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hi everyone, i thought i’d talk about my consultation journey to help out others thinking about surgery as I found all these threads massively helpful! My goal is to get my surgeries done in Korea in early 2021 as travel doesn’t seem possible this year. Though it’s early to get consultations, I have a long list and lots of time, so I thought — might as well! it’s going to be LONG, sorry. I plan on creating a separate thread once I finally get my surgery done, so this will be a consultation thread only. I will continue to add as I get more consultations and sort out my thoughts and thought it would be interesting and helpful for anyone interested in these clinics. ** update as of 12/28/2020: You'll notice my mind going back and forth a lot, LOL. Better safe than sorry when it comes to something as big as surgery, right? I've edited it as much as I could to improve clarity as well as any glaring grammatical errors. ** BACKGROUND INFO Early 20s, East Asian female interested in primary DES + primary Rhino highly likely getting: forehead fat graft, masseter botox as well as partial buccal fat removal (as of 12/28/20) DES: incision method + ptosis correction (have monolids with lots of fat on eyelids) Rhino: higher nose bridge, slimmer + less bulbous alars and tip most likely silicone for bridge and septal cartilage for tip My eyes are really weak, one eyebrow is significantly higher than the other because I keep raising them up because of the lack of power my eyes have. It also emphasizes the uneven sizes between my eyes, as the one with more strength is also the one with less fat on my eyelid, making the difference in size really obvious, especially when I smile. This causes a lot of strain on my eyebrows and my forehead, and I find myself constantly forcing myself to relax my eyes because it causes me to get minor headaches. I was very hesitant on getting DES as I have an acquaintance who did their eyes here in America and ended up with the dreaded sausage eyes. As I have a lot of fat on my eyelids, I knew for sure I would have to go with the incision method, which has a higher rate of getting sausage eyes. However, the problems I mentioned above just led to me to deciding on getting DES. I will note that I am relatively proficient in Korean. However, I did tell them I was a foreigner (which they probably would’ve known anyways as I’m sure I made some minor grammatical mistakes), so I’m not too sure how much sway I had. Here are the clinics I consulted/plan on consulting: Wannabe Dr. Jin Premium Nose Clinic Cocoline Premier Item 1mm Luho (Previously known as Yonsei First) Marble Illumi WANNABE - Kakao Consult (in English) Like everyone says, Wannabe was very prompt in their replies to me and had perfect English. They recommended me to get the incision method and ptosis correction with an in out line, as I mentioned I wanted a very natural line. Thanks to them, I realized how badly I needed the ptosis correction. They also said I should get short nose correction, hump removal (I didn’t even know I had a hump?! I looked at the photo again, and it’s VERY VERY slight), alarplasty and an increased nose bridge. They recommended silicone, but said using cartilage was possible, but that they would need to see me in person. Initially, I had no intentions of going for silicone, as I noticed they tended to require a revisional rhino after, so hearing that made me reassured. They quoted me around 6 mil won for both rhino and my eyes. However, someone in the Kakao group I’m in noted that those were the exact quotes they had given them, so I assume they just have a baseline price and then adjust it when you actually have a face to face consultation. DR. JIN - Email Consult (in English) Dr. Jin was on my list for a while; he has bunch of credentials and I liked how he personally replied to me. He was also speedy in his reply and suggested using septal and rib cartilage for a higher nose bridge, mild alarplasty, and refining my tip with possible fat removal and cartilage reduction. I asked how high my nose bridge could be without being too unnatural, and he said that making it too high wouldn’t be harmonious with my face but that he can make it relatively high with rib. He quoted me 10k USD (yes, USD) which was mind boggling. I also began to read some negative reviews and that made me cross him off the list. COCOLINE - Facebook Consult (ENG) They were hard to reach. They read my FB messages relatively fast (I couldn’t find their Kakao) but replied HOURS later, but it could be due to the fact that I messaged them in English. They quoted me 5 mil won for my nose, and straight up said I would need to use silicone for my nose only. They recommended surgery for my nose tip and alarplasty as well as my nose bridge. So far, all clinics said the same thing, except Wannabe added both the short nose correction + hump removal. I am hesitant and will probably still visit them after for a face to face consultation as they are famous in Korea for their noses. I was very surprised that they suggested silicone as they are known for their autologous cartilage rhinos, but my nose is VERY flat lol. NAMU PS - Kakao Straight up ignored me LMAO. They didn’t read my messages, and honestly I’m not too miffed because I only reached out since other people in the Kakao reached out. PREMIER - Kakao (KRN) Another clinic I saw on the app; it seems to be pretty famous for eyes. They are having a summer event where the incision method is only around 890 thousand won (!?!!) which made me realize just how much more they charge for foreigners. They were very speedy in their replies, but I noticed after messaging them that they have an English website and offer consultations through Whatsapp (which I don’t have). I was curious how they would quote me after having a conversation with them in Korean and then telling them I was a foreigner. I asked if it would be possible to get a natural in out line (I mentioned Red Velvet’s Irene LMAO), as when I use double eyelid tape, the line gets very thick and makes me look weird. I asked if the line I get with double eyelid tape is the only line possible with my eyes, or if the line I want is possible. I also asked if I could participate in their events/promotions even though I was a foreigner. They basically said it’s hard for them to answer my questions completely accurately through just photos, and asked if I could come in for an in person consultation. They said I could participate in their promotional events as I hold dual citizenship in Korea (so I guess that’s the criteria), and without any events, typical base price for the incision method would be close to 1 million won but that the price would depend on what the doctor ultimately says as well as the level of difficulty of the surgery. They were very kind and polite and even told me to contact them again when I arrive in Korea, which made them place way higher on my list! ITEM - Kakao (KRN/ENG) I'll be honest, I got quite lazy and just copy pasted what I Kakao-ed Premier in Korean but I stated that I'm slightly more comfortable in English, so we had a mostly English conversation but there was some Korean, as an FYI. They said my eyes were big! (A lie. But it made me feel good LMAO) They were very prompt and kind in their replies to me. They recommended the incisional method and said it was too hard to tell right now if I needed ptosis correction. For nose, they said if I wanted a higher nose bridge, I would need to use silicone (T___T) and would reduce my bone base (Osteotomy) as I have a wide base (I have to look up what this means.. LOL). They also said they would use my septum cartilage to make my columella and tip, but stated that if I didn't have enough cartilage, I would need to use donor. They also were concerned about reducing my alars too much, for breathing functions. They said that I wouldn't be able to participate in promotional events unless I could speak Korean, so I guess I'll have to find out if I do a face to face. I'm very hesitant because so far it seems as though silicone is inevitable, and while I did like how specific they were in telling me what specific procedures they suggested, it seems as though all the rhinoplasty inquiries I have asked about have given me different suggestions -- generally a higher nose bridge and a slimmer tip are the consensus, but there are little different things all clinics so far have suggested. They quoted me 1.85 million won for incisional DES (no ptosis or anything), and rhinoplasty overall would cost 4.6 million won. So far, I am primarily interested in Premier and Wannabe. I think I'll have to make a face to face consultation with Cocoline before I finalize my thoughts. I also think I might be able to get some leverage with a F2F, since I was able to communicate fine with Premier in all Korean. I am still continuing to decide whether I want to do silicone or rib as they both have their pros and cons, and I might ask if I could do just tip plasty + alar instead. I am not interested in Item as I do not like how they suggested that I may need a donor, when I'm already very hesitant against silicone.