consultation

Most people arriving for this consultation have had several elsewhere, and have been told each time that the problem is small. What follows is what the appointment consists of, in the order it happens, so that it is possible to arrive prepared rather than find out afterwards which document would have made the difference.

01What happens, in order

The history. What was injected or implanted, when, into which regions, and how many times. What has been done since, particularly sessions of hyaluronidase or steroid, and what each one changed. Then the present complaint, in the patient’s own terms rather than in a procedure name.
Examination. The face at rest and moving, because material that is invisible still can be obvious on animation. Each region palpated for hardness, mobility, tenderness and the border of any deposit. Skin thickness, sensation, and the symmetry between the two sides.
Ultrasound, in the same visit. The plane and depth of the material, how far it has spread, whether inflammation is active around it, and its relation to normal fat and to the structures that must be preserved.
CT, where bone is part of the question: previous contouring surgery, erosion beneath an old implant, the position of the malar complex, the state of the forehead where an implant is to come out. Not everyone needs it.
The findings described back, region by region, separating what is established from what is not. Imaging does not name a product, and the clinic’s stated protocol is to say so.
A proposal that states what would be left before it states what comes out: which regions would be addressed and which deliberately not, whether the work is one operation or more, and what is expected to remain in the way of hollowing or laxity.
Risks, limits and the recovery timetable, including the interval before the result can be judged at all, which for a removal is months rather than weeks.
Who will carry out the operation. The attending clinician is confirmed at consultation.

02What to bring

Any record of what was injected: receipts, consent forms, prescription records, clinic notes, or a photograph of a box or syringe label. This is the only thing that identifies a material with certainty.
Dates and sites, written down. Approximate years are better than nothing, and a list written calmly at home is more accurate than one assembled in a consulting room.
Previous imaging. An ultrasound report with its images as files, and any CT as the original data on disc rather than photographs of film.
Photographs from before the first treatment. Without them the assessment is guessing at how much of the present shape is material.
A written list of what has been tried since, with dates. The response to hyaluronidase is one of the few things that narrows down an unknown material.
Current medication and medical history: anticoagulants, aspirin and supplements, allergies, any bleeding tendency, and any chronic condition.

03What will not be decided on the day

Some of this consultation is deliberately unfinished, and it is better to know which parts in advance. The product will not be named. No imaging identifies a brand, and an assessment that confidently names one is guessing. What can be established is the plane, the extent, the behaviour of the material and the state of the tissue around it, which is what the plan is built from.

No amount of removal will be promised. Where material lies inside scar and the boundary with normal tissue has blurred, how much can safely come out is decided during the operation against the anatomy actually found. The aim is to reduce what causes pain and deformity while leaving normal fat and nerve intact, not to empty the region.

An operating date will not be fixed where inflammation is active. A nodule that is currently red, hot or painful is settled first, and the interval that takes is not predictable at the first visit.

Whether a lift will be needed is often left open. It depends on what the face does once the material is out and the tissue has settled, and the clinic’s stated approach is to decide it at around three to six months rather than in advance. The result itself is not predicted, and no outcome is guaranteed.

04Making contact

There are three published channels, and they are the only ones.

Main line: 02-545-3700, or +82 2 545 3700 from outside Korea
Email: uvom@uvom.com
KakaoTalk channel: pf.kakao.com/_IzMzE
Address: 9F, 138 Dosan-daero, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 09:00 to 19:00; Tuesday and Thursday 09:00 to 21:00; Saturday 09:00 to 16:00; closed Sunday and public holidays

For anyone travelling from outside Korea, the written channels are the ones to begin with, because a review of photographs and imaging is done before travel and needs the material sent in advance. Writing also leaves a record that can be re-read and translated carefully, which a telephone call does not.

No online booking form, appointment system or patient portal is described here, and no messaging application other than the KakaoTalk channel named above. There is no WhatsApp number. Nothing on this page is an offer to operate; whether surgery is appropriate, and what it would consist of, is decided after examination.ContinuePracticalThe ClinicUVOM Plastic Surgery occupies the ninth floor at 138 Dosan-daero in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Consultation, ultrasound, the…The surgeonDr. Chang Min KangCleft lip and palate, reconstruction, facelift, and the removal of material injected into a face years earlier. The…The surgeonThe Measured PracticeSix peer-reviewed papers on the breast, the buttock and the nasal bone. The subjects have almost nothing in common.…