Consultation for Cheekbone Reoperation - A Memory That Was Rewarding Even Just as a Consultation

I think this happened about four years ago.

 

I remember a pretty young woman in her early 20s who came to see me for a consultation about cheekbone reoperation, accompanied by her older brother, with a very worried expression after traveling all the way from the provinces.

 

When I met her in the examination room, her face clearly showed signs of being exhausted by worry and fear.

 

She said that two months earlier, she had undergone cheekbone reduction surgery at a plastic surgery clinic in Seoul.

 

At first glance, her facial contours did not seem especially prominent, and her features were quite pretty, so

 

I told her not to worry so much, and then opened the 3D CT scan she had brought with her (taken at a radiology specialty hospital).

 

 

 

The cheekbone area, two months after surgery,

 

had the front osteotomy site fixed, while the back portion of the cheekbone arch had not been osteotomized,

 

and nearly 70% of the fixed front osteotomy site had already fused.

 

Therefore, it could be thought that the surgical reduction effect on the cheekbones was almost negligible, but the osteotomy site was not in a state of nonunion.

 

So my opinion was:

 

The current condition of the cheekbones was not something to worry about, and she could go about her daily life comfortably or even do moderately strenuous exercise without any problem.

 

If she still absolutely wanted to reduce the contour of the cheekbones further, I told her it would be best to come back and consult me again after at least six months had passed.

 

 

 

However, she did not readily trust my explanation,

 

and repeatedly asked several times whether the situation was not one that required immediate reoperation, and whether it was really okay to live without worry.

 

When I asked why she could not trust my explanation and opinion, she finally explained the reason.

 

Before coming to me for consultation about reoperation, she had consulted at two other plastic surgery clinics,

 

and there, they had worriedly told her with concerned expressions that the situation was unstable unless she underwent cheekbone reoperation immediately.

 

When I asked where she had heard such things,

 

one was a plastic surgeon who seemed highly academic and conscientious and had become famous through a blog,

 

and the other was a large hospital that was very well known for attracting foreign patients.

 

 

I think I spent more than 20 minutes explaining things in order to reassure her that the current situation was fine.

 

Even when she left after finishing the consultation with me, her back did not look light at all; she seemed somewhat anxious and gloomy.

 

 

 

 

About a week later, a long message arrived in my personal email.

 

The sender was the same person who had come for the cheekbone reoperation consultation a week earlier,

 

and the message began with words of gratitude.

 

After hearing the explanations from the two other plastic surgery clinics she had visited to assess her condition after cheekbone reduction surgery,

 

she had been unable to sleep peacefully at night, worried that the surgical site on the cheekbone might be compressed or otherwise go wrong,

 

and even after consulting me, she remained half doubtful,

 

so she visited yet another plastic surgery clinic to confirm my explanation, which differed from what the first two clinics had told her,

 

and explained the circumstances so far.

 

Then the doctor at the last clinic she visited told her, just as I had said, that the condition of the cheekbones was not something she needed to worry about,

 

and after that, she said her mind became completely at ease and her worries disappeared. That was the gist of her long and detailed story.

 

After that, every year during the holidays, she became a warm connection who always sent me kind greetings.

 

 

When consulting with her, I felt many things.

 

First, I had questions about the two doctors who had consulted with her about cheekbone reoperation before she came to see me.

 

Why did they say such things?

 

Saying things that would cause even more pain in the 마음 of someone already suffering from postoperative anxiety with such inaccurate and irresponsible statements,

 

is like giving the person who had surgery another illness, and I wondered whether it was not truly disgraceful behavior toward the colleague who performed the first operation.

 

Was it because they lacked the medical knowledge and experience to properly analyze the postoperative condition of the cheekbones, or was it for a commercial purpose of inducing reoperation?

 

My head was filled with all sorts of thoughts.

 

Second, I felt a responsibility to realize that people without medical knowledge can develop significant anxiety and worry after surgery, and that detailed explanations about this are just as necessary as the surgery itself and should be treated as an essential extension of medical care.

 

One of the things many people say when they come for reoperation consultations and confide in me is that before surgery they met the surgeon for a short time, but after surgery they never once met the doctor who performed the operation. To me, these are situations that are hard to understand.