KOREA BEAUTY TRIP- Plastic Surgery adventure Part 1 (Before surgery)

This post will be a more detailed post about my plastic surgery experience in Korea.

WHY DID I CONSIDER PLASTIC SURGERY?

Well, i am actually rather satisfied with my natural looks, but there are some imperfections which i thought i could improve on.

1) My nose, i thought my nose was rather big for my face. My friends like to laugh at my bulbous nose and said that I am Super Mario's girlfriend/ Jackie Chan's daughter. (They are well known to have bulbous noses as well). I always dreamt of having a nose with a higher bridge.

I did fillers in Thailand some time last year (will post a separate post on fillers soon) and I was actually quite pleased with the results of how augmented my bridge was. The initial thoughts of having a permanent nose job then crossed my mind and I started to do some subtle research on plastic surgery ever since.

2) My eyes- I love my eyes and I am very thankful that I am blessed with naturally big eyes like my mum. BUT my eyes only look 'alive' when i put on eye make up. Without make up, my eyes look bulgy, my double eyelids are too high up and not defined enough and I look sick and sleepy all the time even though my eyes are big. I hope to correct this problem, I think i have very droopy and lazy eyelids.

A pic of me before surgery:

Check out my onion nose, it looks even bigger whenever I smile.

HOW DID IT START?

My friends and I love travelling and going on holidays. I am very glad to have a few groups of very good friends who are always planning and organizing holiday trips and we travel a few times a year together.

Late last year, we decided on visiting Korea, a country which we have always wanted to visit and have not visited yet. Malaysia Airlines was having a promotion then and we decided to go Korea for 11 days in February 2013!!

And so..... i was thinking to myself, since 11 days is rather long, why not go for a nose job in Korea? I have heard so much about Korea being so advanced in plastic surgery and how common it is in Korea to be under the knife. It was from here that i started my intensive online research on plastic surgery.

I actually considered doing it in Thailand as well because prior to our Korea trip, we actually had another trip to Bangkok. Read more to know how I ended up with my final decision after much hesitations and weighing the pros and cons.

MY PLASTIC SURGERY RESEARCH:

I started reading up on plastic surgery online and in forums. There were lots of information in forums, few hundred pages to read through, I spent a lot of time on the internet, i started my intensive research in December 2013 and I had not much time to decide because my Bangkok trip was in January and Korea trip was in Feb. Thus, I had to decide where I wanted to do it before the 2nd week of January. It was quite rushed because I also needed to book appointment with the clinic/hospital and they may not have availability for me on the dates I'm there. 

The thing about forums is that very little people actually post their before and after pictures. So, I didn't get to see a lot of reviews after plastic surgery, thus, deciding on the place to do it was really quite a tough job.

I sent my close up pictures (front view/2 side views/nostril view) to various plastic surgery clinics in Korea and Thailand for free online consultation asking them what surgeries I should do to improve my facial features and to look better and the cost of their surgeries. Many clinics/hospitals offer online consultations via email and a lot of them reply very promptly. Many of them replied me the next day regarding what surgeries i should do. All of them said I should do my nose. A few said my eyes needed improvement and some said I should also do chin implant for a better profile.

Initially i focused on Thailand's cosmetics surgery. The cost for rhinoplasty is very much more affordable than Korea, the price is very tempting and I saw some pictures on their websites. There are also reviews and pictures posted by some forummers but not many. I also almost booked a ticket to Phuket to get my nose job done with a famous plastic surgeon (Dr Chi from Hatyai, he also have a clinic in Phuket).

However, just before I made this major decision, i contacted my friend Jacqueline Koh, who was also my friend/ex JC classmate. She's a really brave lady who went to Korea to get multi surgeries done at a go in Korea. She gave me some very good advice... Thanks again babe =)))

Then.. i researched on Korea's cosmetics surgery and found out a lot more information about the different clinics. The more i read, the more choices I had and i was very confused because there were too many clinics and too many reviews (but very little pictures) and I didn't know which to choose.

WHY KOREA FOR PLASTIC SURGERY?

I saw so many pretty pictures and videos of girls after their surgeries, they look amazing! and after research, i realised that Korea is much more advanced in plastic surgery than Thailand, they have new innovations and techonologies which Thailand are not using yet. However, price is much steeper in Korea though.

Many clinics like JW, BK, Regen, Grand, Pitangui, Item, ID, April 31, Yonsei Up, Popular, Small Face etc replied my email. 

To find out which clinic i did my surgeries at eventually and for more information about the various clinics, please email me at ilovedawn@gmail.com

CONSULTATION DAY (6th February)

We arrived at Incheon Airport at 7am in the morning, my friends accompanied me to the clinic.

We were amazed by how the reception and consultation level looks like:

The interior was so posh looking and clean, we were very impressed. The staff were very hospitable and served us with drinks and fruits.

The main surgeon graduated from many cosmetic surgery schools mainly overseas and has been featured on many TV programs.

Shortly after, i was asked to fill up my particulars.

Few minutes later, i met the English consultant whom i was corresponding with before the trip. She was a tall, fair and elegant lady who speaks perfect English.

Then, I finally met the doctor in the consultation room .I told him my main concern was my bulbous nose. After examining my face, they suggested that I do these surgeries:

1) RHINOPLASTY

- Bridge Augmentation: Building up the bridge/profile line of my nose. Silicon will be implanted for my case.

- Tip Reduction and Tip Plasty: Manipulation of the arched lower lateral cartilages to increase the projection of the tip. Ear cartiledge (my own) will be used for my nose tip to make it more defined.

- Alarplasty: Reducing the width of the nostrils using closed incisions (stitches will be done on the insides of the nostrils rather than the outside so that there will be no visible scars)

2) Incisional double eyelid and lazy eye correction

An incision is made at the proposed height and skin is removed according to pre-existing anatomical conditions. 

3) Fats graft to smile lines also known as paranasal augmentation

a method to inflate depression 

above the upper jaw from the nostrils to the corners of the mouth. 

Adding volume to these areas straightens nasolabial folds, 

achieving younger appearance in general. This is a semi- permanent surgery as fats will dissolve over the months and only about 40% will remain.

4) Chin augmentation via fats graft

To lengthen my chin making it more proportioned and defined. Using fats graft here would be more natural than silicon implant and same as above, this is also a semi-permanent surgery as fats will dissolve over the months leaving only about 40% surviving.

I was having a running nose at the time of consultation, due to lack of sleep and also the change in climate (it was freezing in Korea, i think temperature at that time was about 0 degrees or maybe less). The doctor was very concerned about my running nose because if my flu persists on the day of surgery, the likelihood of getting an infection was high. Usually after a good sleep/rest, my flu will disappear.

However, we still went ahead and fixed the surgery appointment the next day. My appointment was at 10am and i can't wait!!!

THE SURGERY DAY- THE DAY I SUCCUMBED TO PLASTIC SURGERY

OMG!!! The day has finally arrived!!!!

I reached the clinic at about 945am this morning. Bonny, the nurse brought me into the consultation room and gave me a bag of medicine (consisting of pain killers and antibiotics), ice pack and gauze to reduce swelling and lists of what to do and not to do after surgery (will write about these in details in another separate post).

After this, I was brought to another room to have a final consultation with Nicole before my surgery. Nicole showed me before and after pics of their patients and asked me what kind of nose I want. I told her that I wanted a more defined nose with a higher bridge but I wanted it to be natural, she assured me again that Dr Yoo is very good at making his patients look natural. This was exactly what I wanted. 

I was brought to the 4th level where the operating room and recovery rooms were located. Bonny, the nurse was assigned to assist me. 

I was told to change to the operation clothes and rest in the recovery room while waiting for the doctor who was performing another surgery for another patient.

2 photographers were also there to take pictures of me.

Recovery room was bright and nice, i put my belongings into the locker there.

About 20 minutes later, i was ushered to the operating room which was next to the recovery room.

The operating room was bright and spacious. There were about 5 nurses fussing over me, tidying up my hair, preparing me for surgery together with the doctor. I asked them many questions like how long will the surgery take and how long would it take for the IV sedation to knock me out. Soon after a few minutes, I fell asleep.

I woke up about 20- 30 mins before the surgery ended. I was prepared to wake up mid surgery because that was what i was told. I know that the doctor operating on my eyes but i didn't feel anything because i was numbed. It was so weird, I could feel him stitching my eyes. He asked me to open and close my eyes many times throughout this surgery so that he could measure properly.

After my eyes, he did my paranasal augmentation via fats graft. I could feel him injecting something hard into my smile lines area. Lastly, he performed my chin augmentation via fats graft, these 2 procedures felt about the same, something hard being injected into my chin.

After this, i was asked to sit up, the nurses helped me up and led me to the recovery room. I was given an ice pack to put over my eyes and i slept for about 2 hours.