I live in Busan, and it’s almost day 40 since I had my first rhinoplasty in Busan. Before getting rhinoplasty, I got a lot of help from many people here, so I’m posting this review in case it helps someone too.
1. Consultations I think I worried about rhinoplasty for about 20 years, seriously (because of my age) lol. I had a ton of worries about side effects and all that, but constitutionally I’ve healed well from procedures (fat grafting) and surgery (I had eye ptosis correction once), without major side effects and with relatively little swelling. So I decided to just trust my body(?) and do it when I made up my mind.
Originally, I was absolutely going to get it done in Seoul, but the more I thought about it, if something went wrong after surgery and a problem came up, I really couldn’t imagine holding my painful nose and taking the train to the hospital. It seemed like it would stress me out too much, so I decided to consider Busan clinics first and went around mostly in Seomyeon. (I think of it as choosing the lesser evil instead of the best option...)
Even while going to consultations, I didn’t even look at clinics with lots of pay doctors like ㅎㄴ or ㄴㄹㅇ. And although I do prefer a natural look, I also first filtered out clinics that make it so subtle you can’t tell whether it was done or not and then say, “It turned out naturally.” (This is completely my personal standard. Since noses are ultimately about self-satisfaction, I think there will be big individual differences here too.)
Anyway, the reason I chose ㅅㅍ after consultations was that the director’s style wasn’t exactly the style I wanted, but most of the shapes were pretty and harmonious, so I felt they had a good aesthetic sense and decent skill. That was the biggest reason. I thought that as long as I communicated well with the director about the design I wanted, “even if it’s not perfect, it probably won’t be ruined.” Since I personally went around for consultations myself, they didn’t even bring up review discounts to me lol. Anyway, I still think the price I got was not bad within the budget I had in mind.
2. Desired look First, my nose was slightly bulbous and low (not a short nose). Since I have prominent brow bones and a developed lower face, my low nose made my mouth look more protruded and overall I didn’t have a refined look. The nose shape itself didn’t have any huge issue, but because the bridge was so low, I kept getting filler, dissolving it, getting filler, dissolving it, and so on. (This was also one of the reasons I decided on rhinoplasty.)
I had my first surgery on 1/27, and the look I wanted was a straight nose that didn’t have a high glabella area and didn’t look long. Even a straight-with-slight-curve nose felt too flashy by my standards, so I told them I wanted a straight nose. The director said at first it would need to be slightly overcorrected, so it would come out with a bit of that straight-with-slight-curve feel, but as time passed and the nasal tip came down a little, it would look straight, so I said okay.
I asked for the glabella area to be slightly low-looking (like a natural nose), and I repeatedly said the most important thing was that it look harmonious with my existing face. My features are not flashy, so I really hated the idea of a face where only the nose stands out.
The director said they would use septal cartilage, donated costal cartilage (they said they would use it if needed after opening the nose), and ear cartilage. They said the silicone height would be around 3.5.
3. Surgical pain Even after the surgery ended, I really had no pain. I do tend to tolerate procedures pretty well, but even on the first day, I thought it might throb a bit once the anesthesia wore off. But it didn’t, and as long as I didn’t touch it, it didn’t hurt at all. It hasn’t hurt even once until now lol.
When I had eye ptosis correction, once the anesthesia wore off it hurt so much that I was actually swearing out loud in the recovery room and making a scene saying it hurt like crazy. I had it done a really long time ago, but I still remember how painful it was, so compared with that, the pain was truly 0. (I think it really varies by person, and maybe I was just lucky.)
4. Satisfaction with the clinic Overall, I’m satisfied with the surgical result, but dissatisfied with communication from the staff and nurses. But from the beginning, I cared most about the doctor, and I’m not the type to care that much about how kind the staff are and things like that.
The reason I’m slightly dissatisfied with the communication is that after my surgery, when I had roughly woken up from anesthesia and was paying, they told me, “Only septal cartilage was used.” So I was like, huh???? lol. Because my nose is small and low, and wherever I went, after CT scans they said my amount of septal cartilage was in about the bottom 5%. So I was seriously baffled, wondering how they did anything with septal cartilage alone. Even my ear was completely fine lol.
Then I went home and couldn’t sleep that day. I was seriously thinking, “Is this that medical accident(?) thing?” lolololol. The next day, I went in for a follow-up and asked the doctor directly, and they said they used septal cartilage + donated costal cartilage, and they didn’t use ear cartilage because it wasn’t needed. Only then did I feel relieved...
I mean, does it make sense for clinic staff to take payment from a patient without even looking at the chart? I was seriously dumbfounded;; Anyway, as I said earlier, I’m the type who’s okay as long as the surgical result is good, so I let it go.
Also, while going to the clinic for a week for follow-ups, I got a little anxious and worried ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, so I had the director check the progress. I remember the director was very welcoming(?) and kind, checked this and that carefully, said, “There are no issues, the shape is pretty, and it’s healing well,” and “You don’t need to worry at all. The progress is very good.” They didn’t charge a consultation fee either, so I left feeling good.
5. Result From the start, I didn’t have much material to work with, and my height was quite low, so I gave up early on any thought like, “I’ll be reborn with one nose surgery,” or “I’ll live a second life” lol. The most important things to me were “a naturally pretty nose” and “a safe nose without worrying about side effects,” so now, a little over a month later, I’m very satisfied.
There is still a scar, but it’s to the point where I don’t necessarily need to cover it. It doesn’t look burdensome to others either. People often say that you need to raise it dramatically at first for it to look natural after 1-2 years, but I think that also depends on individual differences, like how much gets absorbed, so I have no complaints.
However, since I didn’t raise my bridge a lot, until about week 3 when there was still a lot of swelling, from the front it really looked like there was no before-and-after difference.. lol. I think it looked even more that way because my cheeks were swollen too. Still, I didn’t get too mentally distressed and spent the time telling myself not to think about anything until one month lol.
If your desired look is similar to mine and you’re debating getting it done in Busan, I think it would be okay to go for a consultation. I was exactly like that. In Busan, there really aren’t many clinics famous for noses, and there also don’t seem to be many clinics where you can clearly say, “They’re skilled.” So even so, I had thought that if nowhere appealed to me, I would go to Seoul lol. My friend who had rhinoplasty three times in Seoul was also very worried at first when I said I was getting it done in Busan, but after surgery, they saw my nose and said they felt relieved.
And aside from the nose itself, I’m so happy my mouth doesn’t look protruded lol. My older sister also looked at my face and said it was interesting because the focus seems to go more toward my eyes now.
6. Extra (worries about side effects) Honestly, in life, I don’t think there are as many things as we think that get solved by worrying in advance. Had rhinoplasty -> no issues -> live well / had rhinoplasty -> problem occurred -> solve it
I think you just solve things with the appropriate method when they actually happen. I’m not someone who unconditionally encourages rhinoplasty, but if you’ve struggled with a complex for a long time, I realistically think the right direction is to research well and get surgery with the mindset of “improving a drawback” and “correcting it” without putting too much strain on your body. That’s the conclusion I reached after seriously thinking about rhinoplasty, researching this and that, looking things up, and thinking about it for a long time lol.
Anyway, if you have questions, leave a comment and I’ll reply when I have time. Thanks for reading this long post, and I hope everyone’s surgery is successful!
* Both review photos were taken with the basic iPhone camera, and I intentionally marked them while leaving the inner corners of the eyes and the fronts of the eyebrows visible. When photos cover everything, it’s a bit frustrating because you can’t tell where the eyes are and how the nose turned out.. I hope this helps