My experience with DAPRS (or DA) and other clinics in Korea

[gentle-wind]

My experience with DAPRS (or DA) and other clinics in Korea. I am sharing because I want to help others on their clinic search. I received helps from others, so it is my turn to share. I went to Korea during the low season, meaning there are not too much patients seeking surgery. Going during the low season is good because you have more time with your doctor. **This is my experience, please do not decide on your clinic just based on me. Please do a lot of research and make sure you like your doctor and post operation care.**

My goals:
1. To have a narrower face from the front view
2. Get rid of my mild double chin and improve my jaw line
3. Improve my profile
4. Reduce fat deposit under my eye and the tired lines
*I was hoping to do nose revision, but I didn’t do it yet. I might in the future.

Surgery I had during this trip: V-line, zygoma reduction, fat graft on forehead, fat repositioning under the eyes, and acculift for neck and jaw.

Clinics I went to on this trip: DAPRS, Girin, Braun, Dream, View, Unique, and Teuim (will not review, but I did not like the “famous” eye doctor there. I do not know if he is famous, but he is known on purseforum). *Remember to read my experience for DAPRS because that is the clinic I chose.*

Girin: I came to this clinic just because I knew they have reasonable prices, but I do not know much about their two plastic surgeon’s skills. They are both plastic surgery specialists, however, I do not know which part of the body/face they specialize in. I also do not know about their average post operation results. I definitely did not like their waiting time. I made an appointment with them at 9:30 am and I came 15 minutes early, but they made me wait for 1 hour before they handed me the client information form to fill out. Then they made me wait for another 30 minutes before I saw the consultant, which lasted for about 10 minutes. Then I had to wait another hour to see the doctors. While I was waiting, many patients that came after me were served which made me angry. Also, I briefly talked to a western lady around 25 to 30 years old and she was sad about her face contour’s results. Although it seemed like she was only 1 week post operation. She said that Korean face contour does not fit with her because she is a westerner.

*Note: I do not remember much about my experience with their doctors.

Pros:
1. The two surgeons are plastic surgery specialist
2. They have reasonable prices from the beginning. This is the quote they gave me without bargaining:
V-line: 7 million = 7,000,000 won
Zygoma: 4.5 m = 4,500,000 won
Acculift: 2m
Fat removal (buccal): 1m
Chin implant: 1.5 m
Fat graft on forehead: 1m
Nose revision: 4 m
Fat repositioning: 2 m

Cons:
1. Waiting time was horrible, so I am not sure how they would treat me after surgery. Post operation care might be okay, since the English translator was nice to the western girl.
2. I do not know their results on patients I am connected to
3. I heard from a friend that she knew someone who did her nose at Girin and resulted with an uglier nose than before surgery. It was about 3 months post op and the tip looked more bulbous than before. My friends and I concluded that by the 3rd month, you definitely had enough time to decrease swelling, so the nose tip should not be bigger than before. Also, you may already tell that your tip improved just after surgery too.

Braun: I came here because I heard they were good at nose surgery and they might be good at other procedures too. I know one girl who did her nose there and it turned out high and straight. They use a 3D scan to figure out what nose height would fit you the best. That girl wanted around 2-3mm but they gave her 3.5 mm. When I came there, they told me to only choose the part of the face that I really wanted to consult about and I did not choose nose. After I talked to the face contour doctor, I felt pretty good about him but their prices were out of my goal price. However, after I consulted with other doctors from different clinics, I realized that the Braun’s face contouring doctor did not consider about the result of the face, but just cut as much as possible from the jaw which may look weird. They may have wanted to cut as much as possible because I told him that, but patients’ opinion is not always the best, so doctors have to correct them.

*Note: From all the doctors I met, I do not remember everyone’s status, if they are plastic surgery (PS) specialist or not. So there might be PS specialists at Braun, but I do not remember.

Pros:
1. They seem to be good at nose
2. Their waiting time is good
3. The doctor I met was friendly

Cons:
1. Their noses tend to be high (if you like high nose then this is a pro, but not everyone can have high nose. For example, I cannot get a high nose because my skin is tight)
2. You need to bring your own English translator every time you go there (I brought my friend).
3. I am not sure about their face contour (fc) doctor’s skills
4. The fc doctor wanted to cut out (close to maximum) my jaw and they charged extra because my jaw and nerve allowed them to cut 1 mm more than the average patient
5. I wanted to lower the price by taking out the muscle reduction, but they say it is needed so I either do the jaw and muscle reduction or not do it at all
6. If they have a promotion, they will stick with that promotion and not lower the price anymore
7. According to doctor’s decision on how much to cut the jaw, the result of the fc surgery may not turn out nice
8. Prices before any bargaining or reduction:
V-line: 8.2 m
Zygoma reduction: 4.7 m
Muscle reduction revision (radio frequency): 3 m
Extra 1 mm shaving of angle: 1.5 m
Forehead fat graft: 3 m
Acculift: 1.5 m
*******Sorry: The price for each ones here may be wrong since they wrote in Korean and I do not remember what it translate to. The forehead and acculift might be the opposite.

Dream: I went to Dream (the main branch) in 2014 and didn’t do surgery with them. I decided to go back there again in 2015 and still didn’t decide to have surgery with them. What is the problem? I am not sure about their doctor’s skills and results on patients. My experience with the translator (westerner) this time was not good. She was rushing me everywhere and was trying to make me hurry and to stop talking to the doctors. The consultant also only recommend what surgery is really needed. The nose doctor was good, but does not give you the friendly feeling. He was worried about fixing my nose side bone because it may cause breathing problem. Other doctors did not worry about this. However, this doctor did not worry about my chances of getting an upturned nose if I raise my bridge and tip more. Nose doctor at Wannabe was worried and didn’t recommend me to heighten my nose. The face contour doctor, I did not had much impression from him, but he was okay to talk to.

Pros:
1. The nose doctor can do good close rhinoplasty if you really prefer that method. However, the result may be limited if you want dramatic results
2. Not sure, but they may use the minimal amount of anesthesia.
3. He was worried about me having breathing problem if I break my nose’s side bone and making it smaller.

Cons:
1. I was connected (friend’s of friend) with two girls who had their surgery at Dream and their nose were not that great
2. You may wake up during surgery because they use sedation for nose and the painful part may just be the insertion of implant.
3. These are the prices before bargaining:
Nose revision: 5.5 m
Angle: 7.5 m
Zygoma reduction: 7.5 m
Muscle reduction: Free because I am doing my facial bone surgery
Forehead fat graft: 2 m
Chin implant: 3.5 m
Acculift: 1.5 m
TCR (I think they mean fixing the fat bag under the eyes): 2.2 m

View: I did not really have an exact reason to come here. My friend wanted to come here, so I thought I would check them out. The waiting time was not bad. I met the face contouring doctor and the nose doctor. Sorry to say this, but I do not have much memory with the face contouring doctor. For the nose doctor, we talked so much and he answered many questions and was not annoyed. I asked detail questions about the procedures he will use. Though, I feel like he was lying a little bit. His experience is also okay, I think 5 years total and he worked around 2 years at View.

Pros:
1. The doctor was nice and answered all my questions

Cons:
1. The nose doctor is willing to fix what I tell him to fix, but he did not say that it would be better not to take out the tissue from between the tip and alar (To make the nose less bulbous). I think again and my nose is small for my face already, so doing alar, removing the tissue, and reducing the side bone are procedures that I should not do. However, I could do alar if I do not increase my nose height anymore.
2. The price was more on the expensive side before bargain:
Zygoma reduction and V-line: 15 m
Fat graft on forehead: 4 m
Nose revision (different from other clinics I mentioned. This includes bridge, tip, breaking side bone of nose and making it smaller, add a cartilage on each side of nose to hold the breathing pathway open. Maybe alar was included, don’t remember. They said the price would be 10 m even with just with bridge, tip, and maybe alar): 12 m

 

[gentle-wind]

Unique: I came because a “friend” told me they knew a girl who came here and their results were good. However, I did not see the results myself and I do not know that girl personally. I only had time to meet with one doctor who does nose. His English was not good, so he sounds unintelligent because of that. They had no English translator, so the doctor had to talk to me. I told him I heard of a technique that reduce the bulbous nose by talking out the tissue and he said from his experiences and researches, he has never heard of that or never heard of that being a good technique. Nose doctor from View said he could take out the tissue to reduce the part in between the tip and alar. I did not get the price because I did not finish consulting with this clinic.

Pros:
1. He had his own opinion about removing the tissue, so that helped me on my research of how to fix my nose
2. The consultant was not foxy or pushy, she was the calmest consultant I ever met, but maybe it was the language barrier and she was uncomfortable communicating with me.

Cons:
1. There was no in-house translator
2. I only saw two ps specialist at Unique (I think they have 3 surgeons) and surgeon I talked to, I think he was not a ps specialist.

 

[gentle-wind]

DAPRS: The waiting time was not bad and I had around 30 minutes to talk with Dr. Lee and a little less time to talk with the nose doctor. I decided to do my surgery after one visit, but you can visit again before you decide. I did not spend that much time with the consultant, which I like. Getting to the final price was quick too because I told them my price and the consultant went to talk to the doctor and then they came back and said that they agree. I felt like I got a local price, so it was not a deal, but only a reasonable price. DAPRS seem like that make everything expensive and then they give you discount to make you feel like you are getting a good deal. There are clinics that are expensive because you pay for the skills of the doctor, but some clinics they just like to give you high prices because they are getting popular or because you are a foreigner. For DAPRS high original prices, maybe a part of the reason is because of the doctor’s skills. Dr. Lee did all my surgeries for this trip and so far, I think his skills are good because my results are good. I still like DAPRS even though they use the high price and discount strategy. I like them because of Dr. Lee. He is good at face contouring and many people come to him for fc surgery. Even though I went during the low season, he is still busy and whenever I visit the clinic for check-ups, I see people healing from face contouring.

This was the clinic I went to do all my surgery for this trip. I chose this clinic because I knew 2 and maybe more girls going there for face contouring. One girl asked for as much v-line as possible, so it looks a little unnatural, but that was what she wanted. When Dr. Lee perform face contouring, he look at the overall face and does not use a ruler. He uses his eyes to determine how much he should cut to get a nice shape. Dr. Lee is like an artist. When I met Dr. Lee, I was lucky to have the nose doctor translate for me because Katie, the in-house translator was on a short vacation. Dr. Lee can understand English, but he does not or choose not to speak it. He took the time to answer my questions, but because he is busy, he tries to stop you from asking so much technical questions. He recommends procedures that you need, which may offend you, but he only recommends a surgery if you ask for his input. He does not push you to doing anything. I knew what I wanted, so he did not have to recommend much. He said that acculift on the jaw was not really needed and my cheekbone was not bad, so they do not need surgery. I was thinking of having chin implants, but he thinks that if I do jaw reduction, I should fix the chin by cutting the bone too. My angle was reduced and shaved from ½ inch from my ear to almost to my chin. The chin was cut horizontally and a piece of the angle bone was place in between the cut at the chin to lengthen my chin and forward it. For both the chin and zygoma surgery, he used titanium plates to fixed the bones to prevent sagging after surgery. Proper fixation is needed so sagging does not form because of face contouring surgery. He did not recommend sliding genioplasty for lengthening and forwarding the chin because the cut would be very wide. It is hard to imagine, you have to look a 3D skull to understand. Still, sliding genioplasty for shortening and forwarding the chin is a good method.

Pros:
1. Dr. Lee is great at face contouring. He worked at View before, but made his own clinic after working there and he is known for face contouring. You also have time to consult with him, but that time is limited because he is busy. I talked to him for 30 minutes or more for my consultation. He takes the time to answer your questions, but also try to stop you from asking too much technical questions because he cannot answer them all.
2. I know other girls who also had face contouring at DA
3. Post op was good overall, rating is 8.5/10
4. Price is affordable and reasonable if you know how to bargain

Cons:
1. Their original prices are expensive (sorry I do not have a record of the original prices)
2. Katie (the English translator) is not so talkative, so she may not tell you everything that is going on during your visit at DA. Still, she does her job, is helpful and friendly.

My experience/check-up after surgery:

Post op- After I woke up from the surgery, I felt like throwing up and I did for a few hours. I threw up mostly saliva and blood. I was supposed to go to my own room to rest, but I felt really sick and did not want to move to another room. I woke up around 6 pm and moved to my room around 11 pm. I was thankful to the nurses for letting me stay in the generally room until I felt well enough to move. The anesthesia makes you feel really sick and some clinic will ask you to walk to another room with that feeling. After I was in my own room, I just rested and called for nurses when I needed them. There is a control you can use to call for nurses to your room. The nurses got me water, ice packs, and pain medication when I started to feel pain. I tried not to use pain medication if I did not need it, so I waited until my pain reached to level 5 out of 10 and then I told a nurse that I am in pain. It hurts in Korean is “Ah pa yo,” but if the nurse is younger than you then you can say “Ah pa.” The only thing I did not like was that around 5 to 6 am, the nurses are tired so they may not come to your room when you use the control. I had to use the control 3 times within an hour before a nurse came. That same nurse was also not so careful during the early morning, so she poked me with a needle accidently when she was trying to inject something into a tube on my wrist. Not all nurses at a clinic are good and I just met one bad nurse at DAPRS, the rest of the nurses were decent and good. Anyhow, I felt better after the anesthesia was gone which took more than 6 hours after I woke up from surgery. Also, I did not even noticed the 2 tubes in my mouth to drain bloods out until a nurse came to empty a sack of blood that was attached to my shirt. The tubes were taken out by Dr. Lee at around 7 am and it was not that painful, around 2.5/10. After resting in your own room, the clinic will release you at 10 am or a little after that time. They will give you a bag with this salty water to gargle, medication for a week, masks, a card that tells you when your next appointment is, and other items. Remember to keep the appointment card because you will need it for all your appointments with the clinic.

2 days post op- Katie will always be at the clinic with you to help you understand what is happening. Although, she may leave or is not there when not much translation is needed. I went there for light treatment to help with swelling. It is basically a light that shine on your face for 20 minutes. I think it sort of help to decrease swelling, but not really effective. Maybe it takes multiple session before the light helps. The nurse checked my stitches inside my mouth to see if I cleaned them well with this salty water they gave me. Also the nurse cleaned my ears because there were bloods inside and cleaned my eyes too. Then a lady washed my hair which was pretty quick, it took less than 5 minutes. I wished that lady would wash it longer or at least let me scratch my scalp more because it was getting itchy after many days of no shower.

5 days post op- I came in to remove tapes on my thigh and chin. I had tapes on my thigh because of forehead fat graft. A nurse also removed my stitches on my thigh and it did not hurt much. Removing tapes hurt more, so maybe you could remove tapes yourself before seeing the nurse. Ask if you do that first. I was wearing jeans and after they took off the tapes, tiny pieces of the jean’s fabric got stuck onto the leftover stickiness of the tapes. Maybe you can find something to get rid of the stickiness. Also, the nurse removed the stitches from an incision for the zygoma reduction which is nearby the hair. I also asked for the light treatment to reduce swelling and Katie told me to come back in an hour for it.

2 weeks post op- I came in and waited a little bit for Katie and then she brought me to a nurse to remove my stitches from inside my mouth. I felt odd during that time because Katie did not say much and just brought me to the nurse. Katie only started talking after the stitches of the jaw and zygoma surgeries were removed. Removal of the chin’s stitches were really painful (9/10), so Katie warned me about the pain before it happened. The removal of the zygoma’s stitches were the 2nd most painful (4/10) and the jaw’s stitches were not that painful (2/10). I teared naturally because of the removal of the chin’s stitches, but luckily it only took about 3 minutes to remove. I also got light treatment during this visit.

My last appointment with DA was just before I left Korea. They took CT scans and pictures of me before I saw Dr. Lee. I asked Dr. Lee questions about my concerns and he showed me my before and after. I talked to him for around 10 minutes or less and then I got a light treatment again to reduce swelling.

 

[gentle-wind]

My experience with side effects after surgery at DA: I am happy that I did not experience major side effects from my surgeries. My jaw and neck are numb, but hopefully the numbness will all be gone after 1 year. After 1 month post op, about 30% of my numbness went away. The first week after surgery I felt odd sensations, such as my teeth being pulled out, my jaw being pulled in different directions, and sharp pains. These sensations were not that painful and most went away after 1 week. For swelling, it was worse on the 3rd or 4th day after surgery in which my skin was very tight because of how much it stretched and it was hard to open my eyes. My lower eyelid was red because of fat repositioning. In addition, bruising will show up within the first week after surgery. Also, I have not noticed any sagging after surgery and I am more than 1 month post op.

 

[gentle-wind]

The first three pictures is before surgery and the last two pictures is 2 day post op.

 

[gentle-wind]

3 days post op is the first two pair of picture

1 week post op is the second pair of picture

2 weeks post op is the third pair of picture

 

[gentle-wind]

3 weeks post op is the first pair of picture

4 weeks post op is the second pair of picture

* I will make a side to side comparison of before and after when I feel like most of the swelling is gone.

 

[bigjaw]

Love the VLine shape. How much do they charge for VLIne only?my face is squeare. They call me squeare face. I really need this surgery

 

[dream17]

Thanks for the long and detailed review!
Any idea if Unique is good for double eyelid surgery?
Have a speedy recovery and hope to see updates!

 

[emsomeo]

Thank for your reveiw.

 

[emsomeo]

Your chin and your cheekbone look so nice , but i really expect that your Vline look smaller . But anyway if you looking for this result , i think you are pretty now and very nature .

 

[hanohano]

If I read the post right, she just got it done a month ago so she probably still has a lot of swelling. In 6 months the v-line will probably look a lot smaller and more dramatic.

Anyways, OP, your results look really good so far. Congrats ^^

 

[labyrinth]

Hi Gentle Wind. Thank you so much for your detailed review, and I wish you a speedy recovery! Can I ask you which doctor you spoke to at unique? bc i was actually considering getting my nose done over there. (i saw some of their b&a pics and really liked their natural results) Also, were there mostly local or foreign patients?

Thank you

Gentle wind said: ↑

Unique: I came because a “friend” told me they knew a girl who came here and their results were good. However, I did not see the results myself and I do not know that girl personally. I only had time to meet with one doctor who does nose. His English was not good, so he sounds unintelligent because of that. They had no English translator, so the doctor had to talk to me. I told him I heard of a technique that reduce the bulbous nose by talking out the tissue and he said from his experiences and researches, he has never heard of that or never heard of that being a good technique. Nose doctor from View said he could take out the tissue to reduce the part in between the tip and alar. I did not get the price because I did not finish consulting with this clinic.

Pros:
1. He had his own opinion about removing the tissue, so that helped me on my research of how to fix my nose
2. The consultant was not foxy or pushy, she was the calmest consultant I ever met, but maybe it was the language barrier and she was uncomfortable communicating with me.

Cons:
1. There was no in-house translator
2. I only saw two ps specialist at Unique (I think they have 3 surgeons) and surgeon I talked to, I think he was not a ps specialist.

Click to expand...

 

[blasian]

Thank you for your review.

 

[rinda10]

thx for the review!