starrynights127 Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Hi everyone, I started planning my seoul plastic surgery trip a few months ago, and found most of my clinic, procedure information on Purseforum. Now that I've gone to consultations and booked my clinic, I'd like to share my experience and give some tips overall. This is just my personal experience, and I'm not affiliated with the clinics in any way. So please take my experience as reference and do your own research =). Tips for pre-trip: 1.) find people going to seoul at the same time, join a Kaokao group. I was fortunate to be part of the December seoul kaokao group and the gals there were so much help in moral support, procedure information, choosing clinics, etc. You can also find ladies to share accommodation with this way. 2.) Do not be fooled by clinics that say they use ultra soft silicon for nose. I was really concerned and thought only selected clinics use "ultra soft silicon", but it turns out all clinics use the same silicon, softer on the top, harder on the bottom, like an S shape. 3.) Pack everything you need: I bought surgery recovery kit, protein powder, baby wipes, straws, nose spray, cough drops, masks, syringe, etc. 4.) contact as many clinics as you can before going, even if it's just to get quotes. the procedures I'm interested in were v-line and rhino. Here's the list of clinics I contacted and their email quote to me. TL: 4.5M for nose, 9.5 for jaw reduction + buccal fat removal, 13M for jaw reduction and t-osteonomy VIP: V-line 10M, lipolysis of cheek: 3M, rhino 6M, midface augmentation 2M DA: rhino 3.3 M, jaw reduction 6M, chin reduction 6M, chin implant 3 M Namu: 4-5M for v-line, 3.3M for nose, sliding genio 4M, chin implant 2.5M Girin: v-line 6-7M, rhino 4M, fat graft for chin 1.2M, full face fat graft 1.8M, sliding genio 4.5 M View: jaw 6M, chin 6M, chin implant 3M, rhino 3.3 M The line: power v 3M, chin implant 2.25M, rhino 3.75M. (their online promotion 3M for nose, 5.4M for v-line, 2.4M power v, fat graft 1.2M in one area. Also, if you sign up to be model for them, they will take 50% off) April 31: 6M for rhino, 8M for v-line including jaw reduction and sliding genioplasty I also received quote information from friends and purseforum ladies that did surgery in the above clinics, and they were cheaper than the above quotes. Also keep an eye out for online promotions and fb events of the clinics. There can be great deals sometimes. So a combination of the email quotes, online promotion and friends quotes was what I used to haggle during consultations. I'll add to the list if I recall anything more later. Now onto my consultation experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starrynights127 Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 I narrowed down my list to 5: First day by myself, Namu, View, Girin. Second day with friends: the Line and DA. 1.) Namu: The reason I chose Namu is because they gave me a really attractive quote via wechat and I liked their combination method of v-line (bone, fat, muscle removal) advertised, and how they use ultra soft silicon for nose. That, and they have lots of pictures on Naver. So Namu was my first stop. They only speak korean and chinese, and have no english translator btw. When I arrived there on appointment time, the receptionist looked really confused. She then confirmed I indeed booked an appointment and asked me to wait. Later on she told me that the chinese consultant is away and won't be back 'til tomorrow, and if it's ok for me to reschedule...since I was on a tight schedule I asked to do consultation with Korean consultant, and the receptionist to translate for me. This was probably not a good idea...don't do this ladies. they were nice enough to arrange the consultation with me. The waiting room had people walking in now and then, but I was the only one waiting. the doctor came in and saw me after an hour or so. He spoke korean at first and had the receptionist translate to chinese, but after seeing her struggling a little, he spoke english directly to me. This was a pleasant surprise. I actually really liked his recommendation: v-line with muscle and fat removal, rhinoplasty with hump shave, silicon implant of 3.5mm, tiplasty. No need for chin implant, but i should get acculift. I must've been nervous at first cause all the questions I prepared escaped my mind and I didn't ask too many questions. relative to the other consultations, this one was shorter but I did like the doctor. I also asked how many surgeries he does in a day. He said he does facial contouring in the morning, maybe 3-4 surgries. then in the afternoon he does nose, eyes etc. I showed me photo of angelababy =P and mentioned I like her face shape. He said it is achievable for me. Then it was time to talk about prices...the korean consultant gave me quote of 23.5M. I was able to talk it down to 18M...but still, this was twice the price they gave me via wechat. but they said the wechat price was a mistake and the chinese consultant that gave me what quote is longer here. Also, on wechat they said they will take CT scan during consultation, but didn't. Needless to say, although I liked the doctor and the receptionist/consultant was friendly, I was discouraged and moved on to my second appointment. 2.) View - kaokao view5391177 I went to view with the mentality I have to wait for a long time and they will give me a ridiculous price too...in the mean time i was in contact with kaokao group and friends gave me quote they received for surgery- around 2M for nose and 4M for mandible reduction. so this was the price I was going for. View was bigger and on separate floors. There's definitely a lot more patients coming in and out. the english translator, Catherine, greeted me along with the korean consultant. Both of them were super nice and friendly. I booked consultation with Dr Lee for facial contouring and nose, but due to the wait time, they asked if I was ok with seeing Dr Kim for nose and I was fine with that. I'd say the overall waiting time was short even though the clinic was busy. Dr Kim is an easy going guy. He suggested the same as namu doctor actually- 3.5mm implant, tiplasty, removal of hump, but also pushing in my nose nose a little (can't remember the term). Dr Kim says 80% of his patients use gortex, but I could go with silicon if I wanted, I insisted silicon. He said i have an easy nose to work with and he's confident it will turn out good. Later on I asked the consultant how long the nose surgery will take and she said 15-30 minutes max. then I saw Dr Lee. Dr Lee suggested v-line with t-osteonomy and titanium plate. When I asked if I can just do v-line with implant or injection, he said not if you want to be like angelababy lol. His nose suggestion was the same as Dr. Kim. Then it was time to talk about prices and I braced myself. To my surprise, the prices the consultant gave me was the same as via email. They also gave me a lot of discount when I haggled. In the end I was able to haggle around 30% less than what they quoted me initially. The price was so good for these procedures I was pretty ready to put down deposit...but I wanted to visit Girin first since it's in the same building. See above for kaokao id of english consultant. 3.) Girin - girinlife I arrived at this consultation a little late but receptionist was friendly and ok with this. My first impression was the girls here were pretty too, but more natural looking than View's. Contrary to whats said on the forum, Girin does have an english translator now and you don't have to pay for the service. Her name is Jefferson and she can be contacted via kaokao, which I put above. They took me to do x-ray and CT scan right away, and Jefferson stayed with the entire time to translate. First I saw the consultant, who explained examined my face and wrote down procedures I'm interested in, then it was time to meet Dr Lee. I have a very good impression of Dr Lee. He seemed really laid back yet knowledgeable. I asked a ton of questions at this point (built up experience from previous clinics) and he took his time to answer each one of them. What I liked was he looked at CT scan first, identified the nerves, and showed me how will cut the bone. I questioned him whether I need t-ostenomy. His response was that he used to perform that procedure as well, and over the years, he found long section v-line works just as well so need to cut chin into three pieces since it's more invasive. I also questioned on this choice of 2.5mm implant instead of 3.5mm...he showed me what the implant looked like, placed it on my nose and asked me to look into the mirror. Since I have a taller nose to begin with, he said anything more than 2.5mm will make it unnatural. He prefers a more natural/balanced face, but he can do 3mm if i insist. I decided to go with his choice of 2.5mm implant. Actually, Dr Lee can speak english as well. He looked to Jefferson to translate some of the more technical terms but he was able to understand all my questions and answered some in english. When I asked how many surgeries he does in a day, he said 3-4, he's only human XD. The procedures he suggested were: v-line with muscle and fat removal, rhino with 2.5mm implant, hump removal, push nose bone in, tiplasty, acculift and fat pad removal. Also, Dr Lee said he could only remove 10% of the muscle and more will cause issues years down the road. He will use botox at the beginning of the surgery, which will lessen swelling too. Planned procedure time is 3 hours. Then it was time for price consultation. To my surprise again, Girin gave me the quote they said on kaokoa as well. Again, they gave me discount for doing all procedures together, 12M for all procedures mentioned above. I was able to haggle down more after a few rounds of going back and forth with prices and propositions, and the final price was really attractive! I still had the Line and DA consultations to go to the next day, but since I really liked the doctor and staff at Girin, I put down deposit and decided to go with them instead. both View and Girin were attractive, staff were friendly, but I chose Girin at the end due their promise I can have v-line without t-osteonomy,Dr. Lee's experience and 3-4 patients per day limitation, and the final price being closer to my budget. Getting my blood works done and surgery the day after. So nervous now haha. I will keep this thread updated on my surgery and recovery progress. I hope my experience will be useful to others. Feel free to ask any questions and have a lovely day everyone~~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taraunnie Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 I had not really considered Girin until I saw some really good B/A's a forummer had collected on Naver of facial contouring/V line (which I'm interested in doing as well). Thanks for writing this its really helpful since I haven't heard any forummers write reviews of consults at Girin and View for FC/VL. Also your information about prices and quotes is really helpful-Thanks I hope you have a successful surgery and good luck~ Don't feel too much pressure to update on here..just recover for the time being Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dayum Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Thanks for sharing and good luck with the surgeries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avene Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Wow, really thx for the information! Actually, I am going to visit Girin, View as well!. Those information is really helpful !! Can I ask something? Does Girin staff has good at English? I mean speaking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ac40 Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Thanks for sharing your experience!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starrynights127 Posted December 16, 2014 Author Share Posted December 16, 2014 thanks for the wishes ladies =) i just went for blood test and xray today and the amount of blood they draw out...an entire tube...made me cringe lol. @ Avene, Girin's consultant and doctor speak korean, but they have an english translator that translates everything to you. I think her english is not bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yukina89 Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 I wish you the best of luck on your surgeries! May you look more gorgeous than angelababy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somerville Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Thank you so much for sharing! Girin is on my list as well. Good luck with the surgeries! =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bingu Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Thank you thank you! I am.aiming for very similar procedures so this was informative. Wishing you the absolute best and cant wait to hear how it goes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avene Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 That's sound good ! Please keep upload the review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rinda10 Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 I also did rhino in Girin as well, Dr.Lee is so skillful and humorous lol BTW how was the v-line surgery? actually I want to that surgery as well, but pretty scare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iljs92 Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Thanks for sharing!! Do you know if Dr Lee also specialize in double eyelids? It seems Girin is good for facial contour but does anyone else know of successful eye surgeries at Girin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milkychoco Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 are you going to undergo V-line and rhino at the same time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rinda10 Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 there are two surgeons, Dr.Lee and Dr.Song. Dr.Lee specialized in facial contouring and nose / Dr.Song is specialized in eyelids Also they have Kor website, but not yet ENG l guess :-/ here is the website http://www.girinlife.com/index_hompy.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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