My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 6 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post Surgery: Nose Splint and stitches removal day! First time wearing face band and deswelling treatment from Banobagi Dermatology Clinic
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Day 6 Post Surgery
It's finally day 6! Nose splint removal day! To tell you the truth, I never really got used to having the plastic cast on my nose. Sometimes I would tap on it accidentally and it would make a really weird clink sound. It felt like I seriously got a Mr. Potato nose grafted onto my face. I'm also having my outer stitches taken out from my nose and zygoma incision sites, as well as deswelling treatment. Super excited and pretty nervous, since some people have said that stitch removal is painfully unpleasant. I’ll update with my version though. I am also seriously looking forward to washing my hair.
My appointment wasn’t until 1 p.m, so I decided to apply the cooling eye mask first! Popped it into the fridge for about 15 minutes and it was ready. It was genuinely the most relaxing thing ever, especially when I had my ice pack on my face as well. I felt like a chilled cucumber 😎
Took some random photos before stitch removal! Super nervous
Stitch removal appointment
I got to Banobagi’s lobby a bit early and waited around for a bit. It genuinely gets so packed in the afternoons! I was chatting with a lady sat next to me which was interesting because she couldn't speak a word of English and I was equally confused by Korean. Google translate also failed me so we made do with hand gestures. When my consultant came to fetch me she thought the lady was my mum! My actual mum was back in the guesthouse playing solitaire because she was too scared of stitch removal to come 😂
I was led up to the second floor and went into one of the smaller side rooms with a sort of dental chair and huge lights. The nurse was lovely and checked my condition. I got a real talking to 😭 It turns out that despite cleaning my nose a lot, I wasn’t actually cleaning it properly. She advised me on the proper way to do it and said that it should make stitch removal less painful if I clean my nose well.
By this point I was low-key scared about the stitch removal. I kept asking how painful it was going to be, like not that painful or seriously painful. I was so stressed out that they gave me a huge teddy bear to hug while I laid down for stitch removal.
IT WAS PAINLESS. I was so dramatic and dreading this day for nothing! The nurse was super experienced and gentle, the only sensation I felt was her clipping the stitch. It was over so quickly- nose, right incision, left incision. The removal of the nose splint was also not painful at all! Let me reassure you that I am a complete baby when it comes to pain and the most pain I've ever experienced is a sprained ankle. Outer stitch removal was a thoroughly painless experience!
My consultant warned me that removal of the inner stitches was super super painful by comparison and I started stressing out again. 😂
Glue and pen marks on my face 😂
After stitch removal, she explained to me how to use the face band to keep the skin firm and reduce sagging. Here's a pic of me wearing it:
Basically there are 3 sets of straps: one around the neck, two on top of the head.
My consultant told me to start wearing it for 5 minutes, then increase it by 5 minutes everyday until I can wear it for one hour. When I reach the one hour mark, I should try wearing it for 3 sets of one hour sessions per day.
It's important to have breaks between wearing it though, as it restricts circulation.
So if I wear the band for one hour, I’ll rest for another hour before wearing it again.
De-swelling treatment
After the ‘scary’ appointment comes the nice and relaxing one. My lovely consultant accompanied me to Banobagi’s Dermatology clinic to receive aftercare in the form of deswelling treatment. I was a bit nervous since I heard that some treatments involve being hooked up to an IV for ages or painful shots, but I was also sick of my swelling! It was like a 1 minute walk from the main clinic.
Banobagi Dermatology Clinic! It looks so modern and professional.
I waited in the lobby for a bit before meeting the director of the dermatology department. Had a flick through the brochures in the picture:
Woah the results are seriously impressive! The brochure was in Korean so I couldn't really read most of it, but the results speak for themselves ^^ it was for Fraxel Laser therapy. I had really bad acne as a teenager and was a bit traumatised by it; I wish there was something like this available back in London for reasonable prices.
After a short while, I went to meet the director! He was real friendly and poked my face a bit. I was trying to reassure him like I just had nose cast removal so there's still glue on my face, I don't have a huge skin problem. He was cool with it and said he’ll definitely give me laser treatment for the bruises under my eyes. He assured me that there was no pain without prompting. It's as if he read my mind!
I dropped off my coat and bag in the locker room, changed into slippers and was lead to a big room with lots of massage tables. The aesthetician had me lay down and started a machine which blew a lot of hot steam into my face to open up my pores. After, she gently removing the glue from my face. It was so relaxing, I could have fallen asleep.
I had my laser treatment straight after. The director himself was there and he was saying things like ‘don't worry’ in Mandarin. I was super shocked that he could speak some Mandarin before I got distracted by the laser treatment. It didn't hurt at all, but after each zap I could see a flash image of my eye which was weird. My eyes were protected by small metal goggles so I wasn't afraid for my safety or anything. Hopefully my eye bruises will be gone!
There were quite a few other people receiving treatment at the dermatology clinic, even people who still had their nose splints on. After the laser treatment, I had a face mask put on for about 15 minutes which was very soothing.
I really enjoyed my aftercare! ^^ By the time I got back to he guesthouse, my mum was like your bruises have seriously gotten better?! +1 for laser treatment! Thank you dermatology clinic <3
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