Cosmetic Surgery in Korea, Magic can be bought.

Cosmetic surgery in Korea is a huge business. It's estimated that no less than half of women in their 20s have had cosmetic surgery. And since I'm friends with Dr. Kim and his wife Su who have their own cosmetic surgery clinic, I thought I would touch on the magical world that is cosmetic surgery.

First, the most common procedure in Korea. The double-eyelid creation.



An average set of Asian eyes. Nothing out of the ordinary. Quite often a justification for the double eyelid surgery is that without it a person appears tired.

The actual surgery is pretty quick and can be done in about ten minutes. Generally a slash across, severing of the internal tissue and removal of fatty tissue to allow for fold creation, and then stitched back together so that the internal tissue are unable to rebond. This is the horribly summarized version and you should not try this at home.



And this is the result. The eyes are visibly larger and a double eyelid is now plainly visible. At six weeks after, scarring and evidence of the procedure have almost entirely faded.



Seven months later with no complications, and a recent summer tan.

Now let's see that again with another set of eyes:



Before.



After. So there you go.

For the patient that wants wider eyes going from left to right instead of up and down, they go for an epicanthoplasty.



Before.



After. As can be seen, the eyes have been increased in size.

Next up, noses!



Traditional Asian faces tend to be much "flatter" than Caucasians. Both nose bridges and pronounced peaks are popular. Generally they are soft silicone implants.

The left picture is the original, and the right is the result.



Same as before, but with another patient.

Next: Microfat Injection



Before.



After. Basically a smoothing of the face for the removal of wrinkles (both large and small) that lasts longer than Botox. Though Botox is available and done quite often in older patients.



In what is basically the opposite of Botox and other wrinkle removal procedures, people can have dimples added. Not common.

Now let's go onto something quite bizarre: Chemical Peeling.





Holy fucking shit.

This procedure can be done for both mid-range blemishes and acne. For more serious cases, the chemical burn can be supported by lasers.



Lasers!

The redness shown in this picture fades within about ten days and leaves the person with a very white skin base.

Could it be that the Corvette Girl really does have white facial skin instead of a heavy foundation on her face?



Chin impants are quite popular. Generally speaking, chin impants are rarely done as a stand-alone procedure but coupled with both nose and eyelid surgeries.



Example 1 of multiple procedures done at the same time.



Example 2 of multiple procedures done at the same time.

Oddly, breast implants are quite uncommon in Asia.

As well, a surprising number of parents bring their children in to see cosmetic surgeons when they are injured before taking them to general physicians in the hopes that any scaring that may occur can be prevented.

Not covered at this time are common procedures like brow lifts, mole removal, hair transplants and lower blepharoplasties which are quite common.

Not covered and uncommon but increasing are pubic hair transplants for women. In popular Korean and Chinese modern-day culture, pubic hair levels are directly linked with fertility. Unmarried women in their late 30s or higher are increasingly having this proceedure done to demonstrate to prospective husbands that they can produce children after being married.

And that about covers common cosmetic surgeries in Korea.

In a curious footnote, a substantial amount of patients at Korean cosmetic surgery clinics are Japanese as the cost difference is quite high. At Dr. Kim's and Su's clinic, they have about 4-6 Japanese citizens per week though most are ethnic Koreans. Generally, Japanese citizens who come to Korea from Japan use clinics which advertise in Japan.

EDIT: This has much less useful information included than what I was hoping to include. Tomorrow I will revise and add more material to better explain everything. It's 2am local time and I leave to work at 7am. Sorry.

I worked in Bevery Hills at one of the world's top talent agencies for two years and this still blows my fucking mind. Fifty percent plus is more than Beverly Hills H.S. Are there any procedures that men favor, or is that taboo?

I think that in the US cosmetic surgeons are only allowed to use saline implants (as opposed to silicone) because the full effects of silicone implants aren't fully known, or something to that effect.

I did read one story of a woman who pulled a 1 inch (2.54 cm) long strand of silicone out of her eye after her breast implants burst internally...

i have actually undergone this eyelid surgery on my left eye. i was born with a 'tosis' of the eyelid ('lazy eyelid').

my parents were told (falselyl) when i was a child that i would encounter difficulties getting my driver's license without surgery to correct it. i don't remember anything from the first surgery as i was very young - except that i never did get the bowl of ice cream & jello in recovery that i was promised, and that for the next 3 weeks i was in excruciating pain and had to have some type of ointment applied to my eye every 2 hours, including night time.

i had the surgery again when i was 15. i had turned down a second surgery earlier on, but was again told (again falsely) that without the surgery i would have difficulty obtaining my driver's license - prime motivation for a 15 year old that's already been driving his older friend's car off and on for a year. i was also told that if i didn't have the surgery before my 16th b-day it would be considered 'cosmetic' and thus not covered by my mother's medical plan.

i was left concious for the second surgery. it was a very odd thing to be able to see through my eyelid after they had made the incision, but they never did anything weird to my eyeball (i had a family doctor who's [whose?] son was crosseyed and had to have his eyeballs pulled out of the sockets so the muscles behind were adjusted - all while he was awake. freaky shit).

i have some very slight scar tissue - you can't see it, but i can feel it with my finger cuz i know what to look for.

10 years later, surprise surprise, the tosis is beginning to reappear in full force. i won't be going through another surgery.

The problem I have with plastic surgery is that it is in effect false advertising. Imagine this, you hook up with someone really pretty but eventually your kids turn out all ugly.
The worst part is I suppose that as these procedures get better and better you might be none the wiser that the next person you sleep with is not exactly who think you're sleeping with.

Something to think about at night.

i know firsthand plenty of very attractive people, who have never had plastic surgery, who have ugly children.

and if worrying that the person your sleeping with hasn't always been attractive as they are right now keeps you up at night, i can't wait to see how you handle real life.

Cosmetic surgery isn't really all that different than putting on make-up, curling or dying one's hair, getting braces for teeth, or wearing padded or constricting clothing to change one's appearance. We as people change our appearance all the time, it's just that cosmetic surgery costs a bit more and is a bit more painful and involved than most other methods we use to change our appearances.

As one girl I used to hang out with when I was younger would say about her rather attractive eyebrows: "Baby, they aren't natural."

True Gord, but I use the analogy of tattoos. They are a lot more permanent. I also find that a good portion of the plastic surgery I see does not make the woman more attractive, and in a significant portion of cases, less attractive. Case in point, Michael Jackson.

There's also the issue of something going wrong. Nothing bad can happen with makeup. Surgery can mess you up, or in worst case scenerio kill you.

I was surprised when I heard about the huge numbers of cosmetic surgeries in Korea. And it reminds me of my experience.

When I was in high school, I knew some Korean girls. They were always talking about their classmates," who is pretty but who is not " sort of things. One day, they asked me to go see a movie together. And then they started to disscuss about one more friend to go with. So I recommended one of our friends, but their answer was shocking. "We don't want to go with her because she is ugly"

Judging friend for the sake of her appearence! Of course, there is a similar thing in any country, but I believe there should be a lot more important things. Aren't the Koreans particular about the appearance little too much? I guess there must be a strong social basis which judges a woman by her face.

I am lucky I wasn't born in Korea. If I was, I should have knocked the door of a
cosmetic surgery clinic several times.

I concur with Vash, who always offers sound observations. Cosmetic surgery is a permanent alteration of one’s body, whilst a failed haircut can be remedied.

I also add all those chirurgical interventions are carried out in order to look like Western people. Caucasian features are considered desirable by a significant portion of the Asian population thanks to Hollywood and MTV.

I wonder what kind of surgery is practiced in the other parts of the non-Western world. I just know skin-whitening creams are extremely popular in the black community of Paris.

A pic I've already posted here:


Attached Image

I asked Su about that as they mentioned it before. Due to Asians having heavier eyelids than Caucasians, Ptosis is a common problem. Over half their customer base is over 50, and the most common proceedure is Ptosis correction. Fixes a real health problem and gives them an appearance they want all in one step.

If you get a chance to go to look at the recreation of how Tutankhamen looked, you might be suprised to see quite a bit of similarity between his recreated facial features and Michael Jackson, it's a bit errie. When I was going through the exhibit a few weeks ago I came upon it at the end of the exhibit and just stopped and gawked at it. I asked my wife about it later and she said she had the same thought go through her head. Michael Jackson = reincarnation of King Tut through plastic surgery.

Hmmm the one on their screen that they had at the exhibit sure looked different than the one that you were pointing to, though good post, I didn't see it, course I haven't gone through all the posts yet. Thanks

This post has been edited by addisonp on Jul 5 2005, 04:55 PM

http://aog.2y.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1477

Lyrt used the word

Lyrt -- I love that word, absolutely love it, though it hasn't been used in standard English dialects since the early 19th century. Is it in use in English dialects I am less familiar with?

This post has been edited by Patrick Lee on Jul 5 2005, 05:02 PM

Yes, it's quite common in Frenchified broken English.

http://www.isaps.org/stats2003res.asp
http://www.isaps.org/Stats2003CompRes.asp
http://www.isaps.org/Stats2003PopProc.asp
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/hea_pla_sur_pro
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/hea_pla_sur_pro_cap

Maybe a line or two accompanying this list of links to explain what they are and why they are interesting would be in order?

I wonder if this trend will result in an entire generation of Koreans girls filled with low esteem because they look nothing like their "beautiful" Westernized mothers.

what's ugly and what's not is really a matter of opinion.. a lot of "great looking" people have odd or "ugly" looking children. many koreans just consider looks to be high on their priority list.. just like many americans consider sexual attractivity/money/power/cars/furniture/how big their house is to be important factors to "happiness". Maybe it's also a culture thing.. korea's a small place, so a small movement of procedures can acclimate the entire country to such trends.

I am going to disagree with you. Let me first state that I accept both of your subpoints, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that beautiful people can have ugly children.

However, offering the second as proof of the first is questionable. Assuming you believe in genetics, the "beauty" gene (Run with the simplification) could be passed down to the children, or they could get the "ugly" gene. The argument you present is flawed, in my humble opinion.