디엔드 — Review

In short, after my forehead lift, there is no brow-lifting effect at all. I had five incisions in my scalp and Endotine inserted, and I gathered the courage to go through with a forehead lift while accepting the risk of side effects such as hair loss, but the result being no change is making me seriously depressed. I’m an international student, and the stress from this was so severe that I took leave from my fall semester at school. In the end, the only side effect left was that my forehead became bumpy… It hasn’t been long since the surgery, but because of the nature of lifting surgery, I think it is more likely to go down over time than to go up. Even when less than a week had passed since the surgery, there was no change, so I informed the clinic. Their answer was, as expected, to wait… After waiting two weeks until the stitches were removed, I told the director directly that there did not seem to be much change, and he only said it was because of my skin, talking as if there was nothing else they could do for me. I felt hurt, and more than that, I felt they were being irresponsible. That was when I first thought I should go to another plastic surgery clinic and hear whether my drooping upper eyelids might really have no room for improvement with a forehead lift because of my skin. I found another plastic surgery clinic that is famous for forehead lifts, and that doctor told me to make various facial expressions. After looking at me, they said it seemed like the dissection had not been sufficient and that the corrugator muscle had not been handled properly either. When I showed them the photos right after surgery, they shook their head and said that it should have been pulled up much more from the start, to the point of overcorrection, and that at this level there was ultimately little difference before and after the lift, so they recommended revision surgery. After looking at the surgeon listed on the operation chart, they even said, “Doesn’t this doctor do a lot of nose jobs? Why did you have a forehead lift here? You should try to work it out with the director.”.. After that, I realized that instead of just blaming my skin, it might be possible that the surgery itself was done wrong. The things I discussed with the director during consultation, such as expectations, surgical method, and surgery time, could be seen as part of the contract, and since there was no change in brow position and no active aftercare for that issue (honestly, that was even more disappointing), I felt it might be a breach of contract, so I requested a full refund. After that, I was told through a staff member that a full refund was not possible, and when I brought it up again via KakaoTalk, they requested a meeting, so I met them at the clinic. I felt that a clinic’s aftercare after surgery is an important part for consumers too, so I will share my experience in as much detail as possible, mainly based on what happened to me. Going into a dispute would be a headache for both sides, so I went to the clinic hoping to resolve this amicably, but I was exhausted by the director’s unreasonable insistence and overbearing attitude. He raised his voice and shouted so much… I was so scared that I even asked him not to shout. If the attitude is this domineering, I think it is more likely to end up in a legal dispute rather than a settlement, and it felt severe enough to be used later, so I even needed to record it. If you ever go to complain to the director after being dissatisfied with your surgery, it may help to bring someone with you rather than going alone. This was not a sudden impulsive surgery for me. I had my first consultation back in April 2019. At that time, the necessity of the forehead lift and the surgical plan that was recommended were convincing, and I had a good impression of the director because the consultation was so thorough. Five years later, my eyelids had become even more droopy, so I went there on my own trusting the director, and the change in attitude was beyond shocking. Putting attitude aside, the other side’s argument, simply put, is that the surgery was successful, so they cannot refund me. They say the surgery was not wrong, and that because I am dissatisfied with my subjective expectations, they cannot refund me. They base this mainly on two points. One is that I said the forehead lift made it easier for me to open my eyes, so there was nothing wrong. The other is that my skin is extremely thicker and less elastic than average, almost like rubber, so the lack of difference before and after surgery is only due to that, and the surgery itself had no problem, meaning my dissatisfaction is just with my subjective expectations. I could not agree with any of that. Because: 1. One-sided distortion of the purpose of the forehead lift They said, “A forehead lift is not about lifting the forehead by a few millimeters; it is surgery to make it easier to open your eyes,” and then, although I honestly do not remember it well, they said I had said it became easier to open my eyes. I never talked about eye-opening strength during the consultation, and I mainly talked about the thickness of my upper eyelids, that is, drooping eyelids, which was also recorded on the consultation chart provided by the clinic. Now they are suddenly changing the main purpose of the forehead lift however they like and insisting that it is fine because that goal was satisfied. Even looking up expert columns, it clearly says, “Unlike brow lift surgery, the main purpose of forehead lift surgery is eyebrow lifting. In other words, it pulls up the drooping eyebrows while also pulling up the eyelids.” (Hidoc expert column, Kim Chang-yeon, 2021, https://mobile.hidoc.co.kr/healthstory/news/C0000655060). Even on the End clinic website, the third indication for forehead lift with Endotine says, “If you want to improve drooping eyebrows and drooping eyelids.” A feeling that it became easier to open my eyes? Honestly, I am not sure. If I had wanted functional improvement first, I would have just gone to an ophthalmology clinic, gotten diagnosed with ptosis, and looked into a cheaper and simpler eye-opening correction surgery. In fact, they were even bundling eye-opening correction with the forehead lift, and I remember finding it odd because in the Excel file with the price list, the surgery name itself was categorized as forehead lift + single-eyelid eye-opening correction, so after the consultation I asked the director for additional explanation about why I needed eye-opening correction. Since the surgery was one with no change in the double-eyelid line and they said they would strengthen the function of opening the eyes by tying up some muscle, I did not really understand it as a patient, but I just trusted the director and thought it would be better in some way, so I went ahead with it. In other words, from the very beginning I had always prioritized eyebrow lifting over improving eye-opening strength, so even if I generously concede that eye-opening strength improved, I do not think the fact that there was no change from the surgery can be justified as a successful operation. 2. Before surgery, they did not tell me that my skin condition could lead to a poor result. The director said the surgery itself went well, but because my skin is thick, lacks elasticity, and is hard like rubber, the result might be unsatisfactory. Then, as a board-certified plastic surgeon, shouldn’t they have, or rather must they have, told me things like lowering my expectations because they knew how my skin characteristics would affect the surgery? If my skin has such unfavorable characteristics beyond the average, that is obviously something a plastic surgeon cannot overlook. When I asked why they had not told me in advance about my skin and that it could affect the surgical result, they asked back whether I did not already know my skin was thick, and said they were not God and that you only know after doing the surgery, leaving me speechless. Yesterday I had a consultation for revision forehead lift surgery with a professor at a university hospital who specializes in facelift surgery, and they said revision surgery would indeed be possible, and that a board-certified plastic surgeon can, to some extent, predict the prognosis of a lifting surgery by looking at the patient’s skin. If my skin has such unfavorable characteristics beyond the average, then of course it is something a plastic surgeon cannot overlook, so I think they should have told me that during the consultation in advance. Or, during the consultation, there were before-and-after photos of a woman in her 20s who had undergone forehead lift + single-eyelid eye-opening correction that the director showed me, and when I said I could at least expect a difference similar to what was shown in those photos, they said if photos and reality became exactly the same, did that mean everyone would become a celebrity after surgery? That statement felt illogical, but it honestly made me very upset… Finally, because I was dissatisfied even though it was supposedly a successful surgery, they said they would give me a brow lift two days later for free. They told me to decide within 10 minutes, and if I did not like that offer, to take legal action, so since it is my face, I somehow bought myself one day to think about it. I mean, when people get even one plastic surgery procedure, they worry so much, study so much, search clinics by initials, and go through everything online and offline… How could I possibly decide on a brow lift surgery, something middle-aged people might do, in just one day? There is so much I would need to look into, like whether it is really the right surgery for me and, if so, how my impression might change. Still, the director must have offered me that surgery after thinking about it and making time despite not being paid extra, so I wanted to think seriously about it and, after the meeting, asked a desk staff member to show me before-and-after photos of middle-aged women who had undergone brow lift surgery. But their impression had changed quite a lot, and the upper eyelid area had become narrower, so I started to wonder whether this was really the surgery I should have. Most importantly, I had gone through the hard process of researching and deciding to undergo a forehead lift because I wanted a good change in my eye shape without narrowing the space between my eyes and eyebrows, but I honestly could not understand why they would suggest a brow lift that could instead remove skin under the brow and make that space even narrower. I do not know about other cosmetic surgeries, but I really do not want to recommend forehead lift. If the main purpose is functional improvement in eye-opening strength and the skin is thinner and more elastic than mine so the result is satisfying, then fine, but if not, aftercare does not go smoothly. Trust also gets damaged, and no matter how gifted the surgeon is, I no longer want to leave my face in their hands. So I refused the offer of a free brow lift, mainly because of trust issues, although there were other reasons too, and I have started preparing for legal action... This post was written based on the consumer rights guaranteed by our Constitution and the Framework Act on Consumers, and I state that it has no purpose of defaming this medical institution beyond sharing information and helping other patients.

Doctor

박상은

Price

₩5,000,000

Median for Lifting: ₩663,000

Visit type

2

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