I came back from Korea after having the facelift done at Wannabe Clinic. Since nobody yet having any report about this subject, which I think necessary for some people, and also express my appreciation to some members who were really nice to contribute information about plastic surgery in Korea, especially to (Kcouture, MaiQ, who were giving a lot of useful information), I decide to add a little of my experience about the trip to everybody.
I left California on 2/28/16 and arrived to Korea on 3/1/16. I missed my plane (stupid me), so I missed two appointments that I set up in advance for my facelift consultation at "Dream, and The Line" on 2/29/16. Nothing I could do so I though maybe I would see them sometimes later.
So on 3/2/16, I had four appointments with different clinics. I started out at "View". I planted to have facelift, and nose tip this time. I have one time nose implant before, look ok, but I would like to have the tip since I don't have it. I met the translator, filled out the form, then met coordinator to discuss some ideas of what it would be the procedures to be done on my face. I told them my face is sagging down, same with my eye. The coordinator suggested lifting my face up, and putting implants under the cheek to make it straight. I felt funny with that idea, that might work for somebody who has thin cheek, but me, it thick already, and I wanted to straight up, suck out some fat, was not intend to make it fuller, I think she just wanted to sell some more businesses. Anyway, then I met the doctors, the first one for facelift, sorry I don't remember his name and face, it was quick, and he quickly agreed that my face need to have full facelift, but not mentioned anything about forehead lift (made me not impress), then the second doctor was Dr. Kim Taek Kyun for nose tip and eye (dropping), he suggested to harvest the bone from ears to support for the tip, not doing ultra soft silicon at all. It is ok to me because I don't expected them to do that, just the first consultation, so I could ask other clinics later. Interesting that he did not say anything about my concerning eyes. When I asked him, he said he would not do anything about it since it just the thickness of my skin pull down the eyes, not necessary to do it now. I was frustrated. After that, the coordinator asked me how I feel about the consultation, and she showed me the list of procedures including prices, and told me the price could be negotiated. I told her that I am not happy with the consulting at all, the doctors were not clear enough to target my problems. She said if I want, they still can arranged another meeting with the doctors for more discussing (nice), but I already having the bad feeling about the doctors, and I had the next appointment coming up. I told her I have to go for the next appointment, she immediately showed a frustrated, and the translator told me they will keep me informed and see if I would like to come back. I said thank you and told them if I feel to come back, I would contact them, then left.
My next appointment was with "Wannabe", but I saw "Girin", my third appointment of that day, just couple floors down at the same building with "View", so I decided to pay them a visit, if I could meet their doctors at that time, I don't have to come back later. Every clinic seems nice to me, just bigger or smaller, so I will not mention much about the look. At Girin, I told the translator that I knew it is not my appointment time yet, but since I am there already, can I see the doctors at that time? The translator after found out, came out and told me the doctors are not available yet, and asked me to come back at 3pm at the appointment time. So I thanks her and left.
I took the taxi to go to "Wannabe", something about the taxi that I would like to mention here. Most of them not young, and don't speak English. I was not paying attention from somebody's advised that " WE NEED TO WRITE THE ADDRESSES IN ENGLISH AND KOREA LANGUAGES ", because if the taxi drivers don't know English, they cannot understand and cannot find the places. I had that problem a few times, so I took the clinic business cards after visiting, if I need to come back, it would be easier.
At "Wannabe", I met two doctors, the first one was doctor Jang Chui Ho who talked to me about facelift, helping with translating was one of a nurse inside the clinic. Doctor Jang was good, he spoke English, and he listened to my concerns. About my drooping eyes, I told him they were sagging and containing fat, which made my eyes heavy, ugly, and smaller. My face was puffy, appearing the lines on cheeks, I was wonder if the cheeks would need to have a little lipo before lifting them up. His answer was: for my eyes, the distance between the eyes (I had double eyelids surgery long time before) and the eyebrows is too far, if he lift the forehead, my eyes would look like goo-goo, so he would fix the eyelid to be smaller. From that, my eyes would look normal after the forehead lift. The cheeks were not need to have lipo because they need to have some fat reserved between muscle and skin for protection. The forehead when lift up would be hold by couple pinches, and they would dissolved later after couple years, but the lift will stay, For Facelift, it would be the full lift, and the scar would stretch from side burn, down surrounding the ears to the other sides of them, it would help to lift some part of the neck too. Also, my chin was uneven, he suggested to have little fill at the end to even that.
I felt good with doctor Jang after talking to him. Then I see the next doctor for nose (Doctor Cha Myung Kyu). I expressed to him that I would like to have a tip for my nose and higher the top part between my eyes, he touched my nose to fill the plastic implant that I have, and suggested to harvest bone from the body to support for the tip, and checked how thickness of skin on the tip area to see if can be drag down for the tip, and also he liked to lower the top of my nose to make the shape look nicer. I refused it because I prefer the top to be higher. At the end, I told him do the best he could to fix the nose, as long as the top not lower and the tip would not pointing out at last. And It is the second one who do not do the ultra soft silicon.
And then, the coordinator started to talk to me about the prices. When we just about agreed with it, the translator informed me that I cannot having the nose done at this time because with the forehead lift, my skin will pull upward, and nose tip will pull the skin downward, it would be impossible to stretch the skin to two opposite ways at the same time. So we have to take off the nose price. I knew the coordinator was not lower the price much because she saw I was please with the consultation, seemed like I was quoted a little more than I expect (for eyes fix, full facelift, and fill up a little on one size of my chin), but I accepted that since I know is not an easy procedure, and I trusted doctor Jang.
Then I was required to put a million won for depositing. I didn't have enough, so the translator asked me to change more korea money from the bank downstair. Unfortunately, there were no people managing that little bank, only the machines. I decided to take a walk to find another one, suddenly, I saw "Dream" clinic across the street. Since "Dream" was a first one on my list due to the reported of Kcouture, I stopped by at "Dream", told them that I apologized for not showing up at the appointment due to missed the plane, and asked if I could have a consultation at that time. The translator after asking me to wait for a while, told me to come back the next day. I was fine with that and left.
Also, I received couple text messages from "View", asked me if I would like to go back. At that point, even just the first day seeing clinics, but running around between those, spending the time talking, I felt a little tired. I know that I should see more different clinics to get more experiences, but I stopped there, and made up my mind with "Wannabe". Beside that, I was impressed through the conversation with doctor Jang, so why bother to look for more. I came back to "Wannabe" after 5pm, told them I couldn't find the bank near by, and couldn't give them enough money for deposit, but I had cash, after the coordinator saw the cash, she decide to take whatever I had at that time for the deposit (850,000 won), found the exchanged rate on that day, and give me the total in dollars so I just need to pay them the rest on next day for surgery. They wanted to schedule me five days later because doctor Yang had to go to China for the conference. I told them I cannot wait that long because I only have couple weeks in Korea. They had to arrange to surgery on me on the next day. Doctor Jang came back for my post care questions, he told me I needed to come back the first three times right after the surgery for exchanging the bandage, then every other days after that for treatment before I left Korea. Sound pretty good. I paid the deposit, then left, also was told not to eat or drink 8 hours before the surgery.
I have to break this post by two times. Read the next post after this.
I left California on 2/28/16 and arrived to Korea on 3/1/16. I missed my plane (stupid me), so I missed two appointments that I set up in advance for my facelift consultation at "Dream, and The Line" on 2/29/16. Nothing I could do so I though maybe I would see them sometimes later.
So on 3/2/16, I had four appointments with different clinics. I started out at "View". I planted to have facelift, and nose tip this time. I have one time nose implant before, look ok, but I would like to have the tip since I don't have it. I met the translator, filled out the form, then met coordinator to discuss some ideas of what it would be the procedures to be done on my face. I told them my face is sagging down, same with my eye. The coordinator suggested lifting my face up, and putting implants under the cheek to make it straight. I felt funny with that idea, that might work for somebody who has thin cheek, but me, it thick already, and I wanted to straight up, suck out some fat, was not intend to make it fuller, I think she just wanted to sell some more businesses. Anyway, then I met the doctors, the first one for facelift, sorry I don't remember his name and face, it was quick, and he quickly agreed that my face need to have full facelift, but not mentioned anything about forehead lift (made me not impress), then the second doctor was Dr. Kim Taek Kyun for nose tip and eye (dropping), he suggested to harvest the bone from ears to support for the tip, not doing ultra soft silicon at all. It is ok to me because I don't expected them to do that, just the first consultation, so I could ask other clinics later. Interesting that he did not say anything about my concerning eyes. When I asked him, he said he would not do anything about it since it just the thickness of my skin pull down the eyes, not necessary to do it now. I was frustrated. After that, the coordinator asked me how I feel about the consultation, and she showed me the list of procedures including prices, and told me the price could be negotiated. I told her that I am not happy with the consulting at all, the doctors were not clear enough to target my problems. She said if I want, they still can arranged another meeting with the doctors for more discussing (nice), but I already having the bad feeling about the doctors, and I had the next appointment coming up. I told her I have to go for the next appointment, she immediately showed a frustrated, and the translator told me they will keep me informed and see if I would like to come back. I said thank you and told them if I feel to come back, I would contact them, then left.
My next appointment was with "Wannabe", but I saw "Girin", my third appointment of that day, just couple floors down at the same building with "View", so I decided to pay them a visit, if I could meet their doctors at that time, I don't have to come back later. Every clinic seems nice to me, just bigger or smaller, so I will not mention much about the look. At Girin, I told the translator that I knew it is not my appointment time yet, but since I am there already, can I see the doctors at that time? The translator after found out, came out and told me the doctors are not available yet, and asked me to come back at 3pm at the appointment time. So I thanks her and left.
I took the taxi to go to "Wannabe", something about the taxi that I would like to mention here. Most of them not young, and don't speak English. I was not paying attention from somebody's advised that " WE NEED TO WRITE THE ADDRESSES IN ENGLISH AND KOREA LANGUAGES ", because if the taxi drivers don't know English, they cannot understand and cannot find the places. I had that problem a few times, so I took the clinic business cards after visiting, if I need to come back, it would be easier.
At "Wannabe", I met two doctors, the first one was doctor Jang Chui Ho who talked to me about facelift, helping with translating was one of a nurse inside the clinic. Doctor Jang was good, he spoke English, and he listened to my concerns. About my drooping eyes, I told him they were sagging and containing fat, which made my eyes heavy, ugly, and smaller. My face was puffy, appearing the lines on cheeks, I was wonder if the cheeks would need to have a little lipo before lifting them up. His answer was: for my eyes, the distance between the eyes (I had double eyelids surgery long time before) and the eyebrows is too far, if he lift the forehead, my eyes would look like goo-goo, so he would fix the eyelid to be smaller. From that, my eyes would look normal after the forehead lift. The cheeks were not need to have lipo because they need to have some fat reserved between muscle and skin for protection. The forehead when lift up would be hold by couple pinches, and they would dissolved later after couple years, but the lift will stay, For Facelift, it would be the full lift, and the scar would stretch from side burn, down surrounding the ears to the other sides of them, it would help to lift some part of the neck too. Also, my chin was uneven, he suggested to have little fill at the end to even that.
I felt good with doctor Jang after talking to him. Then I see the next doctor for nose (Doctor Cha Myung Kyu). I expressed to him that I would like to have a tip for my nose and higher the top part between my eyes, he touched my nose to fill the plastic implant that I have, and suggested to harvest bone from the body to support for the tip, and checked how thickness of skin on the tip area to see if can be drag down for the tip, and also he liked to lower the top of my nose to make the shape look nicer. I refused it because I prefer the top to be higher. At the end, I told him do the best he could to fix the nose, as long as the top not lower and the tip would not pointing out at last. And It is the second one who do not do the ultra soft silicon.
And then, the coordinator started to talk to me about the prices. When we just about agreed with it, the translator informed me that I cannot having the nose done at this time because with the forehead lift, my skin will pull upward, and nose tip will pull the skin downward, it would be impossible to stretch the skin to two opposite ways at the same time. So we have to take off the nose price. I knew the coordinator was not lower the price much because she saw I was please with the consultation, seemed like I was quoted a little more than I expect (for eyes fix, full facelift, and fill up a little on one size of my chin), but I accepted that since I know is not an easy procedure, and I trusted doctor Jang.
Then I was required to put a million won for depositing. I didn't have enough, so the translator asked me to change more korea money from the bank downstair. Unfortunately, there were no people managing that little bank, only the machines. I decided to take a walk to find another one, suddenly, I saw "Dream" clinic across the street. Since "Dream" was a first one on my list due to the reported of Kcouture, I stopped by at "Dream", told them that I apologized for not showing up at the appointment due to missed the plane, and asked if I could have a consultation at that time. The translator after asking me to wait for a while, told me to come back the next day. I was fine with that and left.
Also, I received couple text messages from "View", asked me if I would like to go back. At that point, even just the first day seeing clinics, but running around between those, spending the time talking, I felt a little tired. I know that I should see more different clinics to get more experiences, but I stopped there, and made up my mind with "Wannabe". Beside that, I was impressed through the conversation with doctor Jang, so why bother to look for more. I came back to "Wannabe" after 5pm, told them I couldn't find the bank near by, and couldn't give them enough money for deposit, but I had cash, after the coordinator saw the cash, she decide to take whatever I had at that time for the deposit (850,000 won), found the exchanged rate on that day, and give me the total in dollars so I just need to pay them the rest on next day for surgery. They wanted to schedule me five days later because doctor Yang had to go to China for the conference. I told them I cannot wait that long because I only have couple weeks in Korea. They had to arrange to surgery on me on the next day. Doctor Jang came back for my post care questions, he told me I needed to come back the first three times right after the surgery for exchanging the bandage, then every other days after that for treatment before I left Korea. Sound pretty good. I paid the deposit, then left, also was told not to eat or drink 8 hours before the surgery.
I have to break this post by two times. Read the next post after this.