Revision rhinoplasty @ Kowon > Real Review

Background: I’m a 26 year old woman from the US; I recently decided that I wanted to get DES and a rhinoplasty in Korea… so I booked what was probably the worst possible month — January, when all Koreans have their school breaks! (Haha… it worked out, as you’re about to read, but if I might give some advice, please don’t go to Korea for surgery in January unless you already have a surgery slot!)

Also note that I’ve had a septoplasty and a double jaw surgery before, which caused some complications because my septal cartilage is unusable. So I’ve never had a rhinoplasty before but technically, my previous septoplasty makes this rhino a revision.

Consultations: I booked Ryan from Gangnam Buddy as my translator, and honestly, I can’t recommend him enough! He’s very warm and helpful and HONEST. He doesn’t suggest things you don’t need and he doesn’t lie to you to make you feel better! If something isn’t good for you, he tells you so!

Based on my desire for a natural nose, Ryan suggested consulting with Cocoline, 1st Button, and Kowon.

Here are the consults I did, in order. All three take CT scans and photos of you that they edit to show what your results would look like:

3. Kowon: Was open really late, so no one else was there! We were seen almost immediately by the consultant, Juyeon. She had a really cute office and even though I was tired from jet lag + the two previous consults, it immediately put me at ease ​

I’d forgotten this, but the day before, Ryan had told me that Dr. Hyeong Taek Kim, the surgeon at Kowon, is super kind and gentle. I’d asked him to explain, and he was like, “... you’ll see.”

I don’t know exactly how to explain, but I immediately understood what Ryan meant when I walked into the room and Dr. Kim began talking to us.

Dr. Kim edited a picture of me to show what I’d look like, from the side and then the front, and his recommendations were pretty much exactly in line with the others (no implant, tiplasty/bulbous nose, shaving my hump). He agreed with 1st Button that my tip should be reinforced with rib and that I shouldn’t get alarplasty because my alars are already narrower than average.

But the feeling I got was totally different from the other two consults. Maybe it’s the detail with which Dr. Kim talked about my facial harmony, and without prompting! He explained that I have a protruding upper lip and showed how bringing my tip out would fix that. Or he was just so gentle and confident and it was like 8pm, but he seemed to be… glowing? Hahaha.

The best way I can put it is: in the way he talked, I could see that he really understood what I wanted and how to achieve it. It felt like he had the same vision for my face as I did.

Before we went back to Juyeon, I turned to Ryan and said, “Wow,” and he just started laughing because he knew what that meant from me! After we walked out of the clinic, Ryan asked me what I thought. I said, I really like them. I think this is the one. And then, I was like — Wait. This is the one. So I turned around and went back in to put my deposit!

Juyeon was laughing  and booked me for the 18th, two days after my DES on the 16th. Juyeon was so comforting that just booking it made me feel like I was making the right decision. Kowon wasn't my cheapest option, but I feel like I'm in really good hands with Juyeon and Dr. Kim. And Juyeon said that normally they offer a 1 year guarantee/window to come back and fix anything that might have gone wrong, but for me it'll be 2 years since I'm a foreigner!

I'm nervous and excited! Please feel free to ask me any questions and I'll answer them if I can. Goodness knows that this community has been immensely helpful to me in making my decisions.