Nose Surgery as Someone from Outside Seoul

First of all, I had nose surgery at one of the places on my list. I’m not going to share the clinic because I’m worried I’ll be treated like a broker. Maybe it was thanks to the director’s technique, or maybe it’s my constitution, but I didn’t have a single bruise, and I’m waiting for the swelling to go down. My nose had severe columellar retraction, so it wasn’t exactly an upturned nose, but it had a slight upturned-nose feel, and it was a bulbous nose with thick skin. I absolutely had to get nostril-base reduction, and my bridge height was already high. Out of the 15 clinics I visited, about 7 recommended that I not raise it any higher from where it was. I’m writing this because I really struggled, felt so lost, and was under a lot of stress while going around for consultations, so I genuinely hope this helps someone! The photo below is the full list of 15 places I visited for consultations. If you have any questions, leave a comment. 1. How long did you set aside for consultation visits? I went around for two months. Since I’m from outside Seoul, it wasn’t easy to visit everything all at once, so I slept at my older sister’s place or at acquaintances’ homes. Mentally, two months was too exhausting and hard, so I recommend doing your consultations within 2-3 weeks. If you visit several places in one day, first of all, you won’t remember the consultation details clearly, and you lose motivation. You may get so tired that you can’t even properly ask the questions you prepared. On the other hand, the longer the period gets, the harder it becomes to remember the consultation details, so no matter what!! ⭐️ After each consultation, once you come out, write in your notes app everything you heard, the materials, aftercare, and all the answers to your questions in very fine detail, even things that seem useless. Just write absolutely everything down, including how you felt! 2. The doctors at each clinic all say such different things that I’m confused. For me, 7 out of the 15 clinics said that if I raised my natural nose, it would become a high, operated-looking bulbous nose, a huge nose. The remaining few clinics suggested putting silicone at the glabella. Because everyone said different things, I think it made me more confused and more distressed. As you go around clinics, you start getting greedy. Even noses that used to look pretty to you start making you think, “Isn’t that a little low?” and you start wanting to raise it more, or make it a bit more glamorous. Because you’re waiting at clinics, seeing other people, other people’s noses, your own nose, and all day long all you see is noses, your standards get distorted from “nose psychosis” (nose + mental illness). So before going for consultations, write down in very specific detail your biggest source of stress, what you want improved, and the aesthetic you’re pursuing. When you let your mind settle a bit and live your real life, those greedy feelings from that time disappear, and you return to the original mindset you had when you first decided to get nose surgery. Don’t regret later, thinking, “I shouldn’t have gotten greedy back then.” Be clear about your desired aesthetic and what you want improved. ⭐️ 3. Number of clinics to visit for consultations First, I really regretted going to too many places. I definitely don’t recommend visiting only 3 clinics, especially if it’s your first surgery. If it’s your first surgery, I think you should absolutely visit fewer than 10 places, and more than 5 but fewer than 7 seems appropriate. It gets confusing. Every director has completely different preferred materials and surgical methods. I thought I had a short nose. A few doctors said that too. But what I learned after actually visiting clinics was that, from the front, my midface did have some length, but because the starting point of my nose was high, it looked like a short nose. I thought it looked upturned because I had no columella, but rather than the columella being the issue, the drooping alar rims were actually more of a problem. Like this, when you visit clinics, there are things you learn thanks to doctors who catch these points while looking at the overall proportions. I thought it was a columella issue, so I searched for clinics good at bringing out the columella, but later I added to my list clinics that are good at alar lift and nostril/alar-base work. So you need to know well why the part that stresses you out looks that way. As you visit clinics, ask, “This part stresses me out. Why does it look this way? What’s the reason?” 4. Don’t obsess over the nose line you want. When the consultant asks what line you want during the consultation, say something like, “I’d like to get the director’s recommendation,” or “I prefer this kind of line.” A straight-with-slight-curve line, semi-ski-slope line, and straight nose line are important. Honestly, I wanted a straight-with-slight-curve line. So when I went around to clinics, I brought all the pretty straight-with-slight-curve photos in the PPT I had prepared and asked everyone whether that line was possible. But what I want to recommend to everyone here is that you must ask the director ⭐️ what nose line suits your face, and what line can come out from your current nose. ⭐️ I went around with printed photos saying I wanted a straight-with-slight-curve line, but a few doctors told me that because my natural nose is a straight line, if they tried to make a straight-with-slight-curve line, they would actually have to lower the nose a lot, and then it could become too large. They said, “Your natural nose is already a straight line, so why lower it and make it straight-with-slight-curve, ruining the line you already have?” They recommended that, with my current nose, slightly lowering the columella and making it a straight line would make the midface look less long and prettier. More than the line I want, it’s actually important to know what line suits my face and what line I already have!!! ⭐️⭐️ If I had gone with a straight-with-slight-curve line, I would definitely have needed about 2 mm or 3 mm of silicone at the glabella. But I didn’t want to force the side line by putting silicone in the glabella and lowering the nose more just to make it straight-with-slight-curve. In the end, I had it done with no implant and autologous costal cartilage in a straight line, and I’m actually very satisfied. It’s a straight line, but the columella was made rounded and slightly projected, so it looks like a feminine straight line that appears a bit like a straight-with-slight-curve line. Rounded, defined, exactly the nose I wanted! If I had gotten a straight-with-slight-curve line or glabellar silicone on my face, I think it would have looked really unnatural, like an Avatar nose. So what I want to say is, don’t obsess over the line. Depending on the line you want, the materials and what goes inside change too. As you go around for consultations, make sure you first hear from the director what line suits you and what line they recommend!! After that, I recommend telling them the line you want. ⭐️ 5. Narrow your final choices from the consultation list down to 3 or 2 and visit them one last time. A final comparison is absolutely necessary. In many cases, the second consultation was actually more detailed than the first, and the directors took it more seriously. You know the consultant is important too, right? In the end, the person you contact the most is the consultantㅠ How many people do you think the doctors consult with in a day? Expecting them to look at everything in great detail when they don’t even know whether you’ll become their patient or not is just our own greed. Study a lot before you go. You have to ask the questions yourself. If you were the doctor, would you feel like explaining nose surgery in detail to someone who doesn’t know much about nose surgery, didn’t prepare, and may or may not even have surgery with you, while the next patients are waiting? And there are hundreds of people like that in a month? Why bother? So prepare specific questions yourself. Don’t be disappointed just because the consultation ended quickly. When reviews say, “I had high expectations, but the consultation ended quickly,” it means that person had nothing to ask and hadn’t fully understood their own needs. How many people do you think doctors see? If someone clearly doesn’t seem ready to have surgery, doesn’t know much, and just seems like they came to gather information, what reason would there be to spend time explaining everything to them? So online research and in-person consultations are important, but study a lot before you go. Terminology, techniques, materials, your own stress points, and so on. Online research and in-person consultations are important, but study nose surgery a lot, a lot before you go. If you’re curious about anything from the list, I’ll tell you everything. I wrote everything down in detail in my notes, so I can tell you consultation reviews, prices, and details. I know how overwhelming it feels, so I really hope this helps someone. I hope everyone can break free from stress and become happy.