Preparing to Open a Clinic

Is the end of being an employed doctor opening a clinic?

Like the many senior doctors who said, 'A salaried doctor will eventually open a clinic,' I am also preparing to open my clinic in early 2024.

To communicate with you on equal terms,

and to raise that standard together with you.

With that meaning in mind, I came up with the clinic name.

As the name suggests, the main specialty will be eye surgery and anti-aging care.

In fact, I decided on this name two years ago, but due to trademark issues with a well-known educational company, I have had to take a long detour. And now that the end of that road is in sight, I have decided to open the clinic.

Looking back, when I first set foot in the Gangnam plastic surgery market in 2019...

Maybe my dream of opening a clinic began the day my new workplace asked me to write a self-introduction.

That night, I went home and carefully wrote down my treatment philosophy on paper...

I felt that, no matter what, it would be impossible to realize my ideas at that hospital.

Every chief doctor who runs a clinic has their own philosophy and direction.

And this is not a matter of right or wrong. No one knows the correct answer.

That clinic operates well and has expanded its scale in the warlike environment of Gangnam. Perhaps that chief doctor's direction is the right one for the aesthetic medicine industry.

But it did not suit me.

It was very different from the values I believed aesthetic medicine should have.

So after much thought, I resigned just three weeks after joining.

Feeling sorry, I even declined the three weeks of pay they were going to give me first (and then got scolded by my wife when I got home, haha).

After that, I worked as an employed doctor at several places,

but I still never found a clinic where I could implement 100% of what I believed was right.

And I think I may never find one.

Operating systems, necessary equipment, the direction of marketing.... All of these things can never completely match what I want.

What if I was vainly searching for something that never existed in the first place...?

So I made a decision. I would open a plastic surgery clinic where I can carry out my ideas and values!

Main treatment areas

I only provide eye plastic surgery and anti-aging care. Because a doctor being 'able to do' surgery and being 'good at' it are different things.

Eye surgery generally refers to double eyelid surgery and ptosis correction.

Anti-aging refers to all surgeries and procedures that make a person look younger. Since the term youthful-looking plastic surgery can feel broad and vague, it may sound like a clinic that does everything, but that is not the case.

The surgeries are limited to middle-aged eye plastic surgery, forehead lift, and facelift.

Laser procedures focus on improving pigmentation and skin texture. Based on the medical knowledge I have learned so far and my real experiences with patients, I have developed my own judgment about treatments that I believe are appropriate and effective, and I do not perform procedures that do not align with that.

The direction of the clinic

I want the customers who visit the clinic to be treated with dignity. Even if we do not end up becoming connected, I hope they leave feeling respected. Of course, this is still incomplete and remains my biggest task, but at Eye-Level Plastic Surgery, we will continue to strive for customer satisfaction. To do that, we need to provide staff with a comfortable environment and proper motivation. Satisfying both customers and staff is the goal of every clinic owner, but there are many obstacles in actually achieving this, so it is also a major challenge for me. You can't be full from the first spoonful, but I will not forget the direction we need to move in.

Treatment philosophy

As a doctor who provides aesthetic treatment, my philosophy is firm.

1. The result of surgery must be natural. Rather than following trends, it should look as if nothing was done and should harmonize with the other features of the face. Results that are obviously and immediately recognizable as surgery are not the style of Eye-Level Plastic Surgery. I aim for the kind of reaction where, when people see you, they say, 'You seem prettier somehow—what did you do?' Even for the customer who had the surgery, the goal is a clinic where they forget they had plastic surgery and think, 'I've always looked this way.'

2. But the change must be fundamental. When I compare before-and-after photos side by side, I dislike changes so slight that I have to stare for a long time like playing a spot-the-difference game. As a surgeon, I have built anatomical knowledge through extensive cadaver practice in order to deliver fundamental change, and based on that, I have honed my techniques by meeting many patients. Therefore, I insist on surgeries and procedures that can solve the underlying problem fundamentally, rather than offering a temporary fix.

3. Since my main field is youthful-looking plastic surgery, I place importance on results lasting a long time. Sometimes after plastic surgery, the 'duration of the result' and the customer's 'recovery period' conflict with each other. Eye-Level Plastic Surgery is a clinic that proposes solutions with a focus on directions that can make the effect last longer. That does not mean I take the limited recovery period lightly; I will do my best to help you return to daily life quickly through attentive aftercare.

4. Lastly, I am somewhat hesitant to introduce unverified new technologies. I am not the kind of clinic that quickly adopts trendy procedures that are widely talked about in public just to keep up with the latest fad. Instead, if you are a customer who values medically and scientifically verified evidence-based treatments, I am confident I can offer safe and well-supported procedure recommendations.

Closing thoughts

After writing this, I worry that I may sound too much like a dreamer for someone who is trying to run a business. But if I keep planting one tree at a time consistently... someday won't it become a forest where birds come and sing?

I will prepare well to become a clinic where you can experience youthful-looking plastic surgery grounded in proper values.

I also promise to do my very best for the customers I meet at my current clinic until the very end.