Consultation day
I had planned to do the surgery at EU for a long time due to the overwhelmingly positive reviews on PurseForum and online. My surgeon of choice was Dr Shin as I feel like he focuses more on a natural aesthetic which was what I was going for. When I arrived, they first made moulds of my teeth and took some X-rays and CT scans of my face. They then took me to a clinic across the street for a health check-up which cost 120,000KRW. The translator Sheila was with me the entire time and was super helpful.
Afterwards, I was taken back to EU for the actual consultation. It’s pretty straight forward – the surgeon discusses what he plans to do with your jaw. For me, since I had an underbite, he told me he would move the jaw back and shave around 6mm to shorten my face. He also told me I will be required to wear braces afterwards which sucked to hear as I had just come off them
. He also goes over all your concerns and answers all your questions. Straight after the consultation, they told me they required the entire surgery fee on that exact same day. At this stage, I felt extremely pressured to pay up, even though I wanted more time to think. However, my surgery date was scheduled in four days, so maybe fair enough? However, a huge red flag to me was when they told me they would take away the costs of the pain medication if I wrote a review online. Since I didn’t have any plans to do it at any other place, I decided to cough up the money.
The entire consultation process took around four hours.
Pre-surgery
Each passing day, I felt more and more nervous to the point where I couldn’t even sleep. More and more questions kept popping up in my head. Two days before the surgery, I sent a barrage of text messages to the translator, telling her if I could schedule another consultation. I also said I wasn’t comfortable about doing the surgery and if there was any way I could change my mind. They responded to me back the next morning, asking if I could come straight away to the clinic for the second consult. I apologised for the trouble, and they said it was completely understandable.
Btw for those scared about nerve damage. Basically, at EU there are two surgical methods – SSRO and IRVO. There is a significantly higher chance of nerve damage occurring for SSRO since this procedure requires cutting where the nerves pass by. However, Dr Shin explained to me that if he finds the potential risk of nerve damage too high, he will switch to IRVO mid-surgery, which helped calm my nerves. It definitely feels as if EU cares about safety first and foremost (which is how it should be). I told him I would rather him be much more conservative than risk any sort of long-term complications. He laughed and said he does that for all his patients.
Day 1
Before the operation, they get you to sign all these documents.
I was taken to a [tiny] operating room where I was told to lie down. My heart was beating the entire time as I was super nervous and kind of regretting it. But I was already strapped to the surgical table so there was no getting out of it at this stage. They injected an IV into me and administered the anaesthesia. You know when you’re receiving it because it burns slightly. Not even five seconds later, I was completely out.
Next thing I knew I woke up in the recovery room super groggy with a voice telling me to wake up. It was honestly nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. There was surprisingly 0 pain, neither did I have any trouble breathing. However, I had mucus at the back of the throat from a previous, recent, cold which definitely added some discomfort. Note that I have sinusitis and often have to breathe through my mouth so it was more natural for me to do so. Your nose on the other hand is extremely blocked, so you will definitely have trouble breathing through there. My throat was not dry or painful at all. I had no nausea either, but I was shivering cold which is most likely from the anaesthesia. I was way too out of it though to fully process it.
Five~ hours later is when the discomfort REALLY began for me. My nose and mouth wouldn’t stop bleeding. There was constant blood pooling inside, along with blood dripping from my nose into my mouth. I would highly recommend bringing your own tissues or ask them for some if they have any. I downed like three packs on the first day alone. The back of my throat also started swelling rapidly for some reason. I would have to open my mouth as wide as I could in order to get a gap to breath. I was honestly scared for my life. I called for the nurse and she came immediately. She said she couldn’t do anything about it but did attempt to comfort me. She hooked me up to a machine to monitor my oxygen. Eventually, my throat did swell down but not even exaggerating, it was the scariest hour of my life. This happened again a few hours later.
The overnight care for the first day was atrocious. The nurse would ignore practically all my call bells, even though I was in extreme discomfort. I accidentally dropped my syringe on the floor sometime during recovery and was unable to pick it up as I was tied to a catheter. At the same time, my throat felt super dry along with my mouth being full of blood and mucus. I wanted to flush it down with water but I couldn’t. I also felt extremely dehydrated since the fluids were not turned on and I obviously couldn't drink (no syringe or water left). Only hours later when she came to check my blood pressure and change my ice pack is when I finally got the chance to ask. She also ended up leaving the light on as well after she left, so that made it extremely hard to sleep. Eventually, I couldn’t bear it any longer and untied the catheter so I could get up and do everything myself. She later chastised me for untying the catheter from the bed but lady what do you expect ??? I eventually managed to get a few hours of sleep.
Pain 0/10, discomfort 8/10
Day 2
I woke up with an extremely dry mouth and throat, which also felt disgusting as it was mixed with dry mucus and blood. I spent a good half hour trying to wash it away with water. My mouth had stopped bleeding for the majority, but my nose was still bleeding. I was woken up at around 8:30 to do some laser de-swelling.
Later on, Dr Shin disinfected my mouth and suctioned my nose which was probably the most painful part of the experience to be honest lol. I actually cried a little due to the pain. But it helps you breathe a lot easier since he gets rid of the gunk in your nose for you.
The second day is much more comfortable. The worst discomfort is probably the gross feeling inside of your mouth and it’s extremely hard to wash out.
I hardly felt like drinking anything. However, it’s extremely important to get some nutrition down, so I forced myself to chug down the NewCare that they provide. It tastes really good. For most of the day, I just rest in bed and played games on my phone to pass time.
The overnight care was also much better. The nurse actually responded to my call bell this time. She also gave me some medication to help deal with the phlegm when she heard me coughing. Well, instead of phlegm, it turns out it was this huge blood clot that was lodged in my throat. It was gross but it felt so satisfying to get out.
Discomfort 6.5/10
Day 3
I was woken up at around 8:30 again for deswelling treatment. I’m still slightly bleeding through my nose, but nowhere near as bad as the first two days. Around 10am, they took more scans of my jaw. I was discharged at around 11am. Sheila came down to the pharmacy with me to help pick up the medication which you are required to take three times a day. I also bought some Vitamin C tablets and protein powder (which are both extremely important for healing).
I was exhausted when I got to my hotel so I slept until 5pm. After I woke up, I decided to go to the shops to buy some groceries. Surprisingly, I still had enough energy, considering how much little I’ve had to consume. When I got home, I mixed high protein milk, yoghurt and NewCare together. I also bought myself a blender which is extremely helpful as you’re supposed to be on a liquid diet for at least a month. I also can’t stress enough of getting the right nutrients.
After the meal, I could manage to get the medication down easy enough, but the mouthwash has a really disgusting taste. You’re supposed to gurgle it for 20-30 seconds, but I couldn’t even last 10 before I started coughing and splattering. However, unfortunately you are required to use it along with the other pills after every single meal.
I’m still coughing up blood clots and mucus from my throat. It’s kind of satisfying in a gross way though since it feels so much better once you get it out.
Discomfort 6/10
Days 4-6
I kept getting more and more swollen.
The compression band was hurting my face, so I decided to take it off completely.
I noticed a large portion of my mid-line of my face was completely numb, along with parts of my chin, lips, and nose. The worst part of it is that when you’re itchy and try to scratch a part of the area, you can’t feel it so the itchy sensation still sticks around lol.
You’re required to sleep upright for at least a week. However, I could hardly sleep properly and kept waking up every few hours.
I had so many questions post-surgery, I felt like I was texting Sheila constantly. But she answered each and every question which was really nice and patient of her
I would've been at my wits end, personally, haha.
Discomfort 4/10
1 week+
I went for a check-up with the surgeon. He disinfected my mouth again and checked my bite. They also used this extremely bitter liquid which tasted absolutely disgusting. It was pooling at the back of my mouth because I refused to swallow it lol. The second they finished I immediately spat it out. Dr Shin said he would remove my stitches the following week.
I am already sick of the liquid diet. Seriously, it’s tough. I couldn’t take it any longer. I had rice porridge and even snacked on chips and muffins. I would highly recommend not doing this and follow their instructions to minimise chances of complications occurring and let the jaw heal. It’s also a huge pain to clean the inside of your mouth, so potential risk of infection is higher. Do as I say, not as I do lol. However, after drinking smoothie after smoothie eventually I just had enough.
The swelling has also continued to go down. Even though I’m still swollen as a chipmunk, so far I’m really liking the results. My chin is definitely smaller, but it looks very natural, exactly how I wanted it to be. My face is also evidently shorter. However, my jaw seems more recessed than what it should be? Not sure if this is normal or not, but it's much too early to tell how remotely I’ll end up looking though.
I can also already feel sensation coming back to my face. My mid-line isn’t as numb anymore, neither is my chin or lips.
Sleeping is also so much easier. It took me a week to get a full eight hour sleep.
I’m still coughing up blood clots and mucus. My throat is so raw from doing so at this stage, it hurts to even speak at times.
Discomfort 2/10
I'll keep updating this post. I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone has any!
I had planned to do the surgery at EU for a long time due to the overwhelmingly positive reviews on PurseForum and online. My surgeon of choice was Dr Shin as I feel like he focuses more on a natural aesthetic which was what I was going for. When I arrived, they first made moulds of my teeth and took some X-rays and CT scans of my face. They then took me to a clinic across the street for a health check-up which cost 120,000KRW. The translator Sheila was with me the entire time and was super helpful.
Afterwards, I was taken back to EU for the actual consultation. It’s pretty straight forward – the surgeon discusses what he plans to do with your jaw. For me, since I had an underbite, he told me he would move the jaw back and shave around 6mm to shorten my face. He also told me I will be required to wear braces afterwards which sucked to hear as I had just come off them
. He also goes over all your concerns and answers all your questions. Straight after the consultation, they told me they required the entire surgery fee on that exact same day. At this stage, I felt extremely pressured to pay up, even though I wanted more time to think. However, my surgery date was scheduled in four days, so maybe fair enough? However, a huge red flag to me was when they told me they would take away the costs of the pain medication if I wrote a review online. Since I didn’t have any plans to do it at any other place, I decided to cough up the money.The entire consultation process took around four hours.
Pre-surgery
Each passing day, I felt more and more nervous to the point where I couldn’t even sleep. More and more questions kept popping up in my head. Two days before the surgery, I sent a barrage of text messages to the translator, telling her if I could schedule another consultation. I also said I wasn’t comfortable about doing the surgery and if there was any way I could change my mind. They responded to me back the next morning, asking if I could come straight away to the clinic for the second consult. I apologised for the trouble, and they said it was completely understandable.
Btw for those scared about nerve damage. Basically, at EU there are two surgical methods – SSRO and IRVO. There is a significantly higher chance of nerve damage occurring for SSRO since this procedure requires cutting where the nerves pass by. However, Dr Shin explained to me that if he finds the potential risk of nerve damage too high, he will switch to IRVO mid-surgery, which helped calm my nerves. It definitely feels as if EU cares about safety first and foremost (which is how it should be). I told him I would rather him be much more conservative than risk any sort of long-term complications. He laughed and said he does that for all his patients.
Day 1
Before the operation, they get you to sign all these documents.
I was taken to a [tiny] operating room where I was told to lie down. My heart was beating the entire time as I was super nervous and kind of regretting it. But I was already strapped to the surgical table so there was no getting out of it at this stage. They injected an IV into me and administered the anaesthesia. You know when you’re receiving it because it burns slightly. Not even five seconds later, I was completely out.
Next thing I knew I woke up in the recovery room super groggy with a voice telling me to wake up. It was honestly nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. There was surprisingly 0 pain, neither did I have any trouble breathing. However, I had mucus at the back of the throat from a previous, recent, cold which definitely added some discomfort. Note that I have sinusitis and often have to breathe through my mouth so it was more natural for me to do so. Your nose on the other hand is extremely blocked, so you will definitely have trouble breathing through there. My throat was not dry or painful at all. I had no nausea either, but I was shivering cold which is most likely from the anaesthesia. I was way too out of it though to fully process it.
Five~ hours later is when the discomfort REALLY began for me. My nose and mouth wouldn’t stop bleeding. There was constant blood pooling inside, along with blood dripping from my nose into my mouth. I would highly recommend bringing your own tissues or ask them for some if they have any. I downed like three packs on the first day alone. The back of my throat also started swelling rapidly for some reason. I would have to open my mouth as wide as I could in order to get a gap to breath. I was honestly scared for my life. I called for the nurse and she came immediately. She said she couldn’t do anything about it but did attempt to comfort me. She hooked me up to a machine to monitor my oxygen. Eventually, my throat did swell down but not even exaggerating, it was the scariest hour of my life. This happened again a few hours later.
The overnight care for the first day was atrocious. The nurse would ignore practically all my call bells, even though I was in extreme discomfort. I accidentally dropped my syringe on the floor sometime during recovery and was unable to pick it up as I was tied to a catheter. At the same time, my throat felt super dry along with my mouth being full of blood and mucus. I wanted to flush it down with water but I couldn’t. I also felt extremely dehydrated since the fluids were not turned on and I obviously couldn't drink (no syringe or water left). Only hours later when she came to check my blood pressure and change my ice pack is when I finally got the chance to ask. She also ended up leaving the light on as well after she left, so that made it extremely hard to sleep. Eventually, I couldn’t bear it any longer and untied the catheter so I could get up and do everything myself. She later chastised me for untying the catheter from the bed but lady what do you expect ??? I eventually managed to get a few hours of sleep.
Pain 0/10, discomfort 8/10
Day 2
I woke up with an extremely dry mouth and throat, which also felt disgusting as it was mixed with dry mucus and blood. I spent a good half hour trying to wash it away with water. My mouth had stopped bleeding for the majority, but my nose was still bleeding. I was woken up at around 8:30 to do some laser de-swelling.
Later on, Dr Shin disinfected my mouth and suctioned my nose which was probably the most painful part of the experience to be honest lol. I actually cried a little due to the pain. But it helps you breathe a lot easier since he gets rid of the gunk in your nose for you.
The second day is much more comfortable. The worst discomfort is probably the gross feeling inside of your mouth and it’s extremely hard to wash out.
I hardly felt like drinking anything. However, it’s extremely important to get some nutrition down, so I forced myself to chug down the NewCare that they provide. It tastes really good. For most of the day, I just rest in bed and played games on my phone to pass time.
The overnight care was also much better. The nurse actually responded to my call bell this time. She also gave me some medication to help deal with the phlegm when she heard me coughing. Well, instead of phlegm, it turns out it was this huge blood clot that was lodged in my throat. It was gross but it felt so satisfying to get out.
Discomfort 6.5/10
Day 3
I was woken up at around 8:30 again for deswelling treatment. I’m still slightly bleeding through my nose, but nowhere near as bad as the first two days. Around 10am, they took more scans of my jaw. I was discharged at around 11am. Sheila came down to the pharmacy with me to help pick up the medication which you are required to take three times a day. I also bought some Vitamin C tablets and protein powder (which are both extremely important for healing).
I was exhausted when I got to my hotel so I slept until 5pm. After I woke up, I decided to go to the shops to buy some groceries. Surprisingly, I still had enough energy, considering how much little I’ve had to consume. When I got home, I mixed high protein milk, yoghurt and NewCare together. I also bought myself a blender which is extremely helpful as you’re supposed to be on a liquid diet for at least a month. I also can’t stress enough of getting the right nutrients.
After the meal, I could manage to get the medication down easy enough, but the mouthwash has a really disgusting taste. You’re supposed to gurgle it for 20-30 seconds, but I couldn’t even last 10 before I started coughing and splattering. However, unfortunately you are required to use it along with the other pills after every single meal.
I’m still coughing up blood clots and mucus from my throat. It’s kind of satisfying in a gross way though since it feels so much better once you get it out.
Discomfort 6/10
Days 4-6
I kept getting more and more swollen.
The compression band was hurting my face, so I decided to take it off completely.
I noticed a large portion of my mid-line of my face was completely numb, along with parts of my chin, lips, and nose. The worst part of it is that when you’re itchy and try to scratch a part of the area, you can’t feel it so the itchy sensation still sticks around lol.
You’re required to sleep upright for at least a week. However, I could hardly sleep properly and kept waking up every few hours.
I had so many questions post-surgery, I felt like I was texting Sheila constantly. But she answered each and every question which was really nice and patient of her
I would've been at my wits end, personally, haha.Discomfort 4/10
1 week+
I went for a check-up with the surgeon. He disinfected my mouth again and checked my bite. They also used this extremely bitter liquid which tasted absolutely disgusting. It was pooling at the back of my mouth because I refused to swallow it lol. The second they finished I immediately spat it out. Dr Shin said he would remove my stitches the following week.
I am already sick of the liquid diet. Seriously, it’s tough. I couldn’t take it any longer. I had rice porridge and even snacked on chips and muffins. I would highly recommend not doing this and follow their instructions to minimise chances of complications occurring and let the jaw heal. It’s also a huge pain to clean the inside of your mouth, so potential risk of infection is higher. Do as I say, not as I do lol. However, after drinking smoothie after smoothie eventually I just had enough.
The swelling has also continued to go down. Even though I’m still swollen as a chipmunk, so far I’m really liking the results. My chin is definitely smaller, but it looks very natural, exactly how I wanted it to be. My face is also evidently shorter. However, my jaw seems more recessed than what it should be? Not sure if this is normal or not, but it's much too early to tell how remotely I’ll end up looking though.
I can also already feel sensation coming back to my face. My mid-line isn’t as numb anymore, neither is my chin or lips.
Sleeping is also so much easier. It took me a week to get a full eight hour sleep.
I’m still coughing up blood clots and mucus. My throat is so raw from doing so at this stage, it hurts to even speak at times.
Discomfort 2/10
I'll keep updating this post. I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone has any!
Last edited:
I was told it wasn't supposed to painful, but every time he took a stitch it stung like crazy. I have really low pain tolerance though. Thank god it was over in 5 minutes. I was told to come back in two weeks for my final imaging scans before I head off back to my home country.
