Asian nose job

[young_princess]

hey foxycleopetra!
i am looking forward to getting revision rhino with nyc surgeons or going to korea...

i have also consulted with eric choe, jeffrey ahn and edward kwak...
are you set on dr. eric choe? i did think was he was a great person, but did you look at his before and after pics?? it seems as though he does the same type of tip work for all his patients.. im not sure if it would look good on me personally... i really want to go to him, since traveling to korea would be such hassel..

also with gortex vs. sillicone.. im not sure about this either. i had silicone implant for about 10 years. and it has not caused any problem. it is slightly mobile from side to side if i move it with my fingers. gortex seems to be lighter and safe. however, i think silicone creates thinner and more feminine look of the bridge.

lets keep in touch please let me know what you decide to do!

Hi sandy, if you don't mind me asking, why do u need a revision?

 

[sandy816]

i need a revision because my silicone starts really high on my face... it should start around your eyefold line.. mine starts right below eyebrow.. reallly really unnatural and i cannot stand it. also my nose is still round. actually, some ppl told me i would look better with a nose job after my nose job!

i got it done by dr. jeffrey ahn over 9 years ago. i was naive teenager back then.. i didnt know any better. hes associated with columbia university and he has a impressive resume so i trusted him. i dont kow how his skill is now. but he did a HORRIBLE job for me. i get mad about how ****ty it came out.

also, dr. edward kwak quoted me 8500 for the surgery without anestheia.. his secretary said she will bill the anestheia to my insurance company(fraud??).. for a doctor with less than five years of experience, i thought it was bit expansive.

 

[young_princess]

oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Did you consult with Dr. Choe or are you considering him? What did you think of Dr. Kwak's work? I've yet to consult with any of them so I can't really give any opinion about them. Did you only have rhino with Dr. Ahn?

 

[young_princess]

one more thing, what do you mean by the the bridge should start around the eyefold line? how do you know if it's just right?

 

[foxycleopatra]

sandy816, I tried to PM you but it seems that your account can't receive PM's at the moment (probably due to insufficient posts?). I'd definitely want to get in touch with you by email and exchange more info about Dr. Choe & Dr. Ahn......I'm really shocked to hear that you got your primary rhino from Dr. Ahn and are now needing a revision. This is truly scaring me as I'm considering going to him for a goretex implant. I'd greatly appreciate hearing more from you about your experiences with Dr. Ahn. To be honest I actually do want a high nose, a Eurasian nose, but one that still looks NATURAL and not operated.....i.e. not a Greek nose.....and I know that one of the major rules of Asian rhino is that (1) there has to be a curvature from the forehead to the start of the nose and (2) the nose should start NO higher than the eyelash line (anything higher, like at the level of the eyebrows, would scream artificial nose).

When I consulted with Dr. Ahn, he basically said that 50% of his patients want a natural look and 50% don't mind an operated/artificial look.....and that it would be up to me (the patient) to decide which look I was going for. I was actually a bit taken aback by that. I guess it just shows that diff't surgeons have diff't philosophies. Dr. Choe is ALL about a natural, non-operated look......that's his #1 philosophy from my experiences dealing with him. In fact I'd almost bet money that if someone went in asking him to start the nose at the eyebrow line or higher (not natural), he'd turn the patient away saying he won't do it.......if someone walked in w/ Dawn Yang's before/after photos and requested a Dawn Yang-esque TOTAL MAKEOVER (literally morphing into a diff't person and a diff't race), I suspect that Dr. Choe would probably not accept that patient (unless you convince him with good reasons, maybe if you're an actress and need to go for a certain look, maybe). Anyway, that's just my 2 cents from my experiences and from talking to him & his staff.

Based on what I saw during computer simulations with other doctors, I really want a 5 mm-high implant (that starts right at the eyelash line, the highest it can start at w/o looking unnatural) -- and when I told that Dr. Choe & Sharon (his long-time assistant, very knowledgeable lady) this, they told me not go by a certain mathematical # per se when it comes to p.s.......that the key is building a nose that best fits my face......b/c a ___mm-high nose by & of itself might look fantastic (standalone) but if you look at the whole picture, i.e. the entire face, that nose might not fit the face at all. This philosophy I do understand. Basically I think Dr. Choe won't promise a certain __mm implant and will go by what he thinks works best for my face (this might also be b/c he's gotten to know me/my future career transition objectives and doesn't want me to turn out with a plastic/freak face.....he really believes in "less is more").

My dilemma is with the silicone material -- I'm a really OCD person and if I can feel an implant moving in my nose years later (after the several-month-long post-op recovery/stabilization period), I'm going to go bizzerk. That also explains why I ruled out getting the double eyelid via DST and went straight for the full incision (if I sensed suture bonds breaking and the fold partially unraveling I'd go crazy). Did Dr. Choe give me a *perfect* double eyelid? I'd say no, b/c I'm a perfectionist and can always spot room for improvement....and I'd most likely say the same thing even if I went to any other surgeon . But did the double eyelid fold Dr. Choe gave me fit my face/eye anatomy/features and improve my appearance? Absolutely. I asked for a small tapered/inner fold (as my eyes were relatively big to begin with), and the fold he gave me is a very NATURAL one (for some reason I also recovered extremely quickly, 7-days post-op when I went in to get my stitches out one of his staff members was quite shocked and said I looked almost natural....that was at the 7-day mark & w/o any make-up).....now I'm at 11 weeks post-op and when I went to see Dr. Ahn last week, one of the ladies in his office asked me about prior surgery history and was surprised when I told her that my eyelids were operated on (she thought it was natural.....and then asked me where I got my eyelids done). So do I have any regrets about getting my eyelids done? Hell no (only "regret" might be not asking for a slightly higher fold....but that has nothing to do with Dr. Choe.....and at my most recent post-op check-up he said he didn't think a bigger fold would fit my face/eye anatomy). Anyway I just hope my fold doesn't become smaller later this year and onwards.....hopefully it's fully stabilized by now.

 

[foxycleopatra]

also, dr. edward kwak quoted me 8500 for the surgery without anestheia.. his secretary said she will bill the anestheia to my insurance company(fraud??).. for a doctor with less than five years of experience, i thought it was bit expansive.

Yeah, Dr. Kwak's prices seem to be on the high side -- for my case of primary rhino using gortex Diana (his assistant, very friendly lady) quoted me $7,500 excluding costs for general anesthesia/operating room which they say insurance should cover (but who knows for sure). Dr. Kwak was extremely thorough with me though and even spent time inspecting the inside of my nasal structure (during consultation)....and said that he'd do work on turbicles/septoplasty in addition to the normal tip work that comes with Asian augmentation rhino. He uses general anesthesia (not local w/ sedation) only and all procedures are carried out at St. Vincent's hospital with board certified anesthesiologists (I'll admit that I'm personally afraid of general anesthesia but the thought of it taking place in a major hospital -- not just a plastic surgeon's private operating room -- is more reassuring......just in case something goes wrong).

Dr. Ahn's quote prices were surprisingly low -- for silicone primary rhino his price is $3,500 ($1000 cheaper than Dr. Choe's!) and for goretex primary rhino the price is $4,500. All anesthesia & operation room costs included as everything is done in their private office/operating room. Honestly when I heard that his prices were $1k lower than Dr. Choe's, I thought that it sounded too good to be true. My gut feeling might be on to something though. When I looked at the price list (even the all-English version had Korean annotations explaining the little nuances of the diff't procedures, too bad I can't read Korean) and then asked his staff in detail, I was told $4,500 for goretex primary rhino. I made sure to double-check that it would include tip work, and the lady I spoke with affirmed that it does. BUT she emphasized that the $4,500 doesn't include anything else....what else.....well if after careful inspection of the nose on the day of surgery (or once the doctor opens up your nose on the operating table) and it's found that you'd benefit from partial osteotomy or alar work or more detailed septoplasty (things that often times can't be ascertained until you open up the nose for inspection), those procedures wouldn't be included in the $4,500 and wouldn't be done unless you paid for them in advance. So in a way it's almost like going to a restaurant and ordering things from a menu.....and that menu was partially in Korean and partially in English. I guess I don't know Dr. Ahn & his staff too well yet to be certain that they'll have my best interests at heart (his database of before/after photos did look pretty good though).....I'll have to make a few more phone calls and/or possibly pay them another visit this week to get more info. By contrast with Dr. Choe I already know that he'll do everything he can to carve out a nose that he thinks best fits my face (I recall him stressing that often a surgeon won't know exactly what's required or how high of an implant best fits a patient's face until you open up the patient's nose on the operating table.....once you're knocked out and on the operating table, the doctor is the one with the cutting knife and it's essential to trust that he'll do everything he can to give you the best nose possible).

 

[cottoncandy77]

Dr. Ahn offered both silicone and goretex as options in my case, but highly recommended goretex over silicone. He mentioned that research has shown approx. 50% of silicone implants will show calcification in 10 yrs. and 100% in 20 yrs.....you can google this topic and pull up some articles. So he said that while silicone is an option, it's not the best long-term choice comparatively speaking and that goretex is now the technically more superior material. He told me that he could use goretex to achieve the same height (5mm up to even 6-7mm) that silicone implants can achieve. He showed me sample silicone and goretex implants and of course the gortex felt a lot lighter.

Hey is it true that silicone implants will show calcification in 20 years? OMG then thats really bad...why do people still have silicone as an option is this is the case. Now im really stuffed coz i dont know which to choose. I want an implant that will merge with my nose so well that 20 years down the track if someone punches me in the nose the implant wont move!!

 

[young_princess]

Did you guys show pictures to your doctors on consultations?

 

[thph]

Hello all,

I am thinking about making a trip to Korea for a nose job from US. Do you know top doctors in Seoul? Any advice for someone who does not speak Korean? I greatly appreciate any information and tips.

 

[thph]

hi, i am kiki, vietnamese. i m thinking getting a nose job this September. Either HCMC, Vietnam or Seoul, Korea. i think about korea cz i heard it is famous for asian plastic surgery esp. rhinoplasty but I dn't speak the language and afraid to go by myself. it will be helpful if anybody can recommend me to a Dr from Vietnam. my nose is high already, i just need to have it slimmer and tip need to be more narrow. thanks

I am going to Korea this coming September for a rhino surgery as well. Let me know if you want to meet up.

 

[rememberme123]

I am going to Korea this coming September for a rhino surgery as well. Let me know if you want to meet up.

Heya! May I know which korean surgeon are you going to go to for rhinoplasty?

 

[sandra916]

.

 

[sandy816]

hey guys..
sorry for the late reply...
i just moved into my grad school and i currently do not have internet access at home.

foxycleopetra!
are you going to go ahead with dr. ahn then? that is so strange that he only charges 3500 for primary sillicone. he charged me 3800 for the same procedue 9 years ago!! i wonder if he does not have enough patients?? im not sure how his work is in general. i might be one of his failure cases. overall, i do not like the tip work and he placed the silicone around my eyebrow line. i went back to him recently for consultation, and he did admit that silicone should have started around my eye fold line. he suggested to have the implant replaced with gortex implant for 2500...

i cant believe he is charging 1000 more for gortex implant.. hm.. when i asked dr. choe about gortex implant, he said he couldnt "believe" ppl are still using gortex. he say that with silicone, he can mold into diff shapes and it is easier to take out later on if you needed to.. hm.. im not sure which one is better... dr. charles lee also only uses silicone and it seems as though most korean surgeons in korea still use silicone..

my silicone implant does not bother me at all.. it only moves if i put pressure with my fingers. which i probably should not be doing.

when are you looking to have the surgery?
if you have gortex implant with dr. ahn, will you be able to pick diff shapes and heights of the implant?

best of luck and keep in touch!

p.s. sandra916 is my other account i made in attempt to conceal my identity just in case one of my friends come across this site.. but i dont know how to delete my previous post.. can anyone help me??

 

[thph]

Heya! May I know which korean surgeon are you going to go to for rhinoplasty?

My final selection ends up with 3 doctors in Seoul. Dr Jung, Dr Kim, Byung Gun, Dr Doo, Byung Yang. They are top surgeons in rhinoplasty.

In the States, I consulted several top surgeons Dr. Charles Lee, Dr David Kim, Dr Steven Hoppin, Dr Dean Jabs, Dr Kwak ... but I decided to make a trip to Korea for the surgery.

 

[foxycleopatra]

My final selection ends up with 3 doctors in Seoul. Dr Jung, Dr Kim, Byung Gun, Dr Doo, Byung Yang. They are top surgeons in rhinoplasty.

In the States, I consulted several top surgeons Dr. Charles Lee, Dr David Kim, Dr Steven Hoppin, Dr Dean Jabs, Dr Kwak ... but I decided to make a trip to Korea for the surgery.

Hi, may I ask why you're choosing to go to Korea instead of with one of the top suregeons here in the US? What was your impression of Drs. Lee and Kwak from the consultations? And have you consulted by email with the Korean surgeons? Did you feel that the Korean surgeons were definitely better?

Ideally I'd like to go to Seoul and seek out surgery with Dr. Jung but unfortunately I don't speak the language. There are already some things lost in translation when I speak with the assistants/office managers of the top Korean-American surgeons here; some of the office assistants I've met speak broken English and address me directly in Korean lol (till I tell them sorry I don't know Korean)....I've always been told I look Korean even though I'm not. And if a complication arises (sometimes a month post-op), it'll be hell for me to fly to Korea.....or the other alternative would be another $7-10k for a revision surgery here in the US.

I know that some US surgeons like Dr. Kwak go to Seoul every year for "training" and have held fellowships in Korea (supposedly with the top surgeons there), but I wonder if the rhino results in Seoul are drastically different from the results done here.