anonymousgirl Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 I have been lurking on this forum for a long time and it's a great source of information. Now that I am getting ready to do consultations with clinics I would like to share my information. I have a protruded lower jaw, I would also like to correct my facial asymmetry and possibly also reduce my cheekbones. At first I contacted the regular plastic surgery hospitals like ID but I quickly found out (thanks to reviews on this forum) that they are not a good hospital for these procedures because their doctors are usually not specialists in these fields. I also realized that to correct my facial symmetry I would also need to realign my teeth. Other plastic surgery hospitals like Pitangui have a dental clinic but they don't do orthodontic work so it became clear that the best place to do these procedures was a maxillofacial clinic/hospital. So far I have talked to EverM and JUM and I am in the process of arranging a consultation date for when I visit Korea later this year. I'm still working The Face Dental and Zeah. I've heard about EU dental but could not find any reliable reviews online. After contacting JUM online I was connected to a consultant named Olivia. She requested my photos and responded to me after about a week. She stated I need to pay 100,000KRW for the consultation, she said that it is the cost of the CT scan and XRay. She said I need double jaw surgery + cheekbone+mandible+chin surgery and it will cost 23,000,000KRW but this does not apparently include orthodontic work. I was not very pleased with my interaction with JUM. Their consultant/sales person behaved in the same way that factory/hospital ID consultant did. They quote alot of different surgeries and a very high price. I don't mind paying 23mil but I think they need to include all procedures associated with the surgery. I also strongly disagree with the 100000 consultation fee. I've never heard of such a thing, from what I have seen consultations are usually free. It seems like another example of clinics trying to take advantage of foreigners. Can anyone verify this? EverM did not have a consultant/sales person. They did not suggest any surgeries instead they suggested I come in for a consultation because they want to do a CT scan etc. They also have a consultation fee, they said I have to pay 60,000KRW for a medical interpreter to be sent from the local government office. Apparently it's 60,000 per 2hrs. Overall, EverM seems the better choice but I will come back with more information on the face dental and zeah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dice7074 Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Out of curiosity, are you in the US? I would think that most dental insurances would help pay for orthognathic, maxillofacial, and orthodontic procedures. I agree that your best bet is to see an oral surgeon for an optimum bite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymousgirl Posted January 22, 2019 Author Share Posted January 22, 2019 I am not in the US. Although I obviously need orthodontic work done it does not affect my ability to chew etc. Aligning my teeth and improving my facial symmetry are for cosmetic reasons. I chose Korean clinics because they are aesthetically inclined. They know people are coming there primarily to improve their appearance, so they try to help you do just that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dice7074 Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Got it! I understand... Sorry about that. I was a dental assistant for 20 years and when you wrote that you have a protruded lower jaw, I went into dental mode and automatically thought class III malocclusion - a skeletal positioning of the jaw may/may not require surgery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dejaland Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 In the us most if not all insurance companies will not cover jaw surgery after the age of 18. I have yet to find a doctor who knows of one. I have considerable issues due to my jaw alignment, causing bone loss, and they still will not cover. Upper jaw surgery here is quoted between $17-19,000 USD. This is not including braces which will need to begin prior to surgery, another $4,000+ depending on the orthodontist. Also looking into corrective surgery in Korea, however I've read some botched stories which make me nervous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymousgirl Posted December 30, 2019 Author Share Posted December 30, 2019 Post consultation review This is an update to my thread after many months. The end result is that I chose to do surgery with the face dental and the surgery is scheduled for February. Now the details. I talked a little bit with Zeah on kakao and via email, apparently they had an English speaking consultant or employee working it but one day they simply stopped replying to my kakao messages and to my emails. Maybe the English speaking employee left? Or the consultant stopped working with them? We'll never know because they weren't professional enough to reach out to me and even try to explain even with the help of an online translator. So I never got to consult with them. I didn't bother with JUM because they were just ridiculous. I did consult with EverM and the Face Dental. These two clinics are often compared but they are very different. EverM has a very luxurious feel and of course higher prices. I came to realise very soon that customer service in Korea is pretty bad. I may be biased because I've been living in Japan a while, where customer service is mostly excellent but it seems like the only places with great service in Korea are the ones that plan to charge you a lot of money. The consultation went well, it was free and they did scans and a wafer. The doctor there is very experienced but has rigid ideas about what a beautiful face should look like. My face was measured and it's alterations were described to me down to the millimeter. While I appreciated the doctor's precision, I'm not sure that this cookie cutter approach is wise when working with patients of multiple ethnicities. The adjustments he described may create the perfect Korean face but I'm black. Would they look good on me? Also, the doctor wanted to do some rather difficult (and painful!) sounding procedures on me like removing a couple of my teeth then later bringing them closer together to get the "perfect bite". He didn't seem very concerned about the discomfort I would have to endure. The procedures they suggested were two jaw surgery, chin and vline and they wanted to charge me 30 mil won. And this is the part that really disgusted me and pissed me off. I thought this price was a little strange so they pulled out a price chart in English with obviously inflated charges. However what bothered me the most was that the charging structure required me to pay multiple times for the same procedure. For example, if double jaw surgery costed 11 mill won on the chart and lower jaw surgery costed 6 mill I had to pay 11 + 6 mill, which is VERY strange because double jaw surgery consists of both upper and lower jaw surgery. Why do I have to pay for them separately if I am already paying for double jaw surgery? This is just an example because it was months ago and I can't remember the specifics of the price chart and I'm very sorry I didn't take a picture or record the consultation on my phone. But I very clearly remember their pricing practices because I specifically asked then to explain how the charges could possibly add up to 30 mill. It's like they were just searching for ways that they could make the charges increase somehow. Totally disgusting and dishonest. I highly recommend that anyone avoid this place. I have heard some people say that they won't try this scammy $hit with locals so maybe bring your Korean friend? I also consulted with the face dental the same day. This is a very ordinary dental clinic. Not very high class, I didn't have such a good impression of the customer service, are they short staffed? IDK but when I arrived the doctor was in surgery and apparently the receptionist too cause there was no one to recieve me in the clinic. I just sat and waited, another patient came and did the same. Eventually everyone came back and I could have my consultation. The doctor seemed very competent but a little shy. He spoke English but his English abilities seemed intermediate at best. We did scans but no wafer. He seemed to know what he wanted to do and compared my case to the cases of other patients he treated. He showed me the results and told me the recovery time (which was only about 2 weeks!) and that was it. He mostly relied on my questions to provide information. Unfortunately, I did not prepare well for the consultation and couldn't think of good questions to ask but I would have preferred a more detailed description of what he planned to do. Unlike the doctor at EverM he does not seem to use the cookie cutter approach, since his goal isn't some inflexible concept of perfection he can assess people on a case by case basis and seems to understand the difference between western and Korean beauty standards. He only suggested 2 jaw and chin surgery but needed a visual example of my desired face shape (which I did not prepare) however I saw a few of the results of his patients so I knew what he could do. The cost quoted was about 15 mill won for the two surgeries. One thing happened though that I did not like. When they asked me if I planned to see other clinics and I said yes they charged me "for the scans" but this is BS cause the scans were done on a mahine and sent directly to a computer, nothing was printed and no materials were used, I didn't get anything at the end so why did I have to pay for it? Because they were afraid I'd leave and never come back so they wanted to make sure they got some money from me? I was not impressed by this. In the end I was just so tired with the whole consultation thing. I chose the face dental because 1) their surgery price was fair, they didn't try to scam me 2) the doctor spoke English and seemed competent 3) the doctor has a flexible aesthetic sense 4) he only suggested the minimal amount of procedures needed to achieve the look 5) I was tired and did not feel like consulting other clinics anymore. I will post further updates later. I hope this info helps someone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fixedsister Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Wow I'm sorry you had such a hard time with your consultations. Thank you for writing your experience in such great details. I think you chose a good clinic at the end because I've seen so many good reviews about them. BTW, as for the CT scan, I don't think they tried to take some money off you. It's common to be charge for CT scan. Only difference is each clinic charge differently. I got charged for mine too. I asked if I was able to take a copy and apparently they charge per copy. I asked out of curiosity though. Don't worry, at the end of your surgery, they will show you your CT scan on the computer; before and after. You are free to take pictures of your scans at every angle so be prepared or remember to ask~ good luck with your surgery! Gambate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tennaebruem Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Good luck with the surgery!! Korean ideologies regarding the "perfect" face and how that doesn't work with other ethnicities is a major concern to me, so I get your concerns regarding this issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymousgirl Posted December 30, 2019 Author Share Posted December 30, 2019 I actually do not mind paying for the CT scans. For that matter I would not mind paying a consultation fee, infact I see no reason why consultations need to be free. However the clinic told me in an email that the consultation was free and they never mentioned paying for scans. Is that practice of suddenly charging customers for undisclosed things popular in Korea? The one good thing I could say about EverM is that they didn't try that trick on me. I guess they were aiming for a bigger goal. The reason I was annoyed is because, before they knew I was visiting another clinic it didn't seem like they were going to charge me. If they have a rule like that they should disclose it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larilol Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Hi, Is TFD performing the surgery without orthodontics first? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
european95xx_ Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 I'm having two jaw and V line as well with Dr.Lee from TFD clinic! I was very impressed by the online consultation. I'm a Caucasian, but I prefer Korean beauty standards over western. I love the delicate facial lines Korean surgery can do. I never liked square and broad jaws, wide faces etc. I always saw those things as a flaw in a way. For an example Angelina Jolie. Amazing eyes and lips, but her head always looked big to me with a heavy jaw. Now that she lost lots of weight her head looks even bigger and jaw even more square. I still find her beautiful, but I don't want to look like her. At the same time, I don't want to look like a different race. I love my eyes, lips, nose is ok (can be better of course!), but dislike my face shape and that's what I want to change and I really like the Korean V line aesthetic. I want to be able to wear cute hairstyles and clothes without feeling like they don't suit me because my face isn't feminine enough. I also want a dramatic result as long as it's safe! I plan to go sometime in autumn this year! Excited for you and your journey!! Please keep us updated and best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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