This will be a long post, but if you're preparing for surgery, please read it!!! I got my 3D CT scan at HuX Imaging Center.
I figured that if I went to the hospital where I had surgery, they'd just talk me down anyway, so I thought an imaging center with no connection at all would be better,,, plastic surgery clinics say that even if there's only a tiny gap they just tell you that you need revision surgery. They say the fibrotic tissue that forms between slightly separated bones doesn't show up on CT, but it's as hard as bone (someone else told me this). Also, the director really spoke objectively,,,
Anyway, I had cheekbone surgery through an intraoral incision about 1 year and 4 months ago. I had protruding side cheekbones with a 45-degree angle, and the front cheekbones were a bit underdeveloped by comparison.
The overall surgical result is so-so.
It is not, "This is amazing!!!! I became a completely different person!!!!!!!!!!!!" And I realized that imagining that kind of result was just a fantasy I had built up while looking at photos posted before surgery at hospitals or cosmetic surgery cafes....
What everyone who has had cheekbone surgery says,,, that the effect is the least noticeable of all cheekbone surgeries,,,, it was true. Of course, if your cheekbones are really severe, like Shin Jung-hwan's, there may be some effect, but unless it's that bad, if it's only a slight complex? Honestly, I think the losses outweigh the gains.
The reason I wanted the CT scan wasn't because I had any special symptoms. My teeth had shifted a bit, and my molar bite felt slightly more uncomfortable than before? It just didn't feel like it fit right,,
so I worried, "What if this is how cheekbones start to slowly sink down? Isn't this it?????? I'm losing my mind,,, wow,,,"
That is what led me to go, and the result was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No problem,,,,ㅡㅡ;;
The right side looked as if I had never had surgery, with the bone fused into one solid piece,, there were no traces of osteotomy, everything was attached,,, the left side was half fused and half separated,,,,
I said, "So this is a nonunion... sob... what should I do????" and the doctor said, "At this stage, even if you are forty and become a grandmother, there will be no major problem. There are different types of nonunion, and a partial nonunion of this degree will not interfere with life, is not a cosmetic issue either, and will not require revision surgery in the future."
I was completely relieved,,,, and then they showed me another CT scan.
My appointment was in the afternoon, but apparently that patient came in the morning. On one side, like me, there was partial nonunion, and on the other side it was completely separated,,
with no areas fused at all,, only barely held together by wires and screws. They had had cheekbone surgery about 10 months earlier, and because there was no longer any chance of the bones fusing, revision surgery was recommended.
Then it turned out my issue was not a botched surgery causing my cheeks to sag, but just the ordinary kind.
Please read this if you're planning cheekbone surgery.
While I was looking into cheekbones, I learned something else too.
The masseter muscle has a significant impact on the cheekbones. The more you chew after cheekbone surgery, the more this muscle pulls the cheekbones downward. So I also thought that fixation needs to be really secure, and even if fixation is done and the surgery is finished well, you still need to minimize chewing for a very long time. The period the hospital mentions feels like just the period during which you won't die from complications. In my opinion, you really need to keep chewing to an absolute minimum for a looooong time, for about 6 months,,, only soft foods,,, and after surgery, the period for eating porridge should also be loooong. Right after surgery, not porridge that you have to chew, but porridge you can just swallow without chewing,,
Of course, anything tough or hard should be left until re~~~~~ally late,,, I think you need to hold out for 7 to 8 months,,
The hospital says that after cheekbone surgery, because they use fast recovery methods and this and that, swelling is less and bone union is good and so on,,,,,,,,, all of that is completely sales talk.
So if you're getting cheekbone surgery, first of all, choose a specialist doctor (of course you probably know this already), and what happens after surgery is truly important.
I have partial nonunion only on the left, and I figured out the reason myself. I had an old cavity on the right side, and it needed root canal treatment, so for quite a long time I avoided chewing on that side and habitually ate only on the left. As a result, after cheekbone surgery, the right side fused normally, but during the recovery process the left side was pulled downward by the masseter muscle (of course the cheekbone itself didn't move downward and then fuse), so half fused and half came apart.
That doesn't mean I didn't take care of myself after surgery. I did what everyone else does. I ate porridge,,, soft foods,,, and I didn't eat anything tough for a long time (I don't usually eat tough foods anyway, well,,)
Even so, this happened,,
What you should know first is: 1) With cheekbone surgery, only the side cheekbone cannot just be taken inward. Of course the front cheekbones will also sink a little. Since it's osteotomy, not grinding away bone. Grinding is really minimal. So you can only reduce the 45-degree area a little, but even that has almost no effect. Whether it's a scalp incision or an intraoral incision, even if the cheekbones don't sag and fuse straight, the cheeks can still sag. The degree depends on your own skin type and also on age. If your skin is thin, sagging happens more easily. If there isn't much of a stair-step deformity (diagonal wrinkles, nasolabial folds, sagging at the corners of the mouth), even if the cheeks don't seem to sag, the jawline can still become a U-shape. I didn't notice because my facial fat didn't seem to droop much, but before I knew it my jawline had become,,, No matter what the hospital says about three-dimensional this or that, or structure this or that, or cheekbone fixation methods, the truth is they're all more or less the same. Claims like, "If you use this method, there will be no cheek sag" (I can't believe that; people who had surgery with that method still ended up with cheek sag anyway) don't fool me anymore. So after cheekbone surgery, be prepared for the sagging that progresses gradually (sagging that comes faster than normal aging, sometimes within 1 year, but usually around 3 years), and if you're only willing to do cheekbone surgery because you're ready for lifting surgery,,, procedures,,, or even a facelift later on, then I won't necessarily stop you. But if you're just thinking, "I'll just bring it in a little more~~" in a normal sort of mindset, then I think the backlash that comes afterward may be hard to handle. So unless it's really~~~~~~~~ serious, before cheekbone surgery, do as many things as you can. If you have fat, lose it. If your skin isn't great, make your skin amazing. And if you've saved money (for the purpose of surgery), I strongly recommend spending that money on face-reduction massage, elasticity care, skin care, body shape management, and style investment. 2) Even so, if it's your fate and you have to do it because your cheekbones have become a curse that ruins your social life, then if you do undergo surgery, I hope you remember these things: Don't believe the exaggerated lies the hospital says with a smiling face, like that after surgery you can eat soft foods for a while, and after some time or after a few weeks you can eat comfortably,,, don't believe that nonsense at all.,, - Wear the compression bandage after surgery for more than 4 months, every time you sleep and whenever possible in between. Remember that 4, 5, or 6 months is not long at all. - Be careful with chewing after surgery,, moving the masseter muscle should be treated carefully for at least 5 months,,, if possible, soft foods for more than 7 months,,, things as soft as porridge,,, of course, for the first few weeks right after surgery, not porridge with anything you have to chew, but porridge with no grains, the kind you can smear with your tongue,,, - Take lots and lots of supplements, and take supplements so that the tissue in the dissected area after surgery can consolidate firmly. Also, when you're reducing swelling, even if you sleep sitting up, the compression bandage is mandatory, but once the swelling goes down and you're sleeping lying flat, make the pillow absolutely low!!!!
Do you think this period is excessive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not at all!!!!!!! Don't regret it later; just think, "I'm already dead," and after surgery, overdo the care. That's the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And please don't believe the photos posted in cosmetic surgery cafes,,,, I'm also a member of one, and in private messages there are people who got information from famous cafes, had surgery, and it didn't go well, and there are also a lot of people saying, "This isn't what the photos looked like, what is this?" If I post photos now, they would look good too. But when you see them in real life, that's not what it is!!!
I've written this elsewhere before, but among the photos posted in cosmetic surgery cafes, the only thing I would trust is the eyes,,, noses, cheekbones, and jawline are heavily affected by angle, so even a straight-on photo can be distorted no matter how carefully it was taken. And that's before even getting into Photoshop,,,
Eye photos are at least somewhat reliable if they're taken clearly (excluding pretty-photo angles, idol angles, and so on, and taken as precisely as if they were wanted-poster photos), but even then I'm one of the people who doesn't fully believe them. My friend had her nose done, and in real life it was not great either,,, but wow, when she posted a pretty photo on the cafe, so many people commented, "Please share the info under that photo," and I was like, ah~~~~ so that's how it is!!!!!!!ㅡㅡ;;
And the conditions have to be almost identical,,, pre-op photos are taken from an angle that is slightly unfavorable, while post-op photos are taken under favorable conditions (even without making the conditions dramatically different, a slight tilt or just lighting alone can make photos look quite different,,, honestly, fat grafting photos are almost always like this too: the before photo is expressionless and the after photo is smiling (cheeks puffed up~ plump))
Anyway, I really hope everyone preparing for surgery goes well.
And if you understand the long-term aftereffects of cheekbone surgery well, you'll start asking yourself, "Do I really need to go this far and then live with all that afterward? Even after full recovery, I may end up needing a facelift someday. Do I really have to do cheekbones to this extent?! Can't I invest this money more effectively?"
Please think carefully about that,,, I hope everyone who plans to do it goes well. Sorry for the casual speech above.,,;;;
In addition, I had forehead fat grafting 6 months ago. After the first round, it didn't suit my face at all, so I didn't do a second round. I did think it was a waste of money, but since money being wasted doesn't mean I can keep doing things that don't suit my face, I decided to swallow my tears, quietly set the money down at the hospital, and come back (ah, my money)
Of course there is absolutely nothing left now, and if there was one thing I gained, it's oily skin I have oily skin, and it really shines all the time like perilla oil brushed on seaweed I also got a bit of trouble, and I did get acne a little, but my forehead had never broken out before even though I do get acne in general. Now my forehead breaks out sometimes too But one good thing is that it doesn't get wrinklesㅎㅎㅎㅡㅡ; I guess because it's oily, there's no need to worry about wrinklesㅡㅡ;; They said this probably won't go back to how it was before,,,, it just became an oily forehead,,
Even when I get older, I don't think my forehead will get many wrinkles, not because it's plump, but because it's greasy
--------3D scans are understandable even to ordinary people, but with a plain CT, if the doctor explains it in a quick and sloppy way, you just accept it. Since it's basically like an X-ray, can you really see anything complicated? Someone who suffered like that later said they got a 3D scan too,,,, but it cost a lot,,, 23万円 and some change,,, it came out to,,,,, heeelp,,,,,