after<surgery after>after<surgery after>after<surgery after>before<before surgery>before<before surgery>before<before surgery>after<staff response>after<hospital representative KakaoTalk channel response>after<hospital representative KakaoTalk channel response>before*The reason I am posting this review is to help people who are planning to undergo a forehead lift + corrugator muscle resection, and people who are considering using this hospital, make a careful decision. It is a long post, but please read it*
I normally use my forehead when I open my eyes, so I wanted to improve 1. the many fine wrinkles on my forehead and 2. the feeling of looking frowning even when I am relaxed. (Apart from Botox, this was my very first forehead-related surgery or procedure.)
At Gangnam ㅎㅌ Plastic Surgery, a consultation with the manager + the surgeon led to a recommendation for a forehead lift + corrugator muscle resection.
2022.12.07 Underwent forehead lift + corrugator muscle resection My forehead felt very tight, the swelling was severe, and there was a lot of bruising only around the left eyelid. (After the surgery, the double eyelid line on the left rose higher and the asymmetry of the double eyelid line felt even more noticeable.)
2023.02.21 2 months after surgery As the swelling started to go down, the center of my forehead became uneven and sunken. When I told the manager in charge and went in for a follow-up, I was told it was because the corrugator muscle resection had been done too well. The surgeon also said that as the muscle gets smaller, it can look sunken, but that it would fill back in over time, and if the same pattern continued even after 6 months, they would correct it somehow, either by putting in filler or doing fat grafting. They also did PRP treatment on the scalp incision scar and the sunken area of the forehead. (They said PRP helps regeneration.)
2023.05.10 5 months after surgery Because of the earlier PRP, the unevenness on my forehead felt somewhat improved compared with before, but there was still a hollow-looking area around the scalp incision scar. That day they were drawing blood for PRP again, and the assistant nurse seemed unable to find the vein from the start. After inserting the needle into my arm, no blood came out, so while the needle was still in place she kept repeatedly pushing the back of the syringe in and out. The pain was extremely severe and my arm kept swelling more and more (I have had blood drawn countless times, but this was the first time anything like this happened). The manager and director came over and said this can happen during blood collection. (Afterward, I had a large, severe bruise, but they only told me to apply pressure and use compresses; there was no other follow-up care.) After that, the surgeon glanced at it so casually that I wondered whether follow-up visits even meant anything. They did PRP on the scalp incision area, and unlike before, when they had disinfected first, this time they just went ahead and punctured it, so I asked whether disinfection was not necessary. The surgeon said the scalp does not need disinfection.
2023.06.08 6 months after surgery The forehead unevenness became noticeable again. I took a photo of my current condition and sent it to the hospital's official KakaoTalk channel to request a follow-up. And since the swelling had mostly gone down, I was now in a position to talk about the results of the surgery, so I told the surgeon everything I was unhappy with. 1. As the tight swelling in my forehead went down, the forehead skin felt wrinkled and loose, like a deflated balloon. 2. The fine wrinkles and the feeling of looking frowning even when relaxed, which were my original concerns, do not seem different from before surgery. 3. The area that had previously sunken unevenly is now standing out again. 4. I am still opening my eyes with my forehead just as before; only my eyebrow position has gone up, and my forehead has become wider.
The surgeon said they would do a revision surgery by pulling the forehead up even more. I said my forehead is already wider now and asked whether revision surgery would make it even wider, and they rudely said, 'Then what do you want me to do, are you asking for a refund? There has to be some conclusion, doesn't there?' I was even more angry at that attitude, and since the surgeon brought up a refund first, I said yes, please do that. They said they would review it and contact me, so I went home angry.
2023.06.09 The manager in charge contacted me and said that because the corrugator muscle had been resected and the muscle volume had decreased, the sunken area and the three clear lines around it could be addressed in three ways. 1. Correct the sunken area with filler 2. Correct it by doing a revision forehead lift + corrugator muscle resection 3. Keep watching it a little longer while doing PRP injections
I said I did not want filler (because as the muscle moves, the filler can also become uneven + it is not permanent), I did not want revision surgery because it would make my forehead even wider and require another recovery period (and I was also doubtful it would really solve the problem), and I did not want PRP because it is temporary and therefore not a permanent solution.
In the end, only my forehead became wider, my desired concerns were not resolved, and if it was going to end up uneven like this, I would not have had the surgery. I said the time and effort I had invested so far were wasted and I did not want to suffer any more. If there was no other solution, I wanted a refund as the surgeon had said. Then they told me that forehead lift surgery itself is not intended to improve fine wrinkles (for reference, their homepage also clearly says it will 'neatly' correct wrinkles on the forehead and between the eyebrows), that there are limits to the surgery, and that they could not give a refund simply because I was denying the surgical result. They told me that if I had any objection, I should apply for relief through the Medical Dispute Mediation Committee.
*Regarding requests for medical records - no matter the situation, when a patient requests their medical records, the hospital is supposed to issue them immediately. Violating this is a breach of Article 21 of the Medical Service Act and is a criminal offense. If the hospital gives itself a long time to issue them, there is a risk of manipulation or revision, so go in person and ask for immediate issuance, and if they do not comply, report them to the police.*
2023.06.09 Request for all consent forms and follow-up photos -> They said they would contact me once the documents were ready 2023.06.14 No contact 계속, so I reported it to the public health center -> As soon as the public health center called the hospital, they contacted me and told me to come pick them up in the afternoon of the 15th (Neither the consent forms nor the precautions contained any mention that after surgery the muscle could be resected and the area might look uneven and sunken, and I had never been given such an explanation beforehand.) 2023.06.16 Request for all chart records and all medical records -> They said they would make an appointment once the documents were ready, then told me to come pick them up on the 20th 2023.06.20 When I received them and checked, the contents about the PRP treatment from May were missing, and nothing about the June follow-up was written down. When I asked the manager why there was no June follow-up note, they said the surgeon had said my current discomfort was not related to the surgery. I said that made no sense because I had evidence for everything, and they said they would check with the surgeon and add it. 2023.06.24 They said they had supplemented the 6-month follow-up chart record and told me to come pick it up. 2023.06.27 When I received it and checked, the following line had been added: 'Complained of insufficient improvement in the habit of using the glabella -> Explained that corrugator muscle resection is not a surgery that changes habits, but one that reduces the muscle.' Likewise, my complaints about dissatisfaction with the surgical effect and the unevenness that I had mentioned were omitted, and instead they wrote something I had never been told at the time. Also, if this really is a surgery that reduces the muscle, then when the corrugator muscle is reduced, I should at least look less frowning, since the corrugator muscle pulls the eyebrows toward the center and creates glabellar wrinkles, but I cannot tell any difference from before surgery.
The surgeon and manager's attitude toward customers was always mixed with informal speech from the beginning and was not kind, but they suddenly became rude once I was dissatisfied with the surgical result and brought up a refund. The hospital's official KakaoTalk channel response went beyond rudeness and became mocking, and when they had previously said they would address the uneven sunken area caused by corrugator muscle resection with filler, revision surgery, PRP, and so on, they now suddenly said it had nothing to do with the surgery and washed their hands of it.
When I looked it up on YouTube, I realized I was exactly the kind of case for whom a forehead lift should not be done,, I do not understand why they recommended a forehead lift to someone like me. All the side effects of forehead lift + corrugator muscle resection mentioned in videos from other hospitals match the symptoms I am experiencing as well,,
If you are considering a forehead lift + corrugator muscle resection, think carefully before deciding. For me, leaving aside dissatisfaction with the surgical result, the change in expression and the unevenness in the middle of my forehead make every day stressful, and every time I look in the mirror it feels like hell.
If you are considering surgery, I strongly recommend always recording the consultation and follow-up discussions in which your own concerns were spoken about, taking photos, and leaving evidence behind.
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