laygee Posted August 10, 2017 Share Posted August 10, 2017 Hello FruitPassion Thank you for sharing your experience, I've been thinking about doing rhinosplasty and I will probably have the same procedures as yours. If you don't mind, could you tell us how much you paid ? Thanks ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigprimpin Posted August 14, 2017 Share Posted August 14, 2017 I thought I'd update on my own experience at this clinic. I'm very pleased with my results. My breathing issues are much better so far and the cosmetic problems were fixed nicely. The results are natural which I know some people view as a criticism of this clinic, but I appreciated the doctor's conservative and functional approach. If you want something super dramatic I would probably look elsewhere. I will try to remember to update in 6 months or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitpassion Posted August 14, 2017 Author Share Posted August 14, 2017 Hi all! So sorry I've neglected to update, been out and out to get my blood circulation going and then I got unwell for 2 days lol. After I had the bandage removal on last Thursday , it was the first time I saw my nose and it was very swollen especially around my temple area due to dissolving the fillers. Although my nose was fat, I did like the projection and my alar appeared smaller. My healing is abit slower than average so I got taped up again to speed up the swelling process! So back to being patient. I'm so glad to hear you are liking your results so far bigprimp. Are you tape/cast free? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitpassion Posted August 14, 2017 Author Share Posted August 14, 2017 Not a problem! It was 7.5 mill for my revision, I forgot to note that I had fillers which was quite present in my case. Any surgical including cosmetic fillers is considered a revision at April31. So if it's your primary surgery with no cosmetic surgery I believe cost would differ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigprimpin Posted August 14, 2017 Share Posted August 14, 2017 Sorry to hear about your swelling. I hope it resolves quickly. I've read that taping can help keep swelling at bay so I hope it works for you. I have all the tape and stitches gone now. I am not prone to swelling in general but I do think my nose is still a little bit swollen. Are you sleeping quite propped up? I think that helped me with the swelling. I also took arnica and vitamin C for healing. I read bromelain (like in pineapple juice) can help swelling but I did not try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caliroll Posted August 14, 2017 Share Posted August 14, 2017 Why would it be considered revision? Did you the kind of fillers that could not be dissolved with an injection? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitpassion Posted August 19, 2017 Author Share Posted August 19, 2017 Update: sorry for the mia all! Hey BigPrimp! Hope you're healing well! Lucky you don't swell! How are you finding your results so far? I have been sleeping on a 45 degree angle every night , took vit C religiously before and after surgery and started taking arnica+ bromelain late( i ordered the vitamins on iherb). My swelling is so much better now esp the bridge, just my tip is still bulbous due to my thick skin but all in all, happy with the result so far! I'll post pic below.@caliRoll- asforementioned, it is a case by case basis. Some fillers are categorized as harder than just silicon revision cases depending on product used, method and the amount needed to be removed. In my case, i had the fillers dissolved and scraped off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitpassion Posted August 19, 2017 Author Share Posted August 19, 2017 It's my last day in Korea and I'm now just a shy over 2 weeks post op. So far I'm quite happy with the results, it's exciting to see my nose changing slightly everyday! Although My tip is still quite swollen/bulbous due to thicker skin, the bridge is healing down nicely . My forehead/temple between my eyes is still a lil swollen due to the filler removal. I'm really happy I went with april31 for my first PS, Dr Kim really is an expert and I'm glad I went with his suggestion to not reduce my alar. The protruding of the tip definitely made my alar smaller. Service - Although sometimes Brian may not be prompt in replying, he always gets back to me responding to all my questions/concerns and making sure I'm ok. He looked after me well! Note: Dr Kim's emphasizes on Natural style. If you're looking for a dramatic result, he may not be for you. Ps -will work up on a full detailed blog once I settle back at home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigprimpin Posted September 13, 2017 Share Posted September 13, 2017 Wow, I also think you got a very nice result. It looks very symmetrical. Have you found the swelling to continuously improve? I'm about 5 weeks post-op now. I'm really happy with my aesthetic results and the functionality. I agree that Dr. Kim's results are very natural. My nose looks like the one I should have been born with, not something that looks fake or unsuitable for my face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksyuxxx Posted September 17, 2017 Share Posted September 17, 2017 Thank you for sharing. Do you satisfy with result of your rhinoplasty? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitpassion Posted September 18, 2017 Author Share Posted September 18, 2017 Thank you BigPrimpin! Glad to hear you're loving your results! How is your progress so far? Swelling in the bridge has reduced dramatically and although my tip is still abit more swollen I'm super stoked with my aesthetic results thus far, it looks natural yet defined and I agree it looks symmetrical. my breathing function has also improved by a tonne, I don't have sinus anymore and sleeping has been a breeze.my sense of smell is back to normal. Had oily skin in the 3rd week or so but all back to normal now and I've mastered sneezing through my mouth haha I'll be hitting the 7 week post op on this Thursday 21st Sept. still abit of stiffness on the top lip so my smilings abit weird like Botox lips lol But all in all I'm pleased with Dr Kim's work. I wished I've done this sooner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adra11 Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 Hello everyone, I was a silent lurker and this is my first post here. I can't make a new thread yet, so pardon me for hijacking this thread. I also just got DES & autologous rhino with dermofat done at April31. Today is my Day 9 post-op. Still in SK now. I read this forum a lot for PS research and felt thankful for those informations provided by the users here. Just thought that it’s time to give back a little by sharing my experiences. I’ve been thinking of getting primary rhino & DES since about a year ago. My initial intention was only to get DES, alar-width reduction and possible tip-plasty for smaller and slimmer nose. Nothing for the bridge since I’m not fond of inserting a piece of silicone inside my body. I also have a sensitive nose, with frequent nasal flares, rhinitis & sinus allergy. So, I bought a plane ticket at the beginning of 2017 when there’s a promo. Alas, I didn’t check the SK public holidays calendar before buying and my chosen date (beginning of Oct) coincided with the 10-days long Chuseok holiday in Korea AND the weeklong national holiday in China. Apparently I was told this was a rare long holiday in Korea and lots of Koreans wanted to do their surgery right before the start of the holiday so they can recover during the holiday. And most of them already booked the surgery months before. The Chinese also had those line of thoughts. This is a schedule nightmare. (TIP: Check public holidays dates for SK and China before booking your flight) My duration of stay in SK is about 17 days. My initial plan was after going for consultation at various clinics for a day or two, I’ll schedule the surgery for the day after, or two days after. Then I’ll have about 2 weeks to recover before boarding the long flight back (so I don’t scare my parents with my swollen face). Anyway I made appointments via internet (kakao, emails, etc) for face-to-face consultations with MVP, MINE, Dream, GNG, JW, JK & April31. I dropped MINE because they wanted me to pay 50 USD via paypal just to make an appointment (this is even before I came to SK). I can’t find much information about them to make that commitment. GNG was off my list too because they’re already closed for the holidays and will only open on Oct 10th, didn’t even reply to my appointment request on the email & kakao. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adra11 Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 The first one I went to was MVP in Apgujeong. The doctors were so busy I had to wait for a few hours to meet them. My consultant is Elizabeth, but dunno why, she sent me to talk to Ellen. I told her what I wanted to be done and she told me that I actually didn’t have wide alar. I just had to have my low bridge heighten and the droopy tip fix, then the ‘wide’ alar won’t look so wide anymore. I guessed that make sense, but I don’t want to use silicone. She said that since the low bridge part is short (only the part between my eyes below the glasses), the doctor can use either my ear or septal cartilage. As for the eyes, she said it’s gonna be a simple surgery, and proceed to tell me what will be done to produce the eyes that I want (basic DES, upper epi & epi). Quoted price for both was 7.15mil KRW. She said this was a discounted price because they currently had a holiday promo. I think I bargained it down to 6.5mil. Btw, I’m never good at bargaining. I asked her if I could schedule a surgery (if I decided on them) before they closed for the holiday. At first, she said I can’t because their schedule is so full and the doctors were so busy. Then she checked again and said she can probably fit me for tomorrow afternoon after using her authority as head consultant to speak to the doctors and moving things around, but I had to make the decision fast. That spot probably won’t be there by the end of the day. After waiting, I got to meet dr. Seo & dr. Choi. What the doctors said pretty much matched with what Ellen said. Dr. Seo said I don’t have ptosis. I said I wanted parallel eyelids and symmetrical eyes. He said then I’d need epi and upper epi for both eyes if I wanted parallel. As for the symmetry issue, he’ll try, but I probably won’t get parallel for both. I said okay. Dr. Choi said he could do what I wanted and he would use the septal cartilage (which he’ll get from the cut to fix the droopy tip) for the bridge, and probably for the tip too. Sorry, don’t remember anymore as I lost my notes. After MVP, I went to Dream, JW & JK. All of the consults pretty much went the same way and the doctors said pretty much the same thing, except some said I had ptosis, some said I didn’t. The quoted price was pretty much the same (from 6 to 8 mil). Sorry, I accidentally trashed my notes (they’re written on scrap papers), so can’t provide any more details than that. The reason I remembered MVP more because I chatted with Ellen for a long time while waiting for the doctors. JW & JK said they can’t schedule my surgery before the holiday started. Oh, and all of them, including MVP, recommended paranasal implant to improve my features. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adra11 Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 April31 was my last appointment. Good thing coz it’s located a bit out of the way than other clinics in Apgujeong. At first, Henry was my consultant, then somehow Brian took over. I repeated what I told other consultants and they told me basically the same thing what other consultants said to me before. They also told me the advantages & disadvantages of silicones and cartilages (rib, ear & septal). He said aside from diced cartilage for the bridge, dr. Kim also had experience of using dermofat. Then I recalled of having read that dr. Kim was one of the few doctors who researched pretty extensively on that subject. I’ve read a few articles about dermis graft before, but none of the doctors ever mentioned it as an option, so I’m not too sure about it. There certainly are advantages and disadvantages to dermis graft. What I’m concerned the most about it is the absorption rate. For diced cartilage on the bridge, my concern is shape and smoothness (bumpy?) of the bridge. Rib cartilage is certainly out of question for me, as I don’t want to look too fake. For dermofat, Brian said dr. Kim usually grafted extra, to account for the expected tissue resorption. The healing time for dermis graft is also longer. It’s gonna look swollen longer. Then, he showed me some pictures of previous patient successful graft. In my mind, I asked how the heck can they calculate the exact amount that the body will absorb. But I didn’t actually ask since I’m sure nobody know for sure. I’m too lazy to write all my thoughts about various grafts & implants. I’m sure you’ve done your own research anyway. Here are some links that may help.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24036774https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamafacialplasticsurgery/fullarticle/406525https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15058545 Then, I was told to pay 50000 krw for the CT scan and it will be refunded if I decided to do the surgery there. As I’d already known about this before from reading this forum, I just went along with it. The scan was quite cool. This is the first time I saw pictures of my own skull. After the scan, I waited a bit and went to meet dr. Kim. He examined my scan results and told me for my bridge, diced cartilage wouldn’t give me a good result, so my option was silicone or dermis. Cartilage is good for small part like tip, but for long parts like bridge, using cartilage won’t be pretty. The dermis graft will come from my coccyx (tailbone). He told me alar width reduction was unnecessary as the nostril would look smaller already after he fixed my droopy tip, although he could still do it if I wanted to. Next is the eyelid consult with dr. Oh. Brian told him what I wanted. The doctor then used the tool to poke the eyelids. He said it’s possible to have parallel eyelid for my right eye without epi. He showed it to me with the tool while I was holding the mirror. I told him my priority is symmetry. He told me it’s impossible for my eyes to looks symmetrical. I said it’s okay, to just try to make it as symmetrical as possible. He also told me with the DES, my ptosis would be gone and I don’t have to use as much forehead muscle to open my eyes anymore. He also told me I had sunken eyes. He had to do full incisional for my eyes and it’s gonna be permanent. The quoted price Brian gave me was 3.5mil krw for the incisional eye contouring, 6mil krw for primary rhino with additional 2mil if I decided for dermofat. All that didn’t include the medication cost. I almost had a heart attack looking at the price. I asked how soon can the surgery be done and he said the day after, which is Oct 3rd. On Oct 4th, which is the holiday, they’re open too, but only for morning treatment. So I can still come for wound cleaning, nose packing removal etc., the next day. They are actually fully booked on Oct 3rd, but since they prioritize foreign patients with tight schedule, he can call one of their local patient for rescheduling, promising them free botox or something in exchange, to curb their anger. At that point, I was torn between MVP and April31. Although I felt like dr. Kim & dr. Oh were more skilful, but the price is staggering. Brian told me they are more expensive than others because they invest highly on their utilities, machines and drugs. Other clinics may save money by using cheap anaesthetic drugs that are more dangerous. April31 also limit the doctors to only do 3 to 4 surgeries per day. The reviews of aftercare about these two clinics are also pretty spotty. After thinking for about 5 minutes, I made my decision. I was quite surprised with myself about the length of time it took me to make that decision. Anyway, I steeled myself to fork out the deposit, told myself to be positive and hope for the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adra11 Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 Day 0 – Surgery Day Appointment was about 9am in the morning. After signing things, went to the locker room to change. Then was told to wash my face and gargled with the mouthwash. It seemed to be almost 11am by the time I went inside the operation room. While waiting for the doctors, the nurse attempted to insert the IV line to my arm. I was gonna undergo an IV sedation. Then dr. Oh came to do something to my eyelids (probably draw). Then I was told to flip and dr. Kim came to draw on my tailbone. After that, I was out. When I was awake again, I was extremely thirsty and asked for water. Then the nurse let me sit there for a while, not sure for how long, as I was sleepy and went back to sleep again. Next time I was awake, I felt better, was escorted to the locker room to change and escorted downstairs to go home. I saw that it’s almost 4pm by that time. Brian arranged a car for me as he felt it’s not safe for me to go alone. I’m extremely thankful for that. At the room, I tried to rest, but felt extremely thirsty, but there’s no kettle to boil water in the room. This airbnb room was so simple and lack a lot amenities, although it’s clean. I just can’t bring myself to drink water straight from the tap. So, with blurred vision coz I can’t wear glasses and still feeling a bit weak, I walked out to the nearest convenient store to buy big bottled water and some breads to take with the medications. Trying to rest, but it’s a futile attempt. There’s only one thin pillow provided, so I can only sit straight. It’s hard to sleep with vertical body and snots and blood coming out from my nostrils. I also felt thirsty continuously and by the next morning, already drank 4litre of water. By the time I finished the first 2litre bottle, I felt better and started to pack my things coz I’m moving to a new place tomorrow. I asked Brian to send a taxi to pick me up tomorrow for the appointment and planned to just checked-in directly to the new place right after the clinic appointment. Day 1 – Post-op Got picked up by Brian himself. Went to the clinic to get all the wounds cleaned up and the nose packing removed. I felt sooo much better after that and could breathe through my nose already. Aside from the eyes and nose stitches, I also had stitches at the back of my right ear and on the tailbone. Definitely not comfortable when leaning back. Can sleep better at this new place with plenty of pillows to lean on. Day 2 to Day 6 – Post-op Just tried to eat the meds with meals on time and walking around. Kept forgetting and was lazy to use the ice pack. I often unconsciously slided down to almost horizontal during sleep. I hope it didn’t affect the healing phase. Day 7 – Post-op Got all the stiches removed, except from the tailbone area. The nurse was gentle when removing the stitches. It didn’t hurt much like I thought it would, even the nose. Received some post-op instructions for the wound care. This is the last day I need to take the pills. Was told to come again on Day 10 to meet with the doctor. Today is Day 9. I looked almost normal now. The nose still feels numb and the bridge looks crooked, though I like the nose height and shape of the tip. I hope the height won’t go any lower than this. Gonna ask about the height & crooked bridge when I met dr. Kim tomorrow. I like my eyes so much better now. They look so pretty and symmetrical now, even with the residual swelling. Now, my only concern for the eyes is scarring. Will try to update with the progress and photo as soon as I can.A Bit of Review about April31 I think dr. Kim & dr. Oh were very skilful doctors. Their stitches were tidy. The operation room looked sterile and clean, just like what an operation room should be. The operation rooms were located at different floor. The consultant, Brian, was a talented salesman. I don’t think this is a bad thing. I think all PS consultants in SK are actually salesmen anyway. They have to be good salesmen to compete with other clinics. His English and explanation was good, and he understood what I’m trying to say. So direct communication was not a problem. For the aftercare, I felt that I received enough aftercare services starting right after the surgery up until now. Nothing luxurious like laser treatment, derm treatments, etc. Just small, necessary things (like car transport & some small requests) that made me comfortable enough during the post-op check-ups. This was probably because I got no high expectation whatsoever, so was easily satisfied. Most time Brian didn’t reply to kakao messages right away, especially outside of working hours. Sometimes it took him a few days to reply. I didn’t really mind since my questions were not urgent. However, some patients with more urgent matters and less patience probably won’t appreciate his habit. My advice is, try to ask all your questions face-to-face, and in case of urgent matters, stay somewhere near the clinic so you can go visit if anything happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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