{ My Experience } Consults, Quotes, and Surgery with Opera Plastic Surgery

[sssxccc]

Hi everyone!!!

So, I know that I had created a thread a couple of months ago with my research for double eyelid surgery and also had some consultations set up so I wanted to start a new thread with my consultation experiences, feelings, and also who I decided to go through the surgery with. You can find that old thread here.

PurseForum really helped me a lot in terms of narrowing down clinics that I felt would be "worth" it so I think it's necessary to give back and also share my experiences as well hoping that it'll also be helpful.

I ended up going with Opera for my surgery:
www.operasurgery.co.kr - their website doesn’t work for English though
[email protected]
WeChat for the consultant JiaoLan: [email protected]
Dr. Chong Su Woo

Here are the list of clinics that I actually ended up going to and that I'll be reviewing
10/28
- Teium
- Regen
- Oz
- Wannabe
- MVP
- DAPRS - had one here but we didn't go due to lack of time and location
10/29
- Wonjin
- Opera
- Apejeoung - had appointment here but we decided not to go to it since we didn't think it was within our budget.

{ About Me & My Budget }
Surgery Request: Incisional double eyelid, ptosis, epi
Other concerns: I want a crease that is natural and tapered so that it will look more realistic.
My budget: $2000 - ~ 2mil won

When choosing a clinic I am taking into consideration pricing, skill and comfort with the clinics. I want to make sure I get a good vibe from them and will place comfort over price but want to find a middle grown between the two. Afterall, they are my eyes and I’ll have them for the rest of my life.

Here are pictures (see below!)


Opera – MY CHOICE FOR SURGERY
PROS:
-Walked in without any appointments and they were able to accommodate me with an Chinese translator speaker so last minute. We went right when they open and they saw us in about 10 minutes
- Good pricing (it’s not cheap, but it’s not expensive)
- They were busy – which is a good sign and shows that a lot of people go to them. It was a mix between some Chinese people and some local Koreans, also a good sign!
- The doctor was really thorough, good and friendly!
-Nice office & great staff

CONS:
-They don’t have an English translator unless if you make an appointment – I provided the information above at the very top of this post. I personally had trouble trying to get an appointment due to language barriers and I know others as well, so I tried to get as much info as I can to share for those interested.

The only reason why I went to Opera was because I saw it on PF and people mentioned that it was a place a lot of locals went to. I tried numerous times to make an appointment but it was difficult with the language barrier since they aren’t like the other clinics that try to fish out the foreigners for more money. But because of this they are able to have good pricing for GREAT quality and staff.

Since I didn’t have an appointment, I ended up walking in with my friend. She’s Chinese so thankfully this really helped and made everything possible because they had a Chinese translator on staff. Upon walking in, one of the things that stood out was that basically ALL the staff had gotten up for us. It was kind of scary lol and a lot of pressure but I think it was really respectful of them to do that when all the other clinics were nice but they would just try to shuffle you around to their foreigner desk.

So in our consult room was the main consultant, the doctor, and the translator. During the consultation with the consultant she was also very thorough and the only one that actually touched our eyes and used the little metal thing to simulate folds. She even measured out eyes with a mini rule to check sizing and grabbed on my friend’s eye fat to get a better idea. This was so different than the other clinics whos consultants had basically just asked us what we wanted and gave us information but they didn’t do any analyzing or in depth consult prior to seeing the doctor. So this already made me feel really good about Opera.

When the doctor came in he sat down and smiled and was so friendly. Despite the language barrier he actually looked like he was happy to be there and most importantly, again, he was also really thorough with our consultation. He made me open and close my eyes multiple times and did different crease heights for me and also analyzed the severity of my ptosis and noted one side was worst than the other and so forth on. His hands were also very gentle which I like especially for a plastic surgeon.

By the end of the consult me and my friend really liked Opera and decided that we liked Opera more than Wannabe based off consultation thoroughness and overall vibe. It wasn’t just a matter of pricing.

Opera’s pricing wasn’t the lowest compared to all the clinics that we had gone to, but it was good (at least I felt so) for the quality of the work that they had on their site, for their staff attentiveness, and doctor consultation. I felt REALLY comfortable with them as well, more than Wannabe. This doesn’t mean that they’re not good, but this is just a personal feeling. I really value the “feeling” I get with a clinic because I think gut instincts are really important. I trust Opera.

With pricing, the initial quotes that we had gotten was 2.7mil for double, epi, and ptosis and we were able to negotiate it down to 2.1mil for everything including the tax and it was cash payment.

We immediately decided to make an appointment and we paid for it (I’m getting my surgery today 10/29 – couple of hours before I’m writing this lol because I got some PMs from people asking about feedback on my consults!).

I’m very excited and incredibly scared still to go under the knife, but I am really happy and confident so far that Opera will do an amazing job!!!

More updates to come within the next couple of weeks about my recovery!!~

 

[sssxccc]

Here are my other consults (all the reviews were too long to post on one post so I had to separate it!)


{ CONSULTATIONS }
Teium
PROS:
-Got an appointment very easily through their responsive emails
- Lots of website pictures
- Positive reviews on PurseForum
- Not pushy on other services or just getting services done with them
- Great office space that was very comfortable and “warm”
- Staff was really friendly

CONS:
-They are way out of my budget (~$4000+ USD)
- Weren’t willing to really work on the pricing

Teium was the first one we had a consult with. When we got there we were greeted and given forms to fill out. Afterwards we were taken into the back room to meet with Dr. Kwon. He is older and seemed very experienced. During the consult he was able to point out what I liked and didn’t like about my eyes. His English was also not too bad, though there was still an English translator there to help with the consults. Overall, they were really friendly and we felt good with them.

During the discussion on pricing, we had the consultant, Alice (small Asian girl with pretty natural eyes and short hair). She was really nice and quoted us:
4.2mil for incision, epi, ptosis
3.8mil for non-incision
2.5 mil for ptosis and incision (no epi)
This is all cash payment.

Credit card has a 5% transaction fee.

She said that both my friend did it there then it would be 4mil per person.

Overall, I was really disappointed with this clinic’s ability to lower the pricing because I do feel like 4mil was outrageous and we tried so hard (but nicely to get a lower price). I even emailed them afterwards at night and they stood very firm on their pricing.

I still recommend this place if you have the budget for it and are considering them as a choice. Who knows maybe we just had bad luck or not negotiating the right way.

Regen
We had stopped by Regen really quickly between out appointments since we had time, but since we didn’t have a reservation we had to wait for a consultant to be available. We ended up not completing the entire process because we didn’t think it would be a good fit for my friend and out taste. It also wasn’t part of our original must see clinics just based off portfolio work that they had.

Oz
PROS:
-Got an appointment very easily through their responsive emails
- Not too many pictures. I personally wasn’t too impressed with the work, but my friend wanted to check it out.
- Hit or Miss reviews on PurseForum
- The lowest pricing compared to all the other clinics that I had gotten quotes from over email – their prices are also online
- Not pushy on other services or just getting services done with them

CONS:
-They are further out and required more walking
- The building was so hard to find because his directions were not updated. The clinic is above an Olive Young and NOT a Dilly Dally bakery. This makes a HUGE difference for foreigners who don’t speak Korean and need to use landmarks to find places.
-Poor office presentation
- Bad vibes from staff- unprofessional- uncaring
- Charged $5/5mil won for a consultation

This was the worst consultation that we had went to. Aside from it taking us forever (40 minutes just walking and down the street looking for the place and then having to go to a hotel to call the office with their phone to find out where they were, only to find out we’ve passed it a million times already but over looked it cause we were looking for a bakery that closed down!!)

We ended up getting there on time for our 130pm appointment. When we got there an older women that was unprofessional and eating just told us to take a seat and fill out forms. When we were done with the forms she just took it and went back to eating. We already had a bad mood from this place and I personally was ready to leave already before even doing a consult. But we decided to just do it anyways. 5 minute passed by and we still weren’t seen so I asked the lady if she had an estimate of timing and she told me 5 more minutes…. 10 minutes go by and my friend is annoyed because we’re there for 20 minutes already. The office wasn’t busy and the doctor should have seen us for our appointment. So my friend said we were going to leave so then the woman at the front desk goes to the Dr’s room and we go in. WTF. To our surprise he wasn’t doing anything!!! There wasn’t even someone else in there for a consultation. WHY DID WE HAVE TO WAIT 20minutes to see him. I can’t even think of how long they would have made us wait if we didn’t tell them we would leave.

During the overall consultation, I felt like he took it a joke and wasn’t really serious about it. It was also weird because of a couple of things:
1. My friend and I have slightly uneven eyes and she asked him if he would be able to correct it with the surgery and he basically said that he’s human and there’s bound to be errors. WTF, right???? This doesn’t really make me want to entrust someone to cut my eyes open!!!
2. We asked him about ptosis and he kept saying that we didn’t need this and that double eyelid surgery would be enough to “lift” up the eyes and prevent us from using our forehead to open up our eyes. He kept on insisting on this and I started to think that maybe he just wasn’t skilled enough to perform this common surgery and also that he may not even offer it
This all turned me off so much that I didn’t even take the consult seriously anymore and didn’t want to ask any questions.

For everyone’s reference too, he’s not willing to budge on the pricing and says that it’s posted online for a reason and that it’s out there because that’s the price he gives everyone.

Also, when we asked about appointments he basically said we can do it anytime even right then and there since it was only 1 hour. This was also a red flag because it just shows how they are lacking in patients to be able to just take us immediately. Even at Regen – super busy and couldn’t get a walk in consultation and for Teium even if we wanted a surgery date the next availability that they had would have been two days later.

Lastly, the other thing that pissed me off was the $5 consultation fee. By Korean Law you’re actually not allowed to charge for consults, but he did and I had emailed him before meeting why he did that and he threw a fit about how his time is very valuable and that I should respect his work enough to pay for a consult to see him and get his expert advise. This was a bunch of bull**** and I honestly would NOT RECOMMEND GOING HERE even if you’re on a really ttght budget. It’s not worth it!!! So many bad signs the moment we walked into this clinic!!

Wannabe
PROS:
-Walked in without any appointments and they were able to accommodate me with an English speaker so last minute. I only had to wait about 10 minutes
- A lot of pictures to look at on their website and they looked pretty good.
- Medium pricng after negotiation
- Not pushy on other services or just getting services done with them
- Doctor was thorough with the examination

CONS:
-They were able to lower some of the pricing, but the initial ones that I had gotten information on was different to the in per on quote that I got, but after talking to them they honored the pricing.

NEUTRAL
-Not a lot of feedback on PurseForum but I did see their name pop up

The consultation was first done by the consultant who asked me a series of questions about what I wanted to get a better idea so that. She was really nice and her English was impressively good to the point where I felt pretty comfortable with her. Afterwards she had brought in the doctor that would be doing the surgery (Dr. Choe Yong Jin).

The experience with the doctor was good. He took out time to see me last minute and also was very thorough with his consultation and he examined everything (forehead, lids, eyes, fat, etc) and gave me a recommendation for what I was looking for and was there to answer all the questions that I had (through the translator). I felt pretty good about this place overall in terms of the vibe that you get and definitely glad that I had walked into here because all the other clinics that I visited so far was getting me depressed and really worried that I may not find one that was good and in budget.

During the negotiation for the pricing, the consultation had over quoted me for epi and ptosis (1.5mil when I had saw online through a recent PF post that it was 800mil), I told her about this and she dropped it down to the price that I had saw online (but keep in mind I went in prepared and showed her all my research). Overall, the pricing I got was as follows:
-Incision and ptosis (no epi) – 1.9mil
-Incision, ptosis and epi – 2.3mil

They would not go down any more on the pricing and at one point told us “FYI – the small cheaper clinics will also do a good job”, which was kind of a turn off. I’m not sure if this was a language barrier or not, but I made the assumption and gave them the benefit of the doubt. At this point, Wannabe had on of the better pricing considering comfort during consultation and thoroughness of the doctor. But I didn’t want to just make a rash decision because this is so important.

 

[sssxccc]

MVP Clinic
PROS:
-Walked in without any appointments and they were able to accommodate me with an English speaker so last minute. I only had to wait about 30 minutes
- Cheap pricng after negotiation
-Nice office

CONS:
-The doctor was rushed on the consultant and they didn’t even have us hold a mirror up to see what they were doing (..why…????)
-The doctor poked out my friends contracts TWICE
-When asked if the doctor recommended anything else for me, he said I could get my nose done, it’s a bit flat- this is the only place that pushed on services to me that I didn’t ask for
-Don’t have reviews on PF and couldn’t find a lot of photos to work off of

Netural:
-I personally didn’t like the look of people going in and out of the clinic who had work done, but this is a personal taste kind of thing

The consultation which was a mid-age woman named Ellen was the one that helped to translate for us. During the consultation with the doctor there were a couple of things that had stood out:
- She kept standing in front of where I was sitting covering me from seeing my friend’s consult with the doctor and what they were doing for her eyes. I find that weird especially since all the other consultants stood next to the doctor so that I was included and could see what was happening. This made me feel uneasy because I felt like she was trying to make it so I couldn’t see if anything was wrong with the way they were creating the shapes ESPECIALLY since they didn’t even hand us a mirror to look at.
- As mentioned above the doctor wasn’t really gentle with his hands on either me or my friend (worst on my friend since she had contacts and they actually came out). This makes me think how “rough” the doctor would be on his hands
- The doctor WAS nice though, but it just didn’t make me feel comfortable after the consultation

Afterwards, Ellen sat with us and we discussed pricing. The were REALLY willing to lower the pricing down with haggling AND she even said she would throw in Botox (which is suppose to be a $300 value and I had asked if she could just take the $300 off of our total price and she said no). The totals came out to be:
-Ptosis + Epi + Incision – 1.8mil won
-Ptosis + incision – 1.5 mil won
They would waive the 10% health tax if paid with cash

Automatically I had eliminated MVP from my list because during the consultation we had asked to see photos of their work and they didn't have ANYTHING to show us really aside from promotional materials. They have a good overall appearance in terms of physical location, staff and website, but we noticed something really fishy- they lacked photos of real patients before and afters. Ellen kept trying to make excuses that they have a lot, but she couldn’t show them to us and she was looking on her folder and there were a lot of pictures, but she kept telling us she didn’t have any. She accidentally opened up a PowerPoint with some eye photos an she scrolled through them REALLY QUICKLY and didn’t give us a chance to look. Based on what I saw the work was just okay. She kept also saying that no one come back for a follow up so they don’t have any pictures. I found this really hard to believe because I don’t see why anyone would NOT want to go back to see their doctor after getting surgery to make sure that everything is healing right and properly.

In the end she had given us a USB and told us there were pictures in there but they were all just their promotional advertisements and photoshoots.

I left knowing that I just couldn’t commit to a place that didn’t have proof of their work and tried to hard sell me on services even though they had pretty cheap pricing.

 

[Blueblood444]

I'm so excited for you, and wish you the very best! I agree completely that the doctor at Opera is very sincere and has a calming effect that puts the patient at ease. I have a Korean friend who recently underwent DES at Opera and is extremely pleased with the results - hopefully you will be too! If you have some time to kill in Korea and want to do some shopping or eating at legit restaurants, feel free to pm your kakaotalk ID I was born and raised in Seoul.

Oh, and remember to use ice packs religiously in the following days and keep us posted!

 

[queenny]

Oh u going to have surgery in Opera! Please updated us the process and the outcome. Btw, which doctor performed the surgery for you? Last of all, I wish you good luck in your surgery!

 

[skinnypig]

Thank you for the thorough post!!! I'm so glad to hear that Opera seems to be a decent place that cares for its patients and does not try to segment foreign patients. May I ask which doctor performed your eye surgery?

 

[koreasaurus]

Thanks so much for taking the time to give us your feedback on other clinics I'm planning on getting the same exact surgeries you're getting, for my eyes. I hope the surgeries go well for you!

 

[hopefulbliss]

Thanks sssxccc for sharing your detailed consultation experience with us! I hope your surgery goes well with minimal recovery time!

 

[JillyJill]

Speedy recovery sssxccc!
Have a good rest!

 

[Moreen]

wah so cheap and eyes also look nice. wishing speedy healing

 

[hopefulbliss]

Oh u going to have surgery in Opera! Please updated us the process and the outcome. Btw, which doctor performed the surgery for you? Last of all, I wish you good luck in your surgery!

She mentioned Dr. Chong Su Woo in Opera's contact info in her first post so I am guessing that's the doctor she went with.

 

[chlak5]

Hi, I'm looking into Opera as well as Teium.

But Did you ever consider looking at Real and Banabogi?

My list consist of

Opera
Teuim
Real
Banabogi


Can anyone let me know what you think of each clinic? I know that different prices differ in prices, but, I'm going to be living with these eyes (looking to get double eyelid revision, epi and lateral canthoplasty and as well as nose filler). so I wouldn't mind spending a little more money on the clinic that is totally worth it.

Thanks all in advance.

 

[sssxccc]

Hey everyone!! Thanks for all the well wishes!! I'm in recovery right now and minimizing computer usage and have been ice-ing like mad!!!

Going in today to have them take a look and clean up the eyes!! I'll post more after I get some more time to write details on pre-op, during op, and post op care with Opera and just overall tips and suggestions that I picked up and wish I knew when I was here in Korea doing consults and in general!

All the reviews and posts that I've done in this thread has been thorough as I possibility can so they take about an hour or so just to write and read over haha so give me some time!!

@blueblood - do you have suggestions on where I can get pumpkin juice? I've been buying pumpkin soup, but want juice, but was told there are no places really in gangnam to get these. I've checked all convenience stores that I've passed by and have had no luck!

 

[mliaous]

Hi, I'm looking into Opera as well as Teium.

But Did you ever consider looking at Real and Banabogi?

My list consist of

Opera
Teuim
Real
Banabogi


Can anyone let me know what you think of each clinic? I know that different prices differ in prices, but, I'm going to be living with these eyes (looking to get double eyelid revision, epi and lateral canthoplasty and as well as nose filler). so I wouldn't mind spending a little more money on the clinic that is totally worth it.

Thanks all in advance.

HI ,

I am going to REAL in December.

 

[Blueblood444]

Hey everyone!! Thanks for all the well wishes!! I'm in recovery right now and minimizing computer usage and have been ice-ing like mad!!!

Going in today to have them take a look and clean up the eyes!! I'll post more after I get some more time to write details on pre-op, during op, and post op care with Opera and just overall tips and suggestions that I picked up and wish I knew when I was here in Korea doing consults and in general!

All the reviews and posts that I've done in this thread has been thorough as I possibility can so they take about an hour or so just to write and read over haha so give me some time!!

@blueblood - do you have suggestions on where I can get pumpkin juice? I've been buying pumpkin soup, but want juice, but was told there are no places really in gangnam to get these. I've checked all convenience stores that I've passed by and have had no luck!

Hi! For pumpkin juice, you'll have to venture to a grocery store: the one I recommend is called "SSG Food Market" and it's modeled after Whole Foods in the US. They carry international brands (Silk, Kettle chips, etc) as well as a variety of organic juices; I remember seeing pumpkin juice there. The address is 4-1 Cheongdam-dong. Ask for "hobak juice".

The market is in the basement, and the upper level has a My Boon, which is an upscale shop. It's a beautiful complex even to just walk around in, and you will most likely spot a celebrity because this is where they go to buy their groceries. In the basement, there's a little eating area that sells street food that's much tastier (and healthier) than their Myeongdong counterparts.

Otherwise, you can try visiting the local E-Mart or Lotte Mart for pumpkin juice. I'm sure there's one near your hotel. Good luck!