valenrina Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 Ive been contemplating plastic surgery for a year and now, and Im super excited that I'm going to Banobaji for rhinoplasty in a week's time! Ive read horror stories about how some clinics, even established ones, switch surgeons in the middle of surgeries because everyone wants a piece of their most popular surgeons. I engage DocfinderKorea (DF) to have a peace of mind. I contact DF through email at [email protected] and within a couple of days, I receive a reply from Shin Park, the co-ordinator of DocfinderKorea. I am pleasantly surprised that DF does not charge the patients anything, and offers all kinds of help including medical advice, hospital and doctor information, appointment booking, hotel reservation, translation, pick-up & transfer and bargaining & solving problems with the clinic. The most important thing is, Shin will be accompanying me to my consultation, surgery and even post-operative care. Shin provides suggestions on the clinics but the final decision totally lies on me. We also communicate through Whatsapp so theres timely response. I must commend Shin for his patience and putting up with my constant bombardment of questions. I'm skeptical about DF at first so I contact the clinics directly for quotations to see if there's a difference. You can see from the comparison that DF is very honest and transparent about its pricing. Patients of DF also get 5 - 15% discount from the clinics usually. Banobaji: 6.8 - 7.8m (clinic) / 4.95-6/6m (DF) DAPRS: 3m (clinic) / 3m (DF) - tiplasty only JW: 5m (clinic) / 5-6m (DF) I choose Banobaji over DAPRS and JW because: 1. I prefer the B&A of Banobaji to JW. Dr Suh of JW is famous but his results may be "too natural". In some of the B&A, I can hardly see a difference and in others, I see the "barbie" nose which I'm not particularly fond of. 2. DAPRS's Dr Lee Sang Woon is famous for facial contouring but not a lot is known about the other surgeons doing rhinoplasty. Besides, I'm interested in rhinoplasty to raise my nose bridge too but DAPRS only suggested tiplasty. 3. Dr Lee Hyeon Taek from Banobaji has good reviews on rhino and one blogger attributes her minimal swelling to his superb skills. I'll keep you updated when I'm in Korea and more reviews on DF and Banobaji! I'll either post the B&A pictures of my rhinoplasty here or publish them on my blog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ombrown Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 Wow! can't wait for your next posting! I'm also engaging docfinderkorea for my breast augmentation, which I will be doing next year February. Haven't chosen any clinic yet, as I still need to do my own research. But the options I got from docfinderkorea sound very promising ^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hijeffrey95 Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Are you going there by yourself or with a group? Also did you hire a translator? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valenrina Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Hey Seoul sisters! I just have the first plastic surgery in my life! Am I anxious or unsettled? Surprisingly no. No doubt I’m excited, but I’ve done all the research that I could, engage the services of arguably THE best medical tourism agency in Korea to give me a “FREE PASS” to logistics, transport, and reliable insider information, so I tell myself, there’s nothing to worry about!DocfinderKorea (DF) is one of the most reputable medical tourism agency. Shin, my DF coordinator picks me up from my hotel to Banobagi. I cannot tell you how glad I am to see him because it’s drizzling and I have no idea where the clinic is. Hero Shin just saves me an hour of sleep! I must say that he’s more suave in real person than in pictures. He stands tall at about 1.8 meters, and he has an endearing mannerism about him that emanates dependability, professionalism and genuinely wants what’s good for you. It’s not just me OKAY, even my hubby says that he has rarely seen someone who takes his job so personally. Here’s a picture of Shin and me! Shin is with me through consultation, payment, surgery, recovery and he even helps me take my medicine and drives me back to the hotel. Banobagi is a white colour building with several floors – reception, consultation, surgery, etc. Despite being the busiest month of the year, I hardly have to wait at all! The whole process from registration and consultation to surgery and recovery is seamless, fuss-free, and effective. The flow is clinical, but there’re a lot of personal touches along the way by the consultants – Stella (I like her the most! BTW, she spends 12 years in Malaysia and she can totally relate to Singaporeans and Malaysians), Susan (aww … the new doe-eyed consultant who likes Australia and it’s only her fourth day at Banobagi) and Chloe (the second last boss whom you must defeat to get a good price). Chloe quotes me 4.95 million krw for rhinoplasty (including lengthening the columella) and 0.3 million kwr for fillers under my eye. Me, with my unpolished bargaining skills, manage to ask for a 10% discount for rhinoplasty. Just when I am pretty proud of myself, Shin nudges me gently and shows me a text message saying, “not good enough, ask for more discount”. Lol! In the end, Chloe relents and I got the filler FOC! The final price – 4.5 million kwr for rhinoplasty plus fillers! Thank you Shin for the cues! Dr Lee Hyeon Taek (a.k.a. the final boss whom I’m totally at his mercy) appears to be a little impersonal compared to the “(Char)Lee’s angels”, but he is actually a good listener who offers his professional advice and tries his best to understand what I want. The feeling I get from him is that he’s very down-to-earth, he’s neither interested in sponging money from me nor making lofty promises. Although I’m under anesthesia, I can still feel something during surgery. It’s not very painful but I can feel the pressure and occasional dull pangs of pain. Banobagi also has a complimentary vanity bag for me to bring home. It contains masques, ice bags, cotton buds, mouth-masque, anti-septic cream & more! Pretty cool huh? Swelling will intensify tomorrow and peak at Day 2. I've taken the gauze down already and I can still breath through my nose about for about 30-40%. Not as bad as I thought! Later, Shin will pick me up in the evening to go to the clinic again to change my dressing and for a de-swelling treatment! Stay tune for more photos and details of my recovery process. BTW, I can only wash my hair after 3 days… It’s winter, save water! Follow closely! Here's a photo at Day 0 post operation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valenrina Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 (PRE-SURGERY POST FROM ANOTHER THREAD) I wrote this pre-surgery and I thought It would be good to share with you here. These are my motivation and contemplation leading to my plastic surgery yesterday morning! I’ve been contemplating plastic surgery for a year and now. I’ve read horror stories about how some clinics, even established ones, switch surgeons in the middle of surgeries because everyone wants a piece of their most popular surgeons. I engage DocfinderKorea (DF) to have a peace of mind. I contact DF through email at [email protected] and within a couple of days, I receive a reply from Shin Park, the coordinator of DocfinderKorea. DF does not charge patients anything, and offers all kinds of help including medical advice, hospital and doctor information, appointment booking, hotel reservation, translation, pick-up & transfer and bargaining & solving problems with the clinic. Shin provides suggestions on the clinics but the final decision totally lies on me. We also communicate through Whatsapp so there’s timely response. I must commend Shin for his patience and putting up with my constant bombardment of questions. I'm skeptical about DF at first so I contact the clinics directly for quotations to see if there's a difference. You can see from the comparison that DF is very honest and transparent about its pricing. Patients of DF also get 5 - 15% discount from the clinics usually. Banobagi: 6.8 - 7.8m (clinic) / 4.95-6/6m (DF)DAPRS: 3m (clinic) / 3m (DF) - tiplasty onlyJW: 5m (clinic) / 5-6m (DF)I choose Banobagi over DAPRS and JW because: 1. I prefer the B&A of Banobagi to JW. Dr Suh of JW is famous but his results may be "too natural". In some of the B&A, I can hardly see a difference and in others, I see the "barbie" nose which I'm not particularly fond of. 2. DAPRS's Dr Lee Sang Woo is famous for facial contouring but not a lot is known about the other surgeons doing rhinoplasty. Besides, I'm interested in rhinoplasty to raise my nose bridge too but DAPRS only suggested tip plasty. 3. Dr Lee Hyeon Taek from Banobagi has good reviews on rhino and one blogger attributes her minimal swelling to his superb skills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valenrina Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Hi everyone, I've started a new thread to write in details my rhinoplasty, experience, and recovery, Can you please go to the new thread at# I've already requested the moderator to close this thread. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valenrina Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Hi, I've closed this thread and started a new one. Please go to # and see my Day 0 photo right after surgery! To answer your question, I'm currently at Korea with my family. Now they are outside visiting a palace, while I'm hanging around in the forum from the sanctuary of my hotel room. I've engaged DocfinderKorea, so Shin is my all-in-one coordinator, translator, nanny, chauffeur, etc. Banobagi's consultants speak conversational English but if you want someone to go the extra mile for you, I would recommend DocfinderKorea. I'm closing this thread and update the other thread instead. Feel free to ask me anything in the other thread K? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valenrina Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Hey hey! It's my second day post-op and I've started a new thread to talk about my experience and recovery. Do check out my Day 0 post op photo! # I'm closing this thread and all my updates will be in the other thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yebbeunie Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Thanks for being so informative!! I was wondering, was Chloe easy to bargain with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnoliams Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Where did you find the doctor's information? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valenrina Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 She's very corporate and business-like, quite a typical sales person who speaks very fluent English. She offers the initial 10% discount quite readily but very difficult to ask for more after that. It takes Shin and myself some effort to get the fillers FOC. I want to bring down the price to 4mil but didn't manage to do so. I suspect if I'm more insistent and sit there for another hour, I could. But I'm not a very good negotiator, indoctrinated by Singapore's fixed price culture. Advice is when she gives you the first discount, don't stop, keep pushing for more. How much more will depends on your "skill level". Be thick skin, be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valenrina Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 Two ways 1) Consult Prof. Google and delve into the Internet. Dr Lee's profile is on Banobagi's website, there're blog articles about him e.g.@alexischeong, @miyake, search for negative reviews on realself.com, plastic surgeries forum, literally cast your "intel net" 2) Insider information from DocfinderKorea. Shin knows a lot of friends and ex-colleagues in the industry and he also keeps a database on the the success rates and complaints of the clinics and doctors. As of now, Banobagi and Dr Lee still has a good success rate. Banobagi is expanding very quickly and the doctors are very busy. Will the standard continue to be good? Who knows ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valenrina Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 Hmm.. seems like the moderator combined my posts into this one. Lol, why not combined into the other one? Nvm, please ignore the link to the other post and stay on this thread instead. Tks everybody! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valenrina Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 I'm there with my family but I'm pretty much alone in the hotel while they go sight seeing lol. I engage DocfinderKorea who's everything in one - translator, coordinator, nanny, chauffeur! If you don't want, Banobagi has English speaking consultants. I prefer to have someone on my side though but the choice is yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valenrina Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 Trying to clean my own nose ... the cotton bud keep getting stuck in the stitches argh! Any tips out there? Anyway, today is just to remove the tape at the tip of my nose and dressing in my ear. Not changing dressing or de-swelling. My bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
)
Recommended Posts