Chang Min Kang

Career and Research

Dr. Chang Min Kang’s work in cleft lip and palate surgery and reconstruction led to his current practice in foreign material removal and facelift surgery.

Cleft lip and palate surgery and reconstruction

During his training, Dr. Kang was drawn to patients with conditions that were difficult to treat. Cleft lip and palate was one such field. Treatment often involves more than one operation and requires understanding altered anatomy, with attention to function and future everyday life as well as appearance. Although challenging, this work gave him a sense of purpose as a doctor. Restoring an already affected area toward normal and being the doctor needed by patients whose problems receive less attention were closely connected to his reasons for entering medicine. He subsequently trained and conducted research in reconstruction, including breast reconstruction and nasal bone fractures.

How he began foreign material removal

This interest developed through reconstruction into foreign material removal. Some patients experience longstanding discomfort because material placed in the face years earlier causes hardening or lumps, inflammation or foreign-body granulomas, and adhesions to surrounding tissue. Most initially seek a simple solution. However, not every injected substance responds to dissolving injections as hyaluronic acid does. PCL-based products such as Ellansé cannot be directly broken down by hyaluronidase. Steroid treatment may be considered depending on the condition when inflammatory reactions or granulomas are present, but reduced inflammation and volume do not mean that the causative material has been removed. Some patients therefore come to Dr. Kang after problems recur over time or after multiple treatments and operations.

Deciding how much to remove

These patients need more than straightforward filler removal. Foreign material is mixed with scar tissue and adhesions, its boundary with normal tissue is indistinct, and important nerves and adjacent structures may be close by. The decisions after the incision are more difficult than the incision itself. The surgeon determines how much can be removed, what must be preserved, and which plane to approach through while examining the actual anatomy. Before surgery, ultrasound and CT are used to identify the plane and extent of the material.

Facelift after removal

Removal does not always complete treatment. When the space long occupied by foreign material and altered tissue is emptied, hollowing, sagging, and tissue irregularities may remain. A facelift is planned alongside removal in such cases. Normal structures are preserved as far as possible during removal, and loose, displaced tissue is then reorganized. The experience of rebuilding tissue in reconstructive surgery and repositioning it in facelift surgery are both applied to foreign material removal. Whether removal and lifting are performed on the same day or in stages after inflammation settles is decided at consultation.

Direction of his practice

Dr. Kang’s career has progressed through cleft lip and palate surgery, reconstruction, facelifts, complex foreign material removal, and challenging facial cases requiring both removal and lifting. Although the names of the operations have changed, the patients have shared similar experiences: problems that are difficult to resolve, discomfort remaining after visits to several clinics, and uncertainty about where to turn. Dr. Kang aims to be the doctor these patients need. His current foreign material removal practice reflects a continuing direction in the work of a doctor who has found his role in difficult problems, rather than simply a decision to choose a new specialty area.

Endoscopic Zygoma Reduction

Dr. Kang is Dr. Jung Su Lee’s sole protégé. He learned the endoscopic zygoma reduction technique that Dr. Lee introduced in 1999 and reported in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2003. He presented infracture using an impactor at the international congress of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons in 2022 (PRS KOREA 2022).

Research

He completed bachelor’s and master’s degree programs at Daegu Catholic University College of Medicine and additional training in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford University Medical Center. He has 6 PubMed-indexed papers, 5 as first author. These include a study comparing the pain-control effects of intercostal nerve blocks at four time points in 44 breast augmentation patients; a CT evaluation of reduction outcomes in 313 nasal bone fracture cases; a study of the relationship between surgical outcomes and patient satisfaction; and a study tracking muscle and fat volume changes after breast reconstruction with a latissimus dorsi flap. Although these subjects were not facial cosmetic surgery, the methods of evaluating surgical outcomes with imaging and numerical data remain part of his diagnostic practice today. In 2023, he demonstrated ultrasound-assisted facial fat contouring during live surgery hosted by the Seoul branch of the Korean Society of Aesthetic Medicine.

View academic record · View foreign material removal guide