Hi, I had 2-type facial contouring, and it’s been a little over a month since my follow-up, so I’m finally writing a review now
(I’ll leave the really stressful things I went through for the very bottom since this post is so long)
Originally I planned to write this around the 6-month mark, but for the month after surgery, even the slightest issue made me anxious, and I got a lot of help from this community each time. Other people who had surgery around then would probably feel the most anxious too, so even though I’m embarrassed, I ended up writing a one-month post as a baby patient.
I’m planning to write as much detail as I can about what I recorded, so caution: long post! Please keep in mind that surgery is basically case by case. I’m not going to disclose the hospital, since I’m going to be completely honest!
1. Deciding on surgery and doing hospital consults
My angular jaw was an enormous stress, so I was always talking about my jaw as a habit, to the point that people around me told me to stop.. Even when I watched TV, I only looked at celebrities’ jaws, and when I looked in the mirror, I only saw how square my jaw was.. Then on a trip, I saw a side-profile photo that happened to get taken, and it was not the jawline of an ordinary person.. It was the first time I had ever properly looked at my profile like that, and I was so shocked. I did think my jaw was a bit angular, but I thought it was just a little more angular than average. I never imagined my side profile would be square.. Even just looking in the mirror made me feel like I’d get depressed.. I’m in my early-to-mid 30s.. I thought it was too late to have surgery, so I held back, but then I got possessed by something and decided to go through with it. Since it was bone surgery, I was absolutely determined to do it in Seoul, and I quietly put together a list through word of mouth. I hadn’t made reservations in advance, so I couldn’t even get proper consultations, but I kept becoming more and more certain that I had to have the surgery. After my first two consultations, I sharpened my resolve and prepared. I quit my job, cashed out my savings deposit, rebuilt my list, and spent almost a month going only to consultations.. At this point I feel like I could even work as a coordinator.. Anyway, I rambled a lot, but what I’m saying is that this was a truly massive complex for me, and even though I was older, I went ahead with surgery. Also, for people from outside Seoul, make sure to prepare consultation reservations carefully in advance!!
1-1. Why I didn’t get zygoma surgery
I researched surgery side effects a lot, and although my cheekbones do stick out a bit, I was already stressed about nasolabial folds forming from cheek sagging. I felt that if I got cheekbone reduction, I’d definitely sag more and regret it. Since my true true complex was my square jaw and a slightly receding chin, I did those 2 types, and I think it was a very good choice.
2. Surgery day
I wasn’t scared at all because all I could think was that I was finally going to get rid of this square jaw right away. I went alone, and in case they said I came without a guardian, I lied to the front desk and said my parents were waiting outside I had seen posts from hospitals saying that if you’re afraid of the operating table, they do anesthesia outside, but that wasn’t a thing for me. I just got onto the operating table with my own feet, put on the restraint band, and until the moment the anesthesia kicked in, I was only thinking, sleep, wake up, and bye-bye jaw~~
After surgery, while I was being moved to the recovery room, the anesthesia slowly wore off and my mind returned. Honestly, it didn’t hurt much.. With the compression band on, my face was so swollen it felt like my lips were crushed, and it was the kind of cold, throbbing feeling you get when a cavity forms in a molar?? I’m the kind of person who complains that even getting my ears pierced hurts, so I went in expecting severe pain, but it hurt so, so much less than I expected.. I really had even planned to make a scene and demand a painkiller drip, but it didn’t hurt, so I didn’t say anything..
The hard part was the general anesthesia.. They kept telling me not to fall asleep and to keep breathing because I had to clear out the anesthesia effects. I hadn’t slept since the early morning the day before because I was traveling to Seoul, so I was exhausted as hell, but they kept waking me up. They also kept the lights on until dawn The nurses were chatting loudly among themselves, so I couldn’t sleep properly. One hour asleep, ten minutes awake, one hour asleep.. it kept going like that.
And after some time, they tell you to get up and walk around, right? I’d walk a bit, but if I got the feeling I might get dizzy, I’d quickly lie back down. Then I’d be fine. They gave me Newcare to drink, but I didn’t drink that either because I was afraid it would make me dizzy. Other patients were vomiting and making a fuss.. I was determined absolutely not to get dizzy.. so I really walked only a little, then lay down again, and eventually I got lazy and just lay there like a corpse. The nurses gave me pain meds on their own and didn’t bother me, so I just slumped around all day.
It was still the first day, but my lips were completely fine, and my lower jaw just felt tingly. Anyway, as long as I could feel something, I was relieved because that meant they hadn’t cut a nerve.
3. Day 1 after surgery
Removing the drainage tube didn’t hurt. After discharge, I went into the motel I had booked nearby. I got a bunch of medicine and other things.
I was way more fine than I expected.. My face was totally puffed up, but other than that there were no problems.. No pain x, no bruising x.
The nurse explained the compression band and some other things, but I misunderstood and thought she meant I had to start wearing the compression band a little from day 1 So as soon as I got to the motel, I took the compression band off first.. And once I lay down, it felt like heaven..
I thought I might get bored in the motel, but I was bored from the first day. Just in case, I started watching the long anime Haikyu!! Time passes well, it’s fun.
For meals, I had: Newcare + Almond Breeze + pumpkin porridge. I think the pumpkin porridge was pointless. Since they made incisions on both sides of my mouth, it felt like it somehow got inside those areas.. When I gargled, it kept tasting like pumpkin porridge, and I felt like I was going crazy. Fortunately, I figured that when I went back to the hospital a few days later, they would know right away if it were an infection, so I calmed myself down.
4. Day 3 after surgery
I thought they wouldn’t shampoo me because I didn’t get cheekbone surgery, so I showered at the motel and then went to the hospital. If you don’t get cheekbone surgery, you can just wash while avoiding getting water on the chin area. But when I got to the hospital, they shampooed me
I met the doctor, had the tape on my chin removed, and got a simple checkup. For reference, this was the first time seeing my face since the pre-op face-doodle time. The appointment lasted about one minuteㅡㅡ
Even the inside of my mouth that I had been worrying about was checked really casually. Still, he’s a specialist, so I figured he must have seen everything in that split second, but I was anxious.. Anyway, since he said I was fine, I trusted him and went back down to the provinces.
On day 3, the swelling was at its worst. I looked exactly like Moomin
5. 1 week after surgery
A lot of the swelling went down, and doing the compression band at home was really annoying I tried to go for walks pretty diligently, even though my willpower didn’t quite match.. I thought I didn’t have any bruising at all, but then I noticed a yellowish stain around my chin. I guess that’s a yellow bruise.
I hated being stressed out by the pumpkin porridge so much that I mostly ate only Newcare and Almond Breeze, and I also had risotto.
After eating, I would brush my teeth and gargle. I bought a mini flashlight from Daiso and carefully checked all the suture areas with a toothpick and cotton swabs. Highly recommended.
I spent 100,000 won to go to Seoul and have my 1-week follow-up. I got put in one of those rooms that are packed tightly together, and the doctor.. kind of moved from room to room like a whack-a-mole game.. Maybe he sees each patient for 30 seconds? He really just touched my jaw, glanced inside my mouth, said, “It’s the 1-week mark, so there’s some pain, right? It’ll get better. See you in a week,” and left.. He kept circling through those connected rooms, doing these very short checkups. I was impressed, then went home after getting skin care.
6. 2 weeks after surgery
Around this time, the swelling on each side started going down at different rates. One side really had no pain, no swelling, and only felt like my gums were swollen, making my cheek feel tight? The jawline was visible too. But the other side was obviously swollen like it had candy inside, and I even got a double chin and hollowing in my cheek, while the opposite side was nothing like that, so I guess it was because of swelling.. When I touched that jawline, it still felt tingly and throbbing. The other side didn’t have any of that.. I seriously wondered whether the doctor and the replacement surgeon had done half-and-half surgery.
I heard that once the sutures are removed, the swelling goes down all at once, so I spent 100,000 won to go for the 2-week follow-up. Again, he looked at me for about one minute and left.. But they didn’t remove the sutures. They were dissolvable ones.. Haha I was stressed. Transportation costs aren’t nothing, and I waited over 30 minutes, got only a 1-minute consultation, and still didn’t even get the suture removal I had been waiting for. I got skin care and went home again.. I wanted to meet friends too, but I still looked obviously swollen, so I couldn’t. My chin alone was swollen, so I looked like Moomin, and I even looked like an underbite.
I started eating noodle-type foods little by little, and I also brushed my teeth with a children’s toothbrush.
7. 3 weeks after surgery
The uneven swelling showed no sign of improving.. Meanwhile I kept looking inside my mouth, and the remaining suture area started swelling red. Ugh, this is definitely an infection. I got so angry.. There was still a week left until my hospital visit, and if I went now, I’d just get stressed about transportation costs again. I got so annoyed that I brought small scissors and a mini pin, sterilized them, and luckily removed it myself.. (This is a very dangerous thing to do.) The next day after removing it, it healed without a trace.. I did remove it successfully, but everyone should not do this..
As for food, I was able to eat all kinds of noodles now. I didn’t think spicy and salty foods would be bad for swelling, so I even ate soup rice and stuff.. I ate everything I wanted except meat..
I wondered if the swelling wasn’t going down because I wasn’t taking care of it enough, so I signed up for 10 sessions of high-frequency treatment at a skin clinic. Somehow it felt like it was improving, and I didn’t even think one session at the hospital would have much effect..
8. 1 month after surgery
I went to the hospital and got a CT scan. I wanted to take photos, but they rushed through it so fast that I couldn’t even say anything..
Still, unless they did Photoshop, I think the bone was shaved well. Honestly, I wanted a V-line, but even I could tell that if I shaved the jaw all the way, my face would end up looking too sharp, and because my midface is long, I knew it would be a disaster. So I left some of the jaw, and I think they made it into more of a U-shape. Haa, I do think it would have been nice if they had taken just a little more off the long curve, but I still had swelling.. And the surgery is already done, so what can I do
9. Current status
Maybe the high-frequency treatment is working, or maybe it’s because I got past the dreaded 1-month mark, but the uneven swelling that wasn’t going away has started to subside too, the double chin and cheek hollowing are gone, the tingling pain is gone, and now there’s only occasional numbness once in a while..
Eating I can’t chew hard with my molars because it hurts, but I can eat anything that I can gently mash with my molars. I can’t handle big pieces. For example, I can eat sashimi just fine, but sushi is too thick to fit in my mouth, so I have to split it apart and eat it
There is still plenty of swelling, but that underbite-like feeling has mostly gone now. I really hope the 2-month mark comes soon.
Huh! Why did the whole back part get erased This is driving me crazy.. I’ll try to add it in the comments when I remember summary