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Double Eyelid Surgery in USA


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Hello,

I was looking through this forum for a few weeks now. I wanted to share my experience with double eyelid surgery in USA. I plan on doing FC in Korea but one step at a time! This is my first ever surgery and I want to try it in the US first to dip my toes in the water. I’ll share my results once I’m done. Currently at the doctor’s right now and am getting prepared for surgery. Will keep you posted!

P.S currently, my eyes are monolids.
 
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How I got DES in the US:

Planning
This is gonna be a long post so I’ll break it into parts.
I actually haven’t thought of getting PS in Korea before. I always have monolids and have use tape and glue to make double eyelids but I’m really terrible at using them so I ended up giving up I wanted DES so I can experience with differerent make up techniques. I also have sleepy eyes, which I didn’t like because I would look bored all the time. I decided to get DES and it was kinda out of impulse. I didn’t think of going to Korea at first and planned to do it here in the states and once I found a clinic to do it, I decided to book them. After booking them, I started researching more on PS and found PurseForum where I discovered this forum But anyways, I was new at this so I didn’t really put much thought on the doctor. I just googled and found a bunch of clinics around my area. There aren’t that many clinics where I live so I messaged a few. They gave me expensive quotes, though, so I wasn’t that interested in spending that much. I think it was average around $3600-5000 USD and can be even more than $5000. I only picked doctors that are within my price range and there were only 2. Consultations were done around May. Because of the Covid, I did FaceTime consultations with the doctors.

Consultations
1. Dr. Kenneth Kim in L.A
He was really nice and friendly doctor. Seems really knowledgeable about what he was going to do. He took a look at my eyes and said what he was going to fix and he also noticed I have a slight ptosis but can’t confirm until f2f. He described how he is going to cut the eyelid and remove the fat and suture it to create the crease. He showed me a bunch of before and after photos and said it’s similar to my situation and how he is going to make it look like the after photos. I did like that he picked patients with eyes similar to mine. I chose to do this consultation because the price range was reasonable but at the end it was on the higher end. I didn’t go with him but I think he would have been a good choice, too! Other than that, I didn’t do much research on him because I spent most of my time researching the doctor I chose I think he’s board certified. Consultation time was about 5-10 mins.

2. Dr. Thomas Nguyen in Fountain Valley
He’s a friendly doctor as well. We talked about the concerns and what I want to change about my eyes. He described how he was going to do the double eyelid surgery which is same process as Dr. Kim’s. I asked how long is the recovery. He said there isn’t really any recovery time and I can take The stitches out in a week. He didn’t show me any before or after photos. The consultation was pretty simple, I just ask the basic questions like when can I get back to work and things like that. Since I asked all my questions at this consultation (I did Dr. Nguyen’s first), Dr. Kim’s was quicker as I didn’t have as many questions. I did feel Dr. Kim is better at explaining and before/after photos helped me visualize. Dr. Nguyen also didn’t notice I have ptosis, but later I told front desk that I might have ptosis so they said to let him know during my f2f. He quote me a much lower price than Dr. Kim’s so I went with him. I was looking for more for a cheaper price (I’m still new at this so I was looking for a cheaper procedure, but it ended up costing a lot more...more on this on the next post). I picked him at the end. This consultation lasted about 10-15 mins.

Photos will be shown in the next post and I’ll keep updating my days of progress here for y’all!

~Hope this helps for those who plan on doing it in the states! Thanks for reading~
 
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Pre-planning:

I have been chatting with the front desk person; her name is Alexis. She’s really nice and would response to me right away even when I have to schedule change 3 times due to work. We talked a little bit and she told me she wish she did her procedures sooner so we bonded over that. She responded to me even when it’s off hours, which I appreciate and changed my scheduled date to accommodate me right away. The staff is really awesome there! I finally booked it for June 5th, 2020 as the final date.

Surgery Day:

Preparation

I wasn’t nervous when I walked in. The place is in a big medical center filled with a bunch of other medical clinics owned by various doctors inside. It has 4 floors so it was easy to find. Walking in, the front area looks pretty bright. Alexis happily greeted me. I immediately felt a little bit more comfortable. I filled out the paperwork and waited. Alexis came out after I filled out the paperwork and we talked a bit. She is super pretty and does not look her age at all. She showed me a previous patient that got DES and epicanthoplasty and she looks really good! However, she has double eyelids before though, but it was thinner double eyelids and she had thick folds that were covering her double eyelids. Her results are super good because her double eyelids are more visible but it isn’t really a monolid picture I’m looking for. She said she was going to show me on the computer we ended up not doing that because we didn’t have the chance to since they were trying to prepare me for surgery Afterwards, they brought me to another room. We went further inside and omg this place is bigger than it looks. There were multiple rooms, which I am assuming consultation rooms, a recovery room, and a surgery room. One of the staff (medical assistant maybe) walked in and asked a bit about my demographics to prepare the doctor and then we talked a little bit. She said everyone walked out of here with DES looks amazing afterwards (wonder if it’s true). It was really pleasant as she made me less nervous. Perhaps, it’s their tactic? Dr. Nguyen came in and made small talk, which I like. I’m not feeling as nervous now. He reassured me that it was going to be fine like going to a dentist, but instead of numbing your teeth, it’s your eyes. No recovery time and he will prescribe pain killers and antibiotics. He described how he was going to do the procedure and drew pictures of how he was going to proceed. After examining and feeling my eyes, he suggested in total double eyelid surgery + epicanthoplasty (inner corner expansion) + ptosis correction. Epicanthoplasty is optional but they said it’ll expand my eyes and make it look bigger. I didn’t expect to decide that today so they gave me a small discount and I chose to do that as well. I have seen the after results that show the girl has a narrower looking nose because of epicanthoplasty. So I opt in but it was now more expensive. I expected the ptosis correction price (which they said is also discounted). Overall, my price almost doubled. Anything for bigger eyes He planned on fixing my ptosis by strengthening the muscles and attaching it to upper skin (honestly idk if I’m explaining it right either because it was a bit medical ). I’m ready to do the surgery. Staff came in to have me sign more paperwork and consent forms while they charged my credit card. There was a slight hiccup because I didn’t request for a credit limit increase since I didn’t think about it. Woops I spent so much time trying to figure out what to do and calling my bank, then ended up using my debit card smh. I want those points haha.

Surgery
They made me change into a robe and took photos of my eyes. Dr. N drew on my eyelids with a marker. The nurse brought me back into the surgery room. I laid down on the table and she covered me up, disinfected my eyelids, and covered my face with sterile towels. She covered my eyelids with moist cloth. She told me the local anesthesia going in isn’t bad. They are just tiny needles. It’s suppose to feel numb. We talked a little bit and she was super nice! She shared previous patient stories and that eased me up a bit. Dr. N walked in and started the surgery. The needles are super tiny and I felt small pinches as they go in. It was not that bad after 2-3 times, it all went numb and I couldn’t feel anymore injections. He started on my right eye first. I could feel and hear the snips of his scissors. I definitely could feel pressure and wetness of the cloth. There was no pain. I heard a laser running possibly to burn off the fat idk, but it smelled smoky. He asked me to open and close my eyes a few times. I could feel him strengthening my levator eye muscle. I could also feel a little bit but not much when he used the stitches on me. Then at the end, he compared both of my eyes by making me open both. He fixed a bit on my right eye again and that was it. I started around 11:20 AM and we ended 12:15 PM. He spent roughly 20 mins per eye and the rest of the time was prepping and cleaning me. It was quick and painless. My left eye was bleeding a bit after at the crease but it stopped once I got home.

I will post the photos below and keep on updating per day!
 
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Post-Op

3 hours later
After I got home, I DEFINITELY can feel a difference regarding my levator muscles. I have always been straining my eyes and using my eyebrows to see the full view because I have weak levator muscles. I can literally feel every movement my eyes make now and it seems lighter and easier to move my eyes. I can’t move it around too much because I’m currently bruised up around my eyes, but I can feel different already! I felt a lot better
Icing helps. I have been switching between my eyes. I can see about half the vision right now because the lids are swollen. My eyes feel heavy but it gets better with ice packs. I was sent home with gauze and 2 ice packs. I also got some antibiotics and painkillers.

BEFORE D0701850-4EF3-4835-A943-A28A99B1E648.jpeg
91DABD93-D367-4062-B2D0-EAAB1B0763AF.jpeg
I think I raised my eyebrows slightly in the first picture. The second shows my right eye because I think it’s droopier and this is when I’m naturally relaxed.

3 HOURS LATER
8DDD14D0-54A5-448E-9D9D-FAA4C1A447F9.jpeg
167D7B87-1CEA-47D0-8517-1E1BD46703D0.jpeg
Here is what I look like a few hours later. Swelling peaks for me around 6 hours or so after surgery. So it swells up later. I look like someone ran me over.
Also, forgot but Dr. N told me during the consultation that the old method of cutting the eyelids is a curved rainbow-shaped crease, which is no longer practiced because it was the old traditional way. He said it would look too unnatural. The new technique would be a crease that follows the eye and the tail would lift off at the end as you can see more when I closed my eyes. He also suggested tapered rather than parallel for me. I prefer tapered as well. I’m going to see how it turns out!


~Will post more photos tomorrow!~
 
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Double eyelid surgery= $2500 which was cheaper than most places that quoted me $3600+.
Epicanthoplasty (optional)= $1800 (discounted. 20% off) because I made the decision on day of.
Ptosis correction= $800 (prob the most worth it out of all of them because I can feel results right away lol) Also discounted with 20% off.

The total is $5,100 at the end. If you’re not looking for epicanthoplasty, it should definitely be affordable though!
Also, I don’t really know if I should trust discounts in the US because they could just state a higher price and discount it to average (from my healthcare work experience lol).

I’m sure at the end, going to SK is cheaper but I want to try somewhere local first because it was affordable.

For reference: Dr. Kim quoted me $4500 for double eyelid only and $500 for ptosis correction. I’d not sure if the $4500 includes epicanthoplasty tbh. I didn’t know what it was when I first started doing this :doh:
 
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6/6/2020
Hi y’all!

Here is my current update:

Fyi, been using my mobile for this so sorry if there are mistakes.
Last night, I was icing like nonstop. Read somewhere that cold compressions only work for the first 24 hours post-op so it was suggested that I ice myself as much as possible. There were so many articles about post-op care for DES so it was pretty easy to find articles to help me. I tried keeping my head raised (I read somewhere that this helps) but the ice pack kept falling down lol.

Cleaning
This was my biggest concern because I like my face clean. It was so hard trying to not touch my face haha. I only showered from the neck down. As for my face, I gently cleaned around my eyes in the shower. You can use a cloth as well to wipe around your face, avoiding the eye area.
I used a cotton swab to clean under my eyes after getting out the shower. I sprayed some toner to clean under my eye because my toner is really good at getting rid of particles. Don’t recommend using a cotton swab to clean wound area. My left eye started to have blood clot in the crease area and I really wanted to clean it, so I used a cotton swab with hydrogen peroxide to clean but small pieces of cotton will stick to my crease. I ended up using gauze to clean it instead and it worked way better.

LAST NIGHT AROUND 2 AM
970DA8C6-1650-4E52-B4CC-E9963EA8AE3B.jpeg 7ECFBD26-CC45-4907-B609-CD70521F719B.jpeg
As you can see, my left eye started bruising up really bad. Swelling is okay, still icing.

DAY 2
THIS MORNING AT 8:30 AM
F45EC515-C836-4BA9-8CDF-9C826A3E4A8B.jpeg 11E10C50-9D09-4F27-843A-95357D35A501.jpeg
I experienced some teary eyes but it’s not all bad. I woke up this morning and came to take a picture to see what the swelling is like. Left eye has a bruise still. No pain or anything. I feel my eye got better than yesterday but we will see at the end of the day!
 
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6/7/2020

Hi everyone!
I’m going to go straight to updating you on my eyes.
So I have been icing all of yesterday nonstop unless I’m sleeping. Here is their progress from yesterday:

6/6/2020 1:40 PM
45AAA750-CE36-43BC-9284-972FC413B2E8.jpeg
View attachment 4750954
Swelling peaked here and continued onwards yesterday. My left eye’s bruising is very visible.

6/6/2020 4:30 PM
F6DA5166-BFD5-4240-AC4B-0A427BDFF366.jpeg
I experienced pain in the corners of my eyes occasionally. It didn’t hurt super bad (around a 3/10) but it was a sharp pain on both corners. The pain wasn’t happening to the corners at the same time but in intervals interchangeably. Sometimes my left corner hurts and sometimes my right corner hurts. I thought I got an infection or something because my right eye was feeling really warm whenever I take off the ice pack. But I’m just tripping.

6/6/2020 6:10 PM
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E3D58EE9-AF8F-4B4C-A370-E35E88935EF0.jpeg
I decided to go outside for an adventure. Car lightning was so good so took a picture so you can see more color. My left eyelid was so red :sad::yucky: My right is doing ok!

6/6/2020 9:00 PM
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DCEE936C-5408-4E6C-9B2F-5CE49CCF92EF.jpeg
Around this time, swelling went down a bit because I was hella icing. The creases are forming!!! Yay! You definitely can see it on the left eye. My right eye formed this weird crease that isn’t following the created crease line but I think that’s because of the swelling. Will wait to see if it’ll form correctly later.

Day 2

6/7/2020 11:00 AM
003B85FB-9B77-4AEA-BE58-F1EE2F96B7BA.jpeg
8520DC53-DACB-4CA7-88EB-B074D13F66AE.jpeg
This morning, my eyes aren’t feeling heavy or do I feel like it was as swollen as yesterday. No pain. It starts to feel a bit more normal. My vision is better. Instead of seeing 50%, I can see about 75%, which is what I usually see when I got my monolids with ptosis. So in a way, it feels normal, but once that crease is formed, hoping to see all the vision!

~Will keep you posted!~
 
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