I’ll write in detail about the before-before-before and after-after-after, so I’ll use casual speech and a clipped style.
[Facilities and Consultation Order]
Compared with the other plastic surgery clinics I visited, I honestly can’t say the facilities are better.
But just looking at the fact that it is successfully operating as a plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam, I think the facilities themselves are objectively very good.
The consultation order was the same as at other clinics: I went into the clinic, confirmed my reservation at the counter, then went to the consultation room and consulted with the consultant.
The consultation with the consultant was based on the direction I wanted. From the consultant’s point of view, she told me what surgeries seemed necessary, gave me the related basic information, and answered my questions.
And it seemed like she relayed that to the director, then I consulted with the director.
After consulting with the director, the consultant came back for the final consultation. If I was going to do it at this clinic, we went into specific adjustments.
[Reason I Chose This Clinic]
I made a list online focusing on clinics known for kind consultations and low surgery failure rates, visited several places, and this was the last clinic I went to while thinking it over. When I was going around consulting at other clinics, I was really torn about where to do it, but after consulting with the director, I immediately decided to have surgery here.
Right before the consultation, even though I had made a consultation reservation, I waited for over an hour, so I thought I shouldn’t do it here. But after consulting with the director, I understood why the consultations take so long.
All the clinics on my list were places I chose because they were kind during consultations, so there were no unfriendly consultants or directors. But in the directors’ cases, most of them explained things rather quickly and felt like they were in a hurry. At this clinic, Director Yoo did not feel like that at all. He kindly and slowly explained most systematically “why” I needed certain surgeries, and if I had other surgeries, “what” phenomenon would happen and “why” it would happen, so why I should not do them. Compared with other clinics, I trusted this place the most, and that made me forget how exhausted I was from waiting over an hour, so I just decided to do it here. So don’t get worn out while waiting for the consultation. The director will consult with you that thoroughly too.
[Procedures Chosen]
I decided to have plastic surgery because I wanted to fix my very small, droopy eyes and my low nose with nostrils visible from the front.
Honestly, my baseline was very poor, so from the time I received consultations, I said I wasn’t there to become handsome, but that my eyes and nose were excessively bad, so I wanted to fix those parts.
Not only the director at this clinic but also other clinics all said that because my nose was originally so small, it might be difficult to make it into a nice nose like in reviews or celebrities’ noses. I already knew that, so I accepted it and decided to have surgery. If your baseline is even just better than mine, if you bring photos of celebrities you want, I think they’ll reflect them to some extent.
And each clinic I visited recommended different surgeries, but the surgeries Director Yoo recommended here were a forehead lift / rhinoplasty using autologous costal cartilage, ear cartilage, and an implant / ptosis correction and epicanthoplasty.
Other clinics besides this one also recommended a forehead lift, but there they kept emphasizing that a forehead lift is a surgery many young people get too, not only older people. At that time, I didn’t really understand, so I wasn’t sure I needed a forehead lift. But here, they explained the reason well: because I use too much forehead strength when opening my eyes, I would need a forehead lift, so I decided to do it.
For the nose too, all the other clinics recommended septal cartilage and donated rib cartilage, but here the director clearly told me from the start that he thought I would need autologous costal cartilage and ear cartilage. The reason was that because my nose was already too small, septal cartilage should not be used, and donated rib cartilage is weakened by various chemical processing. So for someone like me, whose nose is small and who does not have enough skin on the nose to pull, using autologous costal cartilage, which is even a little stronger, would lower the chance of surgery failure. He explained this logically. Even so, he did say that if I wanted to do it with donated rib cartilage, I could. At other clinics, since autologous costal cartilage is more expensive and they said they use good donated rib cartilage, most recommended donated rib cartilage for a first surgery, and some places told me to choose, so I worried a lot. But here, he clearly and logically explained what would be better to choose and why. Even so, he did not force me. Until I received the consultation at this clinic, I had naturally thought I should do it with donated rib cartilage.
As for the surgery order, because of swelling, I decided to do the forehead lift and nose first, then the eyes one week later. So I don’t have eye photos yet, and I’ll upload eye photos again next week. For the nose and forehead, if you look at the photos, the parts I wanted to fix were well improved. The forehead was not a surgery I had been thinking about, but just as the director said, it turned out well, so I’m very satisfied.
[Procedure Process, Pain, and Swelling]
I’ll talk about the eye procedure next week, and for now I’ll only cover the forehead lift and nose procedure. First, I went to the clinic, stored my belongings, and changed into a patient gown.
Then I put only basic belongings like my phone and charger in my assigned recovery room, and I walked to the operating room myself.
I had never had plastic surgery or any surgery at all, so walking to the operating table on my own feet made me extremely nervous.
Then after lying on the operating table, they put something on my left toe and attached something to my left arm to measure my heart rate.
They put an injection in my right arm, probably for the anesthetic.
They attached several things to my back too.
Then I fell asleep from the anesthesia, and when I was walking to the recovery room, I regained consciousness.
And I was hospitalized for one day for the next-day checkup and recovery. Honestly, at night it hurt so much I thought I was going crazy, but after that, it was never that painful again.
On the first day, I couldn’t take medicine and the painkiller effect had completely worn off, so I think that’s why it hurt that much. But if you endure only that day, after that the swelling keeps going down over the next few days, and you can take medicine, so it was never that painful again.
[Cost]
Honestly, if you ask whether the cost is on the cheaper side, I absolutely cannot say that it is.
When I consulted with similar details, the estimate from this clinic was more expensive than other clinics by several million won.
But if you ask whether the cost was reasonable, from the standpoint of being one week after surgery, I can say it was reasonable.
First of all, I am very satisfied with both the surgery process and the result. For one week, there was nothing I was dissatisfied with regarding the clinic’s service or the staff’s attitude, and everyone responded kindly and in detail.
In the end, no matter what, the surgical result is the most important thing. As of now, I don’t regret at all paying several million won more than at other clinics, and I’m actually thinking I’m glad I did it here.
[Conclusion]
It was my first surgery too, and since I’m from outside Seoul, it was quite hard from the clinic selection stage, but if you have anything you’re curious about, I’ll answer in detail.