I’m writing this to share my facial contouring process and leave a review for those who are thinking about it. I’ll write in detail, so if you’re seriously considering facial contouring, I hope you’ll read it at least once. If you leave a comment saying it helped, I think it’ll help me when I write another review later hehe Since this is not an advertisement or event post, I won’t disclose the clinic information. I’ll write it by date. <Day of surgery> Before surgery, I got a little scared when the general anesthesia consent form said there was a possibility of death, but when the actual surgery started, I breathed in the anesthetic gas 3 times and passed out. A nurse shook me awake lol. When I woke up, I was very dizzy and dazed. I was so sleepy, but the nurse told me not to sleep, so I held out while staring at the emergency exit sign. After 30 minutes to 1 hour, I was moved to a private inpatient room, and from then on my jaw started hurting. I didn’t feel anything in my cheekbones, but my square jaw hurt. It felt like someone was unpleasantly pressing down on my jaw with their foot + my jaw felt heavy overall. I asked about painkillers, and they said it was a narcotic painkiller and would take more than 30 minutes to go in, so I waited. I had drains attached and was continuously getting injections in my arm, so I was out of it, and since I’m extremely timid, I was just grateful that I had come out alive. After that, I repeatedly fell asleep and woke up, going to the bathroom about once an hour. I didn’t really have aftereffects from general anesthesia, but if I had to call something a side effect, for one day the feeling of residual urine was no joke. I had clearly just gone to the bathroom, but I kept feeling like I needed to pee, and my throat was very scratchy too. Honestly, the first day was much easier than I expected. As I wrote earlier, I’m really timid, so I had searched the entire internet reading reviews (I’m the person who asked ChatGPT about the mortality rate of facial contouring surgery until the day before surgery), and in one review someone said it felt like a truck had run over their jaw, so I was really scared. But I’m not lying: for me, orthodontic braces hurt more than square jaw surgery. On days 2 to 3 of braces, it hurt so much I seriously wanted to pull my teeth out, but jaw surgery passed more calmly than expected. I’m not saying it didn’t hurt;; I mean it was okay compared with the pain I imagined from shaving bone and tissue. Rather than jaw pain, from the swelling, my ears felt blocked and pulled like when you’re on an airplane, so it was a bit hard from day 1 to day 2. In other reviews, some people couldn’t sleep well on the first day because of pain, but for me, the hard part was staying awake. I was dying of sleepiness, but the nurse came in and told me to walk in the hallway and go to the bathroom. For reference, the reason you have to move is that general anesthesia also affects the stomach, so if you don’t move enough, your stomach can hurt a lot and you can feel nauseous. The nurse told me someone had once gone to the ER because their stomach hurt so much, so I went to the bathroom every 2 hours and walked 10 laps around the hallway. At one point, when antibiotics were going in, I felt slightly nauseous, but after carefully walking 10 laps in the hallway, I felt better. But after that, maybe because I sleep so much, I eventually couldn’t fight the sleep and slept deeply from 12 to 5. I didn’t wake up even once. After sleeping like that, it was discharge day. <Day 2 after surgery> During the one day I was hospitalized, the nurse came in regularly to change my ice packs and checked the anesthetic and antibiotic infusion status. A few hours before discharge, they removed the drains, and this hurt the most for me ㅠ When they removed the left drain, the heavy and unpleasant pain was really... It wasn’t like it was extremely painful, but it hurt in such an unpleasant way. They said I couldn’t drink water for about 2 hours after removing the drains, so I waited, then a few hours later I drank water, drank New Care, got a CT scan, and was discharged. Thankfully my mom came to pick me up by car, and I was sleepy the whole way home so I slept again lol. After I got home, I ate thin rice gruel that my mom had prepared. Rice grains were still too much, so I ate thin gruel with the grains strained out. After eating, I was still a bit hungry, so I drank another New Care, took my medicine, applied ointment, and slept. Until I went to sleep in the evening, I continued to have a heavy, stiff pain, and my jaw kept feeling heavy overall. For reference, I couldn’t sleep lying down, so I sat in a camping chair, put my feet up on a box, and fell asleep envying people who were born with pretty face shapes. <Day 3 after surgery> When I woke up, the swelling was truly legendary. I knew swelling is usually worst on day 3, but seeing myself in the mirror made reality hit. It looked like a completely different person, and I suddenly got scared that maybe the surgery had gone wrong. I tried to stay as calm as possible, applied ointment, ate, gargled, took medicine, and went for a walk. Thankfully, after walking for about 2 hours, the swelling did go down a bit. Still, I felt depressed, so I watched TV and tried not to think about the surgery as much as possible. There was a slight change in the pain that day. Originally, the pain felt very heavy and weighty, but little by little it spread into throbbing + itchy pain. The uncomfortable parts were that I couldn’t brush my teeth, so the inside of my mouth felt very unpleasant, and the swelling bothered me so much. It was swollen down to my neck, so if I lightly touched my neck, it hurt. For now, I decided to do what the clinic told me and monitor the situation. <Day 4 after surgery> Thankfully, the swelling seemed slightly less than yesterday, but the effect was minimal. I started getting tired, and reality hit me about what I was investing my money and youth for. Since I could only eat thin rice gruel, porridge, or soup, I lost a lot of energy, and I watched mukbang videos for vicarious satisfaction, but it was so painful. I made a list of foods to eat once I recovered and repeated the boring routine. Eat breakfast, take medicine, walk, eat lunch, take medicine... Like that, the night of day 4 passed, and maybe because sleeping while sitting was miserable, I woke up while sleeping and lay down on the bed for a bit. I had already raised the head area of the bed in advance. <Day 5 after surgery> Because I sleep so much, I overslept and missed the timing for my morning medicine. I hurriedly drank one New Care, took my medicine, and went for a walk. On this day, the swelling was noticeably reduced compared with days 3 to 4. (Because I was legendarily swollen on day 3, there was a magic effect where day 5 swelling looked small.) My parents also said the swelling had gone down a lot, and I could see it with my own eyes too. I felt a little relieved and hoped the swelling would go down quickly. The pain had really reduced a lot, and now it had changed from heavy and weighty to itchy and painful. It’s a little hard to explain, but if you’ve had braces, you’ll know that itchy, painful sensation hehe... That day too, I carefully did as the doctor emphasized: took medicine, applied ointment, gargled, and held back my appetite. After that, it’s been similar.. hehe The swelling slowly goes down, I have to do aftercare, and so on. My conclusion is that facial contouring is still worth trying. Of course, I think I may recover a little faster than others and feel less pain than average. (Sleep tends to beat pain for me...) But considering side effects after facial contouring surgery and the risks of surgery, I don’t think I can casually recommend it to others. It is definitely a surgery you should think about a lot before doing. If your face shape seems fine and you only want to fix it a little, I honestly want to discourage you. I hope only people like me, who edit every photo, take photos so their face shape doesn’t show, and feel stressed when looking in the mirror, seriously consider it. <Facial contouring surgery tips> 1. Eat lots of delicious food beforehand Holding back from food is so hard ㅠ Eat everything you want to your heart’s content. You can assume that for 2 weeks, you won’t be able to eat most of what you want. 2. Get dental treatment You know it’s hard to open your mouth after surgery, right? Make sure to get scaling or cavity treatment done in advance! 3. Visit many clinics Each clinic director has slightly different surgical methods and different recommendations, so I want to say you should definitely visit 4 to 5 places. 4. Keep pin removal in mind I definitely plan to have the pins removed. I don’t know what side effects might happen later, and I could develop an illness and need to get a brain MRI. Considering that removal gets harder as time passes, I think you definitely need to keep pin removal in mind when considering surgery. (Most plastic surgery clinics say pin removal isn’t necessary, but search the internet thoroughly.) 5. Walk diligently Of course I know it’s hard to go out after surgery, but walking is really important for swelling. Pumpkin juice or tea are only supplementary methods. For 1 week after surgery, I walked 2 hours every day. 6. If you’re very worried about sagging, reconsider If you think, “I want my skin to be better than others even when I’m in my 30s or 40s,” then I think it’s right not to do it. I recommend it to people like me who have enough of a complex that they want a pretty face shape even if they accept a little sagging. And honestly, sagging varies quite a lot from person to person... 7. Prepare New Care, porridge, and soup It will help a lot if you prepare a week’s worth of food like New Care, porridge, and soup in advance. Especially if you don’t have a caregiver... definitely prepare them. It depends on the person, but if you had both cheekbones and jaw done, you’ll probably be eating only soft liquid foods for about a week. I also bought yogurt and ice cream. For the first few days, even small chunks are hard, so buy porridge with as few chunks as possible. 8. Make a list of videos or movies to watch The first week after surgery is a battle with time. Prepare movies or videos you can enjoy as much as possible. Think carefully, and if you have any questions, please leave a comment!
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This review is for a surgery review pursuing a natural look.