john1 Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 foxy thx again for the details. did they say specifically why asians are as well suited to ruib as caucasians? is it something about asian cartilage or our skin or noses or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jez Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Hi John, Thanks for compliment on the result and yes I would say second to death is the experience of that. To raise the bridge yes the broke the bone and thats why my nose took nearly a year to heal. The implant is gortex we discussed the merits and cons of gortex v silicon and I decided to let him decide in the end and he choose gortex for my implant. The bridge yes is the narrow finger like shape of your nose before it goes to the tip. I think maybe if you didnt get your nose broken to raise the bridge it might heal quicker just the top end of the bridge looks very high in most implants and this will calm down and settle after 6 months with gortex I am unsure how long with silicon. In taiwain, didnt need a certificate but the doctor can give you one if you are afraid you wont get recognised when flying out again. Don't need to prepare anything no but they ask you a bunch of questions about your medical history. Yes I did and higher bridges usually are recommended but best consult your doctor. For alar reduction the recovery is quick 14 days to a month tops since its just stiches they need to remove as long as there is no infection. If you give me your details or pm me I can confirm at some point. If I go it be 1st Sept to 10th Sept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandy816 Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 hey foxycleopetra! i am looking forward to getting revision rhino with nyc surgeons or going to korea... i have also consulted with eric choe, jeffrey ahn and edward kwak... are you set on dr. eric choe? i did think was he was a great person, but did you look at his before and after pics?? it seems as though he does the same type of tip work for all his patients.. im not sure if it would look good on me personally... i really want to go to him, since traveling to korea would be such hassel.. also with gortex vs. sillicone.. im not sure about this either. i had silicone implant for about 10 years. and it has not caused any problem. it is slightly mobile from side to side if i move it with my fingers. gortex seems to be lighter and safe. however, i think silicone creates thinner and more feminine look of the bridge. lets keep in touch please let me know what you decide to do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzsherry Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 hey guys, just curious if any of you bring photos of your desired nose to the consultation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 yes but i would advise that you manage expectations about how close you will look to the photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
young_princess Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 foxycleopatra: u are an angel!!! thank u sooo much for giving me a rundown of what u think regarding those doctors. So I'm definitely calling first thing tomorrow morning to book an appointment with dr. kwak. I thought silicone was better for bridge augmentation? Btw, when u had your consults, did u bring pictures of how u want your nose to look like? Or when u were consulting for your eyes, did u bring any pictures? I know everything is relative but I already have an idea of what type of crease I want for my eyes and how high I would prefer my bridge to be. Is it a good idea to bring pictures for reference? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
young_princess Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Hi sandy, if you don't mind me asking, why do u need a revision? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandy816 Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 i need a revision because my silicone starts really high on my face... it should start around your eyefold line.. mine starts right below eyebrow.. reallly really unnatural and i cannot stand it. also my nose is still round. actually, some ppl told me i would look better with a nose job after my nose job! i got it done by dr. jeffrey ahn over 9 years ago. i was naive teenager back then.. i didnt know any better. hes associated with columbia university and he has a impressive resume so i trusted him. i dont kow how his skill is now. but he did a HORRIBLE job for me. i get mad about how ****ty it came out. also, dr. edward kwak quoted me 8500 for the surgery without anestheia.. his secretary said she will bill the anestheia to my insurance company(fraud??).. for a doctor with less than five years of experience, i thought it was bit expansive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
young_princess Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Did you consult with Dr. Choe or are you considering him? What did you think of Dr. Kwak's work? I've yet to consult with any of them so I can't really give any opinion about them. Did you only have rhino with Dr. Ahn? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
young_princess Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 one more thing, what do you mean by the the bridge should start around the eyefold line? how do you know if it's just right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxycleopatra Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 sandy816, I tried to PM you but it seems that your account can't receive PM's at the moment (probably due to insufficient posts?). I'd definitely want to get in touch with you by email and exchange more info about Dr. Choe & Dr. Ahn......I'm really shocked to hear that you got your primary rhino from Dr. Ahn and are now needing a revision. This is truly scaring me as I'm considering going to him for a goretex implant. I'd greatly appreciate hearing more from you about your experiences with Dr. Ahn. To be honest I actually do want a high nose, a Eurasian nose, but one that still looks NATURAL and not operated.....i.e. not a Greek nose.....and I know that one of the major rules of Asian rhino is that (1) there has to be a curvature from the forehead to the start of the nose and (2) the nose should start NO higher than the eyelash line (anything higher, like at the level of the eyebrows, would scream artificial nose). When I consulted with Dr. Ahn, he basically said that 50% of his patients want a natural look and 50% don't mind an operated/artificial look.....and that it would be up to me (the patient) to decide which look I was going for. I was actually a bit taken aback by that. I guess it just shows that diff't surgeons have diff't philosophies. Dr. Choe is ALL about a natural, non-operated look......that's his #1 philosophy from my experiences dealing with him. In fact I'd almost bet money that if someone went in asking him to start the nose at the eyebrow line or higher (not natural), he'd turn the patient away saying he won't do it.......if someone walked in w/ Dawn Yang's before/after photos and requested a Dawn Yang-esque TOTAL MAKEOVER (literally morphing into a diff't person and a diff't race), I suspect that Dr. Choe would probably not accept that patient (unless you convince him with good reasons, maybe if you're an actress and need to go for a certain look, maybe). Anyway, that's just my 2 cents from my experiences and from talking to him & his staff. Based on what I saw during computer simulations with other doctors, I really want a 5 mm-high implant (that starts right at the eyelash line, the highest it can start at w/o looking unnatural) -- and when I told that Dr. Choe & Sharon (his long-time assistant, very knowledgeable lady) this, they told me not go by a certain mathematical # per se when it comes to p.s.......that the key is building a nose that best fits my face......b/c a ___mm-high nose by & of itself might look fantastic (standalone) but if you look at the whole picture, i.e. the entire face, that nose might not fit the face at all. This philosophy I do understand. Basically I think Dr. Choe won't promise a certain __mm implant and will go by what he thinks works best for my face (this might also be b/c he's gotten to know me/my future career transition objectives and doesn't want me to turn out with a plastic/freak face.....he really believes in "less is more"). My dilemma is with the silicone material -- I'm a really OCD person and if I can feel an implant moving in my nose years later (after the several-month-long post-op recovery/stabilization period), I'm going to go bizzerk. That also explains why I ruled out getting the double eyelid via DST and went straight for the full incision (if I sensed suture bonds breaking and the fold partially unraveling I'd go crazy). Did Dr. Choe give me a *perfect* double eyelid? I'd say no, b/c I'm a perfectionist and can always spot room for improvement....and I'd most likely say the same thing even if I went to any other surgeon . But did the double eyelid fold Dr. Choe gave me fit my face/eye anatomy/features and improve my appearance? Absolutely. I asked for a small tapered/inner fold (as my eyes were relatively big to begin with), and the fold he gave me is a very NATURAL one (for some reason I also recovered extremely quickly, 7-days post-op when I went in to get my stitches out one of his staff members was quite shocked and said I looked almost natural....that was at the 7-day mark & w/o any make-up).....now I'm at 11 weeks post-op and when I went to see Dr. Ahn last week, one of the ladies in his office asked me about prior surgery history and was surprised when I told her that my eyelids were operated on (she thought it was natural.....and then asked me where I got my eyelids done). So do I have any regrets about getting my eyelids done? Hell no (only "regret" might be not asking for a slightly higher fold....but that has nothing to do with Dr. Choe.....and at my most recent post-op check-up he said he didn't think a bigger fold would fit my face/eye anatomy). Anyway I just hope my fold doesn't become smaller later this year and onwards.....hopefully it's fully stabilized by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxycleopatra Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Yeah, Dr. Kwak's prices seem to be on the high side -- for my case of primary rhino using gortex Diana (his assistant, very friendly lady) quoted me $7,500 excluding costs for general anesthesia/operating room which they say insurance should cover (but who knows for sure). Dr. Kwak was extremely thorough with me though and even spent time inspecting the inside of my nasal structure (during consultation)....and said that he'd do work on turbicles/septoplasty in addition to the normal tip work that comes with Asian augmentation rhino. He uses general anesthesia (not local w/ sedation) only and all procedures are carried out at St. Vincent's hospital with board certified anesthesiologists (I'll admit that I'm personally afraid of general anesthesia but the thought of it taking place in a major hospital -- not just a plastic surgeon's private operating room -- is more reassuring......just in case something goes wrong). Dr. Ahn's quote prices were surprisingly low -- for silicone primary rhino his price is $3,500 ($1000 cheaper than Dr. Choe's!) and for goretex primary rhino the price is $4,500. All anesthesia & operation room costs included as everything is done in their private office/operating room. Honestly when I heard that his prices were $1k lower than Dr. Choe's, I thought that it sounded too good to be true. My gut feeling might be on to something though. When I looked at the price list (even the all-English version had Korean annotations explaining the little nuances of the diff't procedures, too bad I can't read Korean) and then asked his staff in detail, I was told $4,500 for goretex primary rhino. I made sure to double-check that it would include tip work, and the lady I spoke with affirmed that it does. BUT she emphasized that the $4,500 doesn't include anything else....what else.....well if after careful inspection of the nose on the day of surgery (or once the doctor opens up your nose on the operating table) and it's found that you'd benefit from partial osteotomy or alar work or more detailed septoplasty (things that often times can't be ascertained until you open up the nose for inspection), those procedures wouldn't be included in the $4,500 and wouldn't be done unless you paid for them in advance. So in a way it's almost like going to a restaurant and ordering things from a menu.....and that menu was partially in Korean and partially in English. I guess I don't know Dr. Ahn & his staff too well yet to be certain that they'll have my best interests at heart (his database of before/after photos did look pretty good though).....I'll have to make a few more phone calls and/or possibly pay them another visit this week to get more info. By contrast with Dr. Choe I already know that he'll do everything he can to carve out a nose that he thinks best fits my face (I recall him stressing that often a surgeon won't know exactly what's required or how high of an implant best fits a patient's face until you open up the patient's nose on the operating table.....once you're knocked out and on the operating table, the doctor is the one with the cutting knife and it's essential to trust that he'll do everything he can to give you the best nose possible). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cottoncandy77 Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 Hey is it true that silicone implants will show calcification in 20 years? OMG then thats really bad...why do people still have silicone as an option is this is the case. Now im really stuffed coz i dont know which to choose. I want an implant that will merge with my nose so well that 20 years down the track if someone punches me in the nose the implant wont move!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
young_princess Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 Did you guys show pictures to your doctors on consultations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thph Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 Hello all, I am thinking about making a trip to Korea for a nose job from US. Do you know top doctors in Seoul? Any advice for someone who does not speak Korean? I greatly appreciate any information and tips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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