tchu

How does an infection look like? Just wondering if it is something that I should be cautious about.

 

The small clinic i went to is called Lead Plastic Surgery. I'm still waiting for the recovery.
The consultant there does understand basic english but wasn't willing to speak. I was there with a korean friend and he was the one doing the translation for me and bargaining the price. Dr Lim there is able to communicate in English.

The location of clinic is near exit 3 of apgujeong station. I had my procedure done on 14th April and now my right eye is still a bit more swollen than the other one. Overall I do like the clinic and doctor! One special thing the doctor offer was botox injection on my forehead. I don't have any visible wrinkles on my forehead to begin with, the reason for the botox was, by my best understanding, to correct the bad habit of using too much eyebrow muscles and forehead muscles to lift up my eyes. Doctor recommended non incision methond + ptosis correction + fat cells removal. Due to the weak eye muscles, eyes may look sleepy, after ptosis correction, botox will sort of numb the forehead/eyebrow muscle and hence force my eye muscles to work. And for recovery it will strengthen my eye muscles and to be less reliant on the forehead and eyebrow muscle. Does it make sense? I'm not medically trained but that sounds sensible to me.

First price was quoted at 2.5m KRW but due to an event going on it was reduced to 2.2m KRW. My friend was helping me to bring it down to 1.8m KRW. Dr Lim said that, if I agree to his proposal to get botox injection, he will do it for me free of charge, and it's completely optional. I thought that's agreeable to in the end, I paid 1.8m KRW for non incision / ptosis correction / fat cells removal / botox.

The paperwork in the clinic are in Korean, so you may need to get someone to translate or bargain for you if you would like to go there.

Hope what I am sharing here is helpful! (I dont know how to upload picture, but i'm willing to share)

 

The small clinic i went to is called Lead Plastic Surgery. I'm still waiting for the recovery.
The consultant there does understand basic english but wasn't willing to speak. I was there with a korean friend and he was the one doing the translation for me and bargaining the price. Dr Lim there is able to communicate in English.

The location of clinic is near exit 3 of apgujeong station. I had my procedure done on 14th April and now my right eye is still a bit more swollen than the other one. Overall I do like the clinic and doctor! One special thing the doctor offer was botox injection on my forehead. I don't have any visible wrinkles on my forehead to begin with, the reason for the botox was, by my best understanding, to correct the bad habit of using too much eyebrow muscles and forehead muscles to lift up my eyes. Doctor recommended non incision methond + ptosis correction + fat cells removal. Due to the weak eye muscles, eyes may look sleepy, after ptosis correction, botox will sort of numb the forehead/eyebrow muscle and hence force my eye muscles to work. And for recovery it will strengthen my eye muscles and to be less reliant on the forehead and eyebrow muscle. Does it make sense? I'm not medically trained but that sounds sensible to me.

First price was quoted at 2.5m KRW but due to an event going on it was reduced to 2.2m KRW. My friend was helping me to bring it down to 1.8m KRW. Dr Lim said that, if I agree to his proposal to get botox injection, he will do it for me free of charge, and it's completely optional. I thought that's agreeable to in the end, I paid 1.8m KRW for non incision / ptosis correction / fat cells removal / botox.

The paperwork in the clinic are in Korean, so you may need to get someone to translate or bargain for you if you would like to go there.

Hope what I am sharing here is helpful! (I dont know how to upload picture, but i'm willing to share)

 

Did you meet Dr Lee? I was having a consultation with Dr Lee and i could feel his confidence The main reason i didn't go with banobagi was because of the price.

By the way can anyone teach me how to post a picture here? I would like to share my post op picture.

 

Hi all, i didn't go to opera for my double eyelid surgery at the end. Went to a small scale clinic located in apgujeong area.

Can anyone teach me how to post picture here?

 

Hey there, have you gotten yours done?? Sorry i didnt' see this post! I just got back from Seoul this morning. Which clinic did you go to?

 

Hey people.

I just came back from Seoul this morning. I had my eyelid surgery done on 14th April, at a small clinic, recommended by a Korean friend.

Same as all of you, I sent email to different clinics like Teuim, Banobagi, Girin, Opera, ASPS for online consultation. And emailed DocFinder for recommendations, my friends going with me on the same trip engaged another similar medical agent, and I got her to recommend good doctors too. It's all coming back with the recommendation of Banobagi/Cinderalla/JW/ID those really big names and big scale hospital/clinic.

At the end decided to have it done at the small clinic. I've actually written my review and experience on another thread:
# Feel free to kakao me for more info in case I take a long time to reply here! I have a few post on that thread, you can just got to the last page or last few pages.

My kakao ID: tchule

 

And about my surgery outcome, i don't know how to post a picture here. But do feel free to kakao me: tchule
I'm more than willing to share my recovery process. I did my surgery on 14th and it took 30 mins. I have been drinking soju+beer and eating seafood, walking around a lot and not putting enough coolpacks on my eyes when i was in seoul, so I think the recovery is a little bit slow. But i can't tell for sure. I will try my best to find way to post a picture here.

A bit more on the experience over the 30 mins surgery on Thursday: it's almost painless. I'm really not exaggerating, the most painful part was when they put the IV drip on my hand. I could hear my heartbeat, and I was really nervous as I was told by my friend who went to Teuim that it was very painful, especially when she was doing epi. The doctor asked me to relax and to breathe in deeply, soon i drifted into my dream and start seeing a lot of bright neon colours! Quite interesting experience i must say. But i could still hear doctor telling me to open and close my eyes once in a while, seeing doctor and hearing his voice is assuring as I have been warned about ghost doctor. I could feel it when he is done with one eyes and moved to another eyes, wiping off my tears or something, a bit of pulling and tugging. But not pain. When it's finally over, it's the feeling of heaviness on eyelid, as if you've been crying for 2 days non stop. Stitches to be removed on Monday. Even stitches removal was painless too. I really don't think that i'm the one with very high tolerance for pain, but it was so quick and the only thing i noticed was the snapping sound coming from metal, two times. That's it.

You would probably wonder now if i'm advertising for the clinic or what. I'm one girl, who wanted to get double eyelid surgery done, and had gone through the toughest process, which is the research part. And with my experience, I really hope that we can help each other, by giving insight of surgery process, and helping each other from getting rip off by clinic, doesn't make sense to pay more just because we are foreigner. xxxxx

Free service from DocFinder just doesn't make any sense. He is ashamed of how much banobagi is charging comparing to other clinics. My friend got facelift and filler done at banobagi, she was charged SGD24k. Of which, at other clinic, with just as good quality, you'll be paying much lesser.

I really have no personal gain by doing this. I could have left and said nothing as i've achieved what I want. Please, do ask me if there's anything that i've missed out.

 

hi BadReligion, I didn't have time to go to Teuim. Consultation arranged at 2.30pm at Banobagi with Dr Lee, 3.30pm at Teuim, and 5pm at the small clinic. It was already 3.30pm when I got there at Banobagi because of the scary crowd at the immigration checkpoint. I landed at 12.30pm and head straight to Banobagi.

Banobagi: We all need to go through a consultant before seeing the real Dr. Consultant suggested cutting of outer eye corner, if I want to make my eyes bigger. She said that Non-Incision is possible for me. So finally when we meet the doctor, he was telling me non incisional method too, but to make my eyes looks bigger he suggested ptosis correction. No cutting of eye corners needed. I feel comfortable with this doctor and there's a sense of confidence in what he is doing. After seeing doctor, then we go back to see the consultant again to talk about the price.
She wrote two numbers on the paper, 3.52m KRW ~ 4.29m KRW. I'm in the sales line and I do know how sales pitching sounds like but quoting two numbers and saying, 'yes, because you are with claire, we will give you the lowest price', which is 3.52m. And then of course, I asked for discount based on the reason that my two friends already did the surgery on the same day. She reduced the price to 2.88m KRW. I asked again, it was 2.75m KRW, the lowest she said she can give. Price quoted here is excluding the 10% tax, but it's refundable at the airport. At banobagi, either paying in cash or credit card is the same.

p/s: based on my research work, on taiwanese/chinese forum, the price quoted is still way above the average price. And i wanted 2nd opinion before i made decision so i said that i'll consider about it. And i left for my second consultation.

Teuim: I decided NOT to go to Teuim for consultation as i was short of time. However, I would like to share a few things about Teuim, based on my own experience and my friend's experience who got hers done there last year. Teuim was shortlisted because my friend got her eyes done there last year. She told me that he is one of the top eye surgeon in the country. Before fixing appointment date, i did email different clinics for online consultation. Out of 6 clinics I emailed, Teuim was the only clinic telling me that i'm not a suitable candidate for non incisional method, and epi is recommended. The other 5 clinics, none of them say i need incisional/partial incisional or suggested epi. This is the first thing that made me decided that 'it is okay to drop Teuim out of the list', when i was really out of time. I must say that the result of my friend is really nice and natural, not saying that Teuim is bad or not good. But for my case, I don't think the doctor's style matches my preference. My friend said Dr Kwon would suggest epi to almost all of his patient, and would not operate if you reject the epi. I didn't have any chance to verify this fact, but this is what i heard. So, second point, it's okay not going to Teuim. I was quoted incisional method/ptosis: 2.5m ~ 3m KRW & epi 1.4m KRW over email. I heard that they prefer payment in cash if you want more discount.

Small clinic: Went to this clinic as it was recommended by a KOREAN, and to find out myself how is it different from those big hospital. This small clinic is in apgujeong area, located on 6th floor of a building. It's not a big one, it's sharing the floor with some other clinic. The conversation with the consultant was only in Korean, and my friend was there translating. He asked if I want to let them know that I went to Banobagi, I said no. Non incisional method was recommended. She said that my eyelid is quite thin, and i'm below age 30, non incisional would be good. She mentioned that my eyes distance are just nice, so doing epi would make them too close. She also suggested ptosis correction. Not suggesting a crease that is too high, because between my brow and my eyes the distance is not too big either. I asked about canthoplasty, but she said it's better to speak to doctor. When I met the doctor, he speaks English, but not that kind of super fluent one, but it's good enough to communicate. He suggested non incisional + ptosis correction, plus a minor fat cells removal. My eyelids are thin enough for non-incisional method but there's a bit of puffiness. So if remove a bit of fat cells the crease will appear to be more natural. He explained to me very thoroughly about ptosis correction, and he suggested giving me a botox injection on my forehead, to correct the bad habit of using forehead muscles over the recovery period. THAT IS SOMETHING UNHEARD OF TO ME. He explained that, due to the weak eye muscles, I tend to use my forehead muscles or brow muscles when i'm doing my facial expression, that leads to forehead wrinkles and wrinkles between eyebrows. With botox injection after the surgery, I will get used to not using those muscles anymore and will help my eyes getting used to the eyes muscles, it's more for helping the correction of bad habit, or to help a bit on recovery by strengthening my eyes muscles. He said that if I accept his proposal, he is giving me the botox injection for free.
Then he left and the consultant came in, to discuss about the price. It was quoted at 2.2m ~ 2.5m KRW.

 

So my friends want to do fat grafting / rhinoplasty / PRP. One shocking thing about Banobagi is that, the price quoted can be very different, from one person to another, even both are foreigners. Banobagi has forgotten that the 5 of us went at different timing, but we were from the same group. For example, for PRP, it was quoted at 2m KRW to one friend, and quoted 1.1m KRW to another friend. And from the local/less well known clinic I went with Mr. P, it was quoted 800k KRW.

I was quoted 3.52m KRW for non-incisional double eyelid + ptosis correction at banobagi. And the small clinic I went to quoted 2.5m KRW.

I can't remember all the prices quoted by banobagi to my friends, but comparing the price to small clinic, that difference is HUGE!

**sorry folks, need to board the plane now. To be continued when I'm back home**

 

My friends and I arrived on different dates so we have consulation and surgery on different dates. My objective is to get double eyelid surgery, and because I have keloid scar problem, so I was really hoping for being able to get non-incisional double eyelid procedure done. Before the trip, I was asking for quotation and online consultation with photo. I scheduled appointments with Teuim, Banobagi (because my friends are going there anyway, so I tagged along) and Opera.

Fortunately I have a Korean housemate when I was doing my degree, so I asked him for opinion and he referred me a friend who happened to be free and recommended me another clinic, which is obviously not very well known by any of us here on this forum. The clinic consultant do understand English, but they choose not to speak because their English is not very good, so the friend offered to go with me to the clinic for consultation, also acting as a translator.

Lesson #3: BIG names or small hospital?? For my case, double eyelid is not really a big deal, so honestly speaking, I'm not looking for the BEST EYE SURGEON in Seoul. As long as the doctor is experienced, that's a good assurance. I was told by my Korean friend, Mr. P, that for hospital/clinic with very big scale, like owning the entire building, part of your surgery cost is meant to pay for rental of building or mortgage, so definitely the price would be higher than smaller size clinic. Secondly, to deal with foreigners they need to hire more Chinese/English speaking coordinator, that's also coming from the surgery price. So big name or big clinic not necessarily equal to good doctor.

 

Hello people!!

A little bit of update about my experience of double eyelid surgery in Korea on the 14th. I'm now waiting for my transit flight in HK and I have some time to kill.


I was reading through this forum as part of my research work and I understand the feeling of you not knowing which place to go! And especially if you don't speak Korean.

I'll do my best to share my experience and opinion, if you want more info, my kakao: tchule

My flight to Korea was on 14th April, and I was going with another 5 friends, who have decided to engage a medical agent Claire, like docfinder from Beautique Korea. I'm always a little bit skeptical so after my research work, I think the service provided with the aim of 'bargaining for best price' doesn't make any sense. Agent gets paid in commission - that's an obvious conflict of interest. But my friends had already paid for deposit to secure surgery date, so they decided to go with Claire's recommendation, which is Banobagi.

Lesson #1 - there's no need to engage medical agent, unless you are too lazy to do your own homework, and has a lot of money to pay. Banobagi is a famous place for foreigners, I'm not saying that the doctor is bad, I'm not saying that the doctor is the best, but you will be paying WAY TOO MUCH.


Lesson #2 - don't pay any deposit before seeing the doctor in person. And please, always have more than 1 consultation to have second option.

 

Hi all, I'm new here but have been reading silently for a while.
I think I should share about my finding so far too as this forum has been really helpful. I'll be in seoul from 14 - 19 april.
I'm considering only non-incisional method as I tend to have keloid problem and do not want to take chance. Not considering cutting any of my eye corners either.

Quoted price:
banobagi - Dr Lee - non incisional: 2.09m kwr
teuim - Dr Kwon - only recommended incisional w ptosis correction: 2.5m to 3m kwr [Not going]
Apgujeong Seoul Plastic Surgery Hospital - Dr Lee/Dr Tak - non incisional: 1m kwr / non incisional+ptsosis correction: 1.5m to 2m kwr
opera: non incisional: 1.5m to 2m kwr
girin: non incisional 1.5m kwr and ptosis alone is 2.5m kwr (seems like a huge rip off to me as non incisional + ptosis = 4m kwr)

Reason for the above shortlisted clinic:
1. seems that everyone knows about it. i'm open to listen to more opinion however don't think i'll have my surgery there. will probably drop it if i don't have enough time
2. best eye doc i heard, but too expensive for my budget
3. ASPS was recommended by a korean friend (i tried talking to consultant from docfinder, they criticised that this hospital is not famous and they use ghost doctor. i'm quite skeptical as i read rather decent review on the CEO of the hospital Dr Lee Min Gu. Perhaps it's just a hospital not paying commision to docfinder? I'm keen to listen to people with experience at ASPS, please share!)
4. opera: good review on purseblog
5. girin: saw some good review too (but surprised at the price of ptosis correction of 2.5m kwr)

My kakao: tchule

 

Hi all, i've been reading this thread from page 1! I'm really excited that i'm going to Seoul from 14 - 19 April. I have booked for consultation with Opera and Apgujeong Seoul Plastic Surgery Hospital on the 14th.
Shortlisted Opera due to the review I read from here, and ASPS was recommended by a Korean friend. I would like to know if anyone here will be going to the same clinic and happened to be the same day? We will probably have more bargaining power if we can go in together, as compared to being alone.

My kakao - tchule or you can pm me!

Cheers

 

I'm going for a consultation with Opera on this 14th April!

Your review has been most helpful! I'm wondering if you mind me using your name as referral to see if I can bargain the price with them?

If it's alright, can you pm me? i can't seem to pm you as i'm new here. or my kakao ID is tchule

Thanks again!