My Experience with CBK Plastic Surgery - Cleft Rhinoplasty

[theshortone]

Hello everyone! I had my plastic surgery on January 15, 2018 and it's now almost been 11 months so it would be a good time to write my experience.

Background: I am currently 28 years old, female, and I was born with a cleft lip and palate. I had all my surgeries in the USA, I had three rhinoplasties in the USA when I was 19, 20, & 21. I was never happy with my result because my nose looked so asymmetrical. I also had a flat bridge, and my breathing on my right nostril wasn't 100% (see pic below). I told myself, once I got enough $$ I would go and find the best surgeon in the world. My self esteem was pretty bad.

I scheduled 3 weeks to stay in Korea, if my consultations didn't go well, I would just treat the three weeks as vacation. I ended up staying four weeks...see below why...

My journey to finding clinics: I heavily searched cleft rhinoplasty in Korea. I had always heard that Korea was the plastic surgery center of the world and had the best surgeons. I didn't have high hopes for American doctors because they all had results that I didn't like. Before I went to Korea, I had three places that I had lined up to see: MVP (they heavily advertise cleft rhinoplasty), Gangnam severance hospital, and a friend recommendation. I also found a doctor on the American Cleft association page, that was located in Korea, but couldn't find him online and just thought he retired.

The clinic I ended up with: So, funny story. I consulted with Gangnam severance hospital, and asked the doctor there if he had recommendation that I could consult with. He actually recommended his teacher, who had retired from university but now works in private practice. Guess what? That doctor ended up being the SAME doctor that was listed on the Cleft Association site, they had spelt his name wrong. That is how I ended up at CBK Plastic Surgery.

Meeting Dr. Park @ CBK. Gangnam hospital had made an appointment for me to see Dr. Park that same day, so we hustled from the hospital to his office in Gangnam. Dr. Park spoke english so that was a plus for me. He is also 70 years old, but he basically focused on cleft patients his entire medical career. This was amazing because not every doctor can just perform cleft rhinoplasty. As our noses are completely different and more complex than normal people. I consulted with Dr. Park for an hour and decided to book surgery with him the following monday (this was thursday). He was very honest and said that it won't be perfect, and that I may need a second surgery. I was ok with that. He said that he would need to fix the foundation first, before focusing on the cosmetics. It made sense because you can't build a house without the foundation. The only issue was that his entire staff did not speak english, so it was SUPER hard to communicate. But, we saw they had a chinese translator, and luckily, my boyfriend spoke chinese. So he translated from Chinese to English, back to Chinese, to Korean. It was a dozy . Before we left, CBPK said that they were working on getting english translators.

What I got done: I got cleft rhinoplasty, had my bridge a little bit higher, fix my scar, and gave my lip a little bit more filling.

Surgery day: We arrived at 9am on Monday morning, and prepped for surgery. My surgery was suppose to last about 3-4 hours, however, it ended up being 7 hours because Dr. Park spent a lot of time trying to fix all the mistakes the USA doctors made. For example, the USA doctor tried to give me a bridge, so they put something on my bridge, but that thing, ended up out of place. The USA doctor also used tissue to "prop" my nose up, blocking my breathing. So he spent a lot of time, fixing those errors. I woke up and remembered I was shivering so hard. I looked this up later, and read that it was pretty normal.

After surgery: I stayed at CBK that night. My nose was all packed, my lip had stitches, and the inside of my mouth also had stitches. It was so hard breathing out of my mouth for the next 2 1/2 weeks. The next day, I saw Dr. Park and had my first treatment, where he checks everything. I ended up passing out an half hour later because I didn't eat anything. They were so nice and did everything to make sure I was ok. Dr. Park made me stay another night at CBK because he was concerned since I had passed out, and that we were in Korea by ourselves. That was super nice of him as I was suppose to only stay one night. The next day, everything was better after I ate and started walking as much as I could. I recommend that you eat as soon as you can, and start getting up and walking around.

Follow up with Dr. Park. I saw Dr. Park, every single day except on Sundays for treatment. He would check how I was doing, he changed my bandages and irrigated the wound. It was nice seeing him everyday to make sure that I was healing correctly. They had gave me a prescription for medicine, which we got downstairs in the pharmacy. I believe it was less than $20 for three weeks worth of medicine.

Dr. Park was so nice. Dr. Park noticed that my boyfriend was just wearing a wind breaker, in Jan 2018, it was one of the coldest winters Korea has ever had. So he brought one of his coats for my boyfriend to wear and keep. He really cared not only for me, but also made sure my boyfriend was ok. I was really touched by this gesture.

Uh oh...problem. I was suppose to be in Korea for three weeks. During one of my check up, Dr. Park mentioned that there was a small wound inside my nose. Basically it was necrosis because I had three other incisions that the blood vessel had died. He said I should be ok if I went home that week, but recommended we stay another week. So we decided to change our flights and stay another week. He made me clean that wound twice a day for the next week, and also when I got back to USA. By the time we left, my wound had mostly closed because of his diligence. I was so grateful that I saw him everyday because if I didn't, I'm not sure if it would had been more complicated. When we went for my checkups, I saw multiple patients (all local Koreans) that were cleft patients having surgery with Dr. Park.

I'm currently 11 months post op and I'm pretty happy. I'm planning on seeing Dr. Park Jan 2019 to see what my next options are.

I highly recommend Dr. Park if you are looking for cleft rhinoplasty. He also said he really likes complex rhinoplasty cases .

Feel free to reach out to me if you want more information, I can get you in touch with CBK.

Attached are photos of before and after. The picture with my boyfriend and I, I couldn't smile/move my lip for the next three months because of the lip surgery.

 

[chrysanthemum10]

Hi,

Your results look great!!
I'm interested for my little sister to get her secondary cleft lip revision surgery in Korea this year. She has bilateral cleft lip and palate, may need a rhinoplasty too and scar. She's 18 years old.

Pls help to get us in contact with Dr. Park

Theshortone said: ↑

Hello everyone! I had my plastic surgery on January 15, 2018 and it's now almost been 11 months so it would be a good time to write my experience.

Background: I am currently 28 years old, female, and I was born with a cleft lip and palate. I had all my surgeries in the USA, I had three rhinoplasties in the USA when I was 19, 20, & 21. I was never happy with my result because my nose looked so asymmetrical. I also had a flat bridge, and my breathing on my right nostril wasn't 100% (see pic below). I told myself, once I got enough $$ I would go and find the best surgeon in the world. My self esteem was pretty bad.

I scheduled 3 weeks to stay in Korea, if my consultations didn't go well, I would just treat the three weeks as vacation. I ended up staying four weeks...see below why...

My journey to finding clinics: I heavily searched cleft rhinoplasty in Korea. I had always heard that Korea was the plastic surgery center of the world and had the best surgeons. I didn't have high hopes for American doctors because they all had results that I didn't like. Before I went to Korea, I had three places that I had lined up to see: MVP (they heavily advertise cleft rhinoplasty), Gangnam severance hospital, and a friend recommendation. I also found a doctor on the American Cleft association page, that was located in Korea, but couldn't find him online and just thought he retired.

The clinic I ended up with: So, funny story. I consulted with Gangnam severance hospital, and asked the doctor there if he had recommendation that I could consult with. He actually recommended his teacher, who had retired from university but now works in private practice. Guess what? That doctor ended up being the SAME doctor that was listed on the Cleft Association site, they had spelt his name wrong. That is how I ended up at CBK Plastic Surgery.

Meeting Dr. Park @ CBK. Gangnam hospital had made an appointment for me to see Dr. Park that same day, so we hustled from the hospital to his office in Gangnam. Dr. Park spoke english so that was a plus for me. He is also 70 years old, but he basically focused on cleft patients his entire medical career. This was amazing because not every doctor can just perform cleft rhinoplasty. As our noses are completely different and more complex than normal people. I consulted with Dr. Park for an hour and decided to book surgery with him the following monday (this was thursday). He was very honest and said that it won't be perfect, and that I may need a second surgery. I was ok with that. He said that he would need to fix the foundation first, before focusing on the cosmetics. It made sense because you can't build a house without the foundation. The only issue was that his entire staff did not speak english, so it was SUPER hard to communicate. But, we saw they had a chinese translator, and luckily, my boyfriend spoke chinese. So he translated from Chinese to English, back to Chinese, to Korean. It was a dozy . Before we left, CBPK said that they were working on getting english translators.

What I got done: I got cleft rhinoplasty, had my bridge a little bit higher, fix my scar, and gave my lip a little bit more filling.

Surgery day: We arrived at 9am on Monday morning, and prepped for surgery. My surgery was suppose to last about 3-4 hours, however, it ended up being 7 hours because Dr. Park spent a lot of time trying to fix all the mistakes the USA doctors made. For example, the USA doctor tried to give me a bridge, so they put something on my bridge, but that thing, ended up out of place. The USA doctor also used tissue to "prop" my nose up, blocking my breathing. So he spent a lot of time, fixing those errors. I woke up and remembered I was shivering so hard. I looked this up later, and read that it was pretty normal.

After surgery: I stayed at CBK that night. My nose was all packed, my lip had stitches, and the inside of my mouth also had stitches. It was so hard breathing out of my mouth for the next 2 1/2 weeks. The next day, I saw Dr. Park and had my first treatment, where he checks everything. I ended up passing out an half hour later because I didn't eat anything. They were so nice and did everything to make sure I was ok. Dr. Park made me stay another night at CBK because he was concerned since I had passed out, and that we were in Korea by ourselves. That was super nice of him as I was suppose to only stay one night. The next day, everything was better after I ate and started walking as much as I could. I recommend that you eat as soon as you can, and start getting up and walking around.

Follow up with Dr. Park. I saw Dr. Park, every single day except on Sundays for treatment. He would check how I was doing, he changed my bandages and irrigated the wound. It was nice seeing him everyday to make sure that I was healing correctly. They had gave me a prescription for medicine, which we got downstairs in the pharmacy. I believe it was less than $20 for three weeks worth of medicine.

Dr. Park was so nice. Dr. Park noticed that my boyfriend was just wearing a wind breaker, in Jan 2018, it was one of the coldest winters Korea has ever had. So he brought one of his coats for my boyfriend to wear and keep. He really cared not only for me, but also made sure my boyfriend was ok. I was really touched by this gesture.

Uh oh...problem. I was suppose to be in Korea for three weeks. During one of my check up, Dr. Park mentioned that there was a small wound inside my nose. Basically it was necrosis because I had three other incisions that the blood vessel had died. He said I should be ok if I went home that week, but recommended we stay another week. So we decided to change our flights and stay another week. He made me clean that wound twice a day for the next week, and also when I got back to USA. By the time we left, my wound had mostly closed because of his diligence. I was so grateful that I saw him everyday because if I didn't, I'm not sure if it would had been more complicated. When we went for my checkups, I saw multiple patients (all local Koreans) that were cleft patients having surgery with Dr. Park.

I'm currently 11 months post op and I'm pretty happy. I'm planning on seeing Dr. Park Jan 2019 to see what my next options are.

I highly recommend Dr. Park if you are looking for cleft rhinoplasty. He also said he really likes complex rhinoplasty cases .

Feel free to reach out to me if you want more information, I can get you in touch with CBK.

Attached are photos of before and after. The picture with my boyfriend and I, I couldn't smile/move my lip for the next three months because of the lip surgery.

Click to expand...