ljlydia Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 Hi again guys, I realize I should have combined my two clinic experiences but since it’s too late now I just want to share my experiences with Opera. While I’m not entirely unhappy with how my revisional DES with them turned out, I’m still a little satisfied with my results. I guess this is more of a warning for those like me who were drawn to Opera for their prices. Prior to my surgery with opera, I have been talking with their English/Russian consultant Irena about logistics and pricing. We had agreed upon revisional DES, ptosis correction, and lateral canthoplasty reconstruction for me in a one day surgery after I had gave them my deposit. Fast forward a month later, I came to Opera and checked in with reception and met my English consultant. The clinic was moderately busy with locals, and I was the only one from abroad there that day it seemed. From the time I was supposed to be there for my scheduled consultation to when I actually met with Dr. Kwak to consult was a lag time of 1.5 hours. I guess he was running late taking care of other patients but I did think that was a little extreme. Dr. Kwak sat down with me and prodded my eyes for a bit while asking questions. He assessed I had too little skin and fat on my eyelid to do a traditional revision surgery where they excise skin. I told him I wanted lower my double eyelids to the point where I looked like I have mono lids, which he responded that wasn’t possible but he’d try his best. He said there was going to be a chance my old double eyelid would come back so I would need to wear tape on my eyelids for two months after surgery. Dr. Kwak also informed me since my revisional DES was going to be already complicated for him to do, ptosis correction and lateral canthoplasty at the same time was not going to be possible. That was disappointing however I rolled with it because that was the main concern I did want to fix anyways. After my consultation where he had decided on 1) revisional DES with no skin excision and 2) fat repositioning on my eyelids, I was taken to the back to change for operation. Irena took my payment for both procedures. Surgery was painless and I was shuffled out after I was done maybe an hour and a half later. Irena showed me my eyes in a mirror and told me to use the ice pack and the medicine she gave me when I got home. When I got home I noticed the stitches on my right eye were not done the same as on my left eye. While not completely an inner double eyelid, my left eye was still satisfactory lowered about halfway to how it used to be/where I expected realistically given my lack of eyelid skin. My left eye had the traditional downward curve on the outer corners of the DES stitching line but my right eye had just a straight line extending from the middle to the the outer corner. I contacted Irena about it right away, which she said not to worry because it was most likely just swelling but that she’d try to arrange for me to come in again to assess it with Dr. Kwak. Since it was Saturday, she said the earliest she could let me know was the following Monday at 10 am. Monday morning came, and she messaged me saying that Dr. Kwak has the day off that day so to come the next day at 2:30 to meet with him. And that leads me to where I am now, typing my experience out. I will update more on how my meeting with them goes but I did have a tense moment with Irena when asking for a possible revision surgery on my right eyelid. While she assured me before operation that a revision within one year would be free, it was hard to get her to confirm whether I’d be able to do surgery again this week. She kept responding saying that Dr. Kwak and her don’t think I needed it and that my issue was most likely just swelling, which I understood but I wanted to know if another revision surgery could proceed anyway if I wanted it. Her answer was a little bit dodgy, to the point I’m not sure they’ll give me a revision surgery. It does seem like they’re going to rule that I don’t need it for the sake of simplifying matters, which is just my gut intuition. Regardless, I’ll find out for sure today and update how it goes. Here’s a picture of my eyelids to show what I’m talking about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hashtaggoals Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 I think drs. Recommend that you wait 6 months until you get revision. I wonder if it would be more difficult for them to do a revision right away and ensure symmetry since they are swollen, and we don’t swell evenly. I see what you mean though, but then again when I see your eyes in the second pic with your eyes open the one on the left looks slightly more swollen. Make sure to keep looking up! That’s what the surgeon told me when I got my eyes done and I was literally staring at the ceiling and refused to look at the ground Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljlydia Posted September 18, 2018 Author Share Posted September 18, 2018 Alright guys, so I’m here with my updated review since I just finished meeting with them. The one takeaway from our meeting for me is that, guys if you can afford to, please stay away from here. While the price is alluring, it doesn’t really lessen the sting of being treated like the way I was when I was talking to them about my concerns. I can understand it being too early for surgery and being able to see the final results, which is something I’d have been fine with being told, but I’d say the way they delivered the message was condescending and rude. After explaining my concerns about my eyes to Dr. Kwak, he got very agitated and started raising his voice/responding to me in an angry manner about how “this is how Koreans do it, this is how Koreans like it” etc. I think the hallmark of a doctor should be to listen to the patient’s concerns without opinion or preconceived judgements, which was not the case with Dr. Kwak. It doesn’t matter how other people think or consider standard, if the patient in question is stating their preference for their results, then that should be the focus of the conversation. I believe he took my concerns as a personal attack on him on his skills, which I never thought was the issue. So be warned purseforumers, dealing with Dr. Kwak is like dealing with a caseload of ego. Irena unfortunately was not much better. She kept laughing at me during our conversation and throwing her head back in an exasperated way saying I just couldn’t understand what her and Dr. Kwak were saying about my eyes being fine. I was extremely disappointed with their behavior because for such grown adults, they both reacted very egotistically about the matter and didn’t mind belittling me and referring to me as the “naive and worrisome” patient. I know there aren’t a lot of bad reviews on Opera here so just wanted to let you guys know who are interested in consulting with them, take their prices with a grain of salt. I was basically laughed out of the clinic. Bad attitudes don’t make up for money you’re saving if you can afford going somewhere else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljlydia Posted September 18, 2018 Author Share Posted September 18, 2018 Hey Frangranceaddict, I appreciate your response. However I think it’s very assuming to say that I would not have stopped after listening to their feedback. Because I listened to their advice during our discussion, I ended up deciding not to get anything done or push for anything. I also understand this is situation that many clinics face, where a patient wants to check in with the doctor over their surgery because they’re concerned about their results. My review was basically about how my real, unfiltered experience of that scenario with them went, which I feel people online here would appreciate. That being said, just because this is a common occurrence for them does not get the clinic off the hook of the responsibility of listening to their patients concerns during follow up. I think it’s a little forward for you to say that “they did what they had to do.” I don’t think belittling/laughing while I was talking was what they had to do. Merely informing me was what they had to do. I am a consenting adult who is making an informed decision after listening to others’ opinions, not someone who needs to be forced into doing what’s best for me by being humiliated. However my takeaway was that there is a way to have these kinds of discussions without putting people down, and to be wary of Opera in case you don’t want that kind of experience, which is what my review was about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljlydia Posted September 18, 2018 Author Share Posted September 18, 2018 Thanks frangranceaddict for the feedback. I appreciate all your advice. I’ll be taking it and stop letting this stay all in my hair for those pretty results Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
versehg Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 Hello, I understand you must be worried because of the swelling and the stitches look different. However, I heard from my friends it took 6 months until 1 year until the swelling subside completely. How if you try to focus on reducing your swelling like light walk everyday, eating foods without sodium if you can, or eat bromelain supplements because who knows the result maybe will turn out good Wish the best for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ariyapp9 Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 Hello, @ljydia. I also understand that you must be worried as it is your revisional surgery but trust me my eyes were worse when I took my first blepharoplasty (in Thai) My swelling was worse and corner of my eyeball were red and red. I took 6 months to fully recovered but now I'm happy with the folds. Well, of course, I don't fully understand your condition but to me the second photo is not bad... I will wait together till all the swelling subside. Wish the best for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljlydia Posted September 22, 2018 Author Share Posted September 22, 2018 Hey y’all, thanks again for all the encouragement and support. Yes, I’m going to wait a couple months for it to settle down and decide on if I’m happy with the results just to lessen the stress over the possible assymetry and the excess fat they left in there. They did offer a free revision if there’s still a problem later on so that’s good. So I got my stitches taken out on the 5th day. Here’s some updates on my eyes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hashtaggoals Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 Wow your swelling has gone down a lot!!!!! and good thinking. Just see how it is when swelling is all gone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralalooo Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 Can you share the photo before the revision surgery? How was the condition before the surgery and how is your swelling now? btw your swelling has gone a lot in 5 days! Don't worry too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinnie Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 They should not have treated you with disrespect. I am sorry. I do understand their perspective as I worked in plastic surgery but we never disrespected the customer's requests. There are plenty of times the patient would not accept our decision, however we made an effort to explain why. And usually the reason was because it would negatively impact the patient’s results or health therefore we could not agree to some requests. However the patient needs to understand the situation fully and have their concerns heard. However. Your incision looks excellent. I understand the concern with the right eye, and I agree with asymmetry you mentioned. You would have to wait until the swelling was healed to have an accurate assessment of the area. I'm not sure what your preop eye was like but I do know that revision des is difficult. It doesn't look like excess fat it there. Possibly excess skin but the skin tightness would be affected by swelling so again you have to assess when the swelling subsides. Since the incision looks good and even with the eyes closed it makes me learn toward a swelling issue only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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