I’m a huge scaredy-cat, so before getting revision surgery I did a ton of legwork and research. I got a lot of help from this community, so I wanted to write a review too. First of all, mine was a revision surgery. I had it done 10 years ago with donated costal cartilage, and it wasn’t that I hated the shape. I could have just lived with it, but as I got older, maybe because of the nature of donated costal cartilage, it seemed to have been absorbed a bit and became lower. But the nasal bridge didn’t get lower; the nasal tip got a little lower, and it felt like my nostrils were showing a bit too. So I was debating whether to do it or not, but after going around, getting CT scans, and having consultations, I suddenly wanted to do it even more, so that’s how I ended up doing it.
I had it done at the clinic, and the doctor was Dr. Seo Seung-jo.
What I wanted was to lower the nasal bridge, lower the starting point of the nose, raise the nasal tip, and make the nostrils not show. Those were my conditions. Maybe that also matches the current aesthetic people are going for these days, because even when I didn’t specifically say it, the doctors all brought those points up first. Oh, and I had this fantasy(?) about autologous costal cartilage, so I had already decided I would definitely use autologous costal cartilage. I’m also scared of general anesthesia, so finding a place that could do sedation anesthesia, and since I’m such a scaredy-cat, choosing a hospital that seemed like it would make it as painless as possible, was also my number one priority. During my previous nose surgery, I had severe panic from the nasal packing, so whether they used packing was important too.
I narrowed it down to about 5-6 hospitals that people said were famous here and went to all of them. I got CT scans, and at one hospital they even took a rib X-ray to check for calcification. Anyway, I had consultations at all of them.
While going around, I kept narrowing it down like semifinals then finals, and the reason I liked this place was that the aesthetic in the review photos here matched mine. So I went for a consultation, and during the consultation the doctor showed me on the computer what kind of shape it would come out as, showing me a nose that suited my face, and I liked that nose. Also, what mattered most was that I had heard they don’t put in nasal packing. When I asked, the doctor also said he wouldn’t use packing, so my mind was almost made up. Other hospitals often recommended general anesthesia, but here they talked about sedation anesthesia, and somehow they explained it like it was something simple, so I felt reassured too.
Also, they said that if I didn’t like the design within 1 year, they would do AS for only the material cost. If contracture occurred, they would provide AS for life, and they said they had never had a single contracture case for decades? ten-something years? They also said CCTV viewing was possible, and there were various detailed patient-centered parts like that. Oh, and the coordinator who consulted with me was the kindest among all the hospitals I visited, and explained things clearly so they were easy to understand. Compared with the other hospitals I had gone to, it felt like they were doing something more, so I think that’s why I chose this place.
And after the surgery, they really didn’t put in nasal packing. I said I had ear filler, so using ear cartilage felt a bit iffy, and they did everything with autologous costal cartilage, so my ears are totally fine too.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I didn’t feel my rib at all, so I touched the rib area right away. There was gauze there, so I thought, ah, they did use rib cartilage. Like people said in the reviews, I really didn’t have rib pain. Except for two or three days, I could breathe about halfway through my nose, so that was good too. I do think that because the doctor’s hand skills are good, the surgery probably came out cleanly.
I wanted it to look natural but pretty, but right now it’s only been a month and a half since surgery, so it looks really big and dramatic. I think I need to watch it a bit longer. Right now the glabella area is also really high, and the nose still feels a bit upturned, but they say it’s swelling, so I’m going to wait a little longer.
I think I need to keep watching the shape, but for now, regarding choosing the hospital, I feel like I made a good choice. For people like me who hate pain, I think you could go here. I recommend it. I’ll post another review after more swelling goes down. Right now the glabella is high and anyway it’s very dramatic, so since it’s not the final result, I’m going to wait. The glabella will get lower and the nasal tip will come down a bit too, right? 🙏
I hope this helps, and I’ll attach photos.