle of the columella, and even then the scar didn’t fade well. Then, as the long Gore-Tex pressed down on my nasal tip, the columellar scar looked even more prominent and my nostrils became severely uneven, so I think that’s when I started considering Gore-Tex removal. Looking back, I had more complexes about it than satisfaction after the surgery, so I wonder why I didn’t deal with it sooner. Plastic surgery was such a complicated and difficult issue for me that I found it bothersome, kept putting it off... and eventually ended up at this age. My nasal dorsum was always red, and sometimes when I drank alcohol, my nose throbbed. Now my nasal tip felt thin, as if the Gore-Tex might break through? That made me think, ah, I really need to go to a clinic now. From that point on, things like nasal bridge height were no longer important. If I had any wishes after removing the bridge material, I think I hoped I could have my nostril size matched back to how it originally was and just have the nasal tip touched up a little. (Now that I think about it, that wasn’t easy either, but I thought of it as if it were easy.) Back then, I didn’t know about this community... (I think that may have been my biggest mistake.) I just kept searching on Naver and went to two plastic surgery clinics that were working hard on marketing and sales (I mistakenly thought I knew how to tell them apart), and I also visited a doctor who actively posted threads about contracted noses and reconstruction. (They were posting a lot of revision surgery reviews.) I’m the type of strong J who has to look into and plan everything, so I don’t know why plastic surgery in particular felt so confusing and difficult ㅠㅠ I once joined a Kakao open chat room for things like nose revision and contracted nose, but while I briefly couldn’t check the chat because I was working, I was suspected for not completing verification and got kicked out. The second time, I tried in my own way and even asked questions, but I couldn’t join in the conversation. After looking around like that and making appointments, the consultations I received at three clinics were different from what I had in mind. At the first clinic, they said they would probably need to build the nasal bridge with silicone or donated dermis, and use autologous costal cartilage for the nasal tip. (They kept recommending silicone / if I was too anxious, they suggested using donated dermis for the bridge / it felt like they told me not to expect much improvement in the columellar scar or nostrils.) The second clinic said the nasal bridge absolutely had to be silicone, and the nasal tip autologous costal cartilage, and that the nostrils should be corrected while correcting the nasolabial angle. (It felt like they didn’t do implant-free procedures / but the review photos there were so pretty / I expected the scar would improve if they built the columella firmly / the surgery method involved harvesting autologous costal cartilage and also placing a little dermis on the nasal tip area.) The third clinic said nasal bridge autologous dermis from the buttock + nasal tip autologous costal cartilage / but if I became dissatisfied with the nasal bridge later, we could put in silicone then. (They recommended a safe implant-free surgery, but I couldn’t decide because of the absorption issue, the scar in the buttock crease, and the nasal tip shape looking slightly upturned + out of nowhere they talked about making it possible to receive real-loss insurance coverage through rhinitis and septal correction.) I started the consultations by asking if, since I had no desire for a high nasal bridge, they could just remove it and adjust only my nasal tip or nostrils. But after reading that Gore-Tex has to be scraped out together with the adhered tissue, maybe I was secretly scared of what my nose would look like after removal alone. Since everyone consistently said autologous costal cartilage for the nasal tip was necessary, from then on I started worrying about the nasal bridge material too, and I think I became conflicted as well. As I write this, I feel like I couldn’t keep my center. There must be clinics that only do removal, and yes, I really should have looked into those kinds of clinics thoroughly too... but since the places I looked into weren’t removal-focused clinics, no one talked to me about the option of removal alone. I went to consultations while knowing far too little, and since the clinics only talked to me in terms of revision surgery, it all felt vague and confusing. But I felt like if I didn’t do it this time, I would just live like this for several more years again, and after agonizing over it, I decided to make a decision. In the end, I had surgery at the second clinic. They strongly said it had become thin enough that it wouldn’t be strange if it came out at any time, and that I really did need to have surgery. But there are so many people with silicone side effects and inflammation, so why do doctors say it’s a safe material? All three clinics said that nasal bridge silicone + nasal tip autologous costal cartilage would be really safe, but I’m still not completely free of that question ㅜ Even after deciding to have surgery, while waiting before entering the operating room, I became extremely sensitive after seeing the somewhat sloppy-looking clinic staff. I felt like I had made the wrong decision, still didn’t know if I was doing the right thing, and became so emotionally anxious that I couldn’t make my feet move and cried outside for an hour. (My husband heard my state in real time over the phone and got stressed with me; he told me to just come out if I felt anxious...) But no one can decide for me, and no one else will live with my nose, and I had to make a choice, so I soothed myself and safely got the surgery done. And since it’s already happened, I should just focus hard on recovering now. That’s what I’m telling myself again. (The swelling still needs to go down before I’ll know, but the ironic situation is that the director says the surgery went well and is very satisfied haha.) After surgery, while watching various nose surgery vlogs, someone mentioned this community, so I joined and have been reading different posts. (I’m still leaving comments and leveling up.) There are many people here with cases like mine, and after reading many posts, I realized that what I truly wanted was removal. Of course, there’s nothing I can do about it now... And more than half of my thought that it should have been removal is because I really never thought autologous costal cartilage surgery would make the nose this hard!! (It’s my fault for not looking into it well, but there was no way for me to know; no one at the clinic told me ㅜㅜ) Even before recovery is over, I’m already worried: how am I going to live with this foreign-body sensation going forward? After a few years, will this hardness and foreign-body sensation get somewhat better? After this surgery, if I say I want to return to the state I want (complete removal) and go back to my original nose, is there even a way? My thoughts have been full of things like this yesterday and today... Anyway, this is my first time leaving a post like this, and I’m writing it to organize my thoughts for the first time and in the hope that it might be even a small help to someone. I hate my younger self so much for choosing plastic surgery, and now that I’ve learned that naturalness is the prettiest... I hope the day never comes when I have to have surgery again. As compensation, I hope once the bruising and swelling go down, it looks really, really pretty hahaha. Fighting to everyone going through a lonely battle.