Sang Woo Lee, MD

Two months ago I went to Korea with the VTL and did jaw reduction surgery with Dr. Lee. A few years back, I had consultation with Dr. Lee but I wasn't able to proceed with the surgery then due to family reasons. But this time around, thanks to the VTL, I came back to proceed with the surgery.
When I had my consultation with Dr. Lee, he was very kind and explained everything to me in detail. From the way he explained the surgery method and precautions, I could tell that he is experienced and that I wouldn't have to worry.
It's been 2 months since my surgery now and so far I like how my jaw looks. There is still some swelling and I look a little chubby around the cheeks but I can definitely feel that my jaw bones are smaller. I also really like the vline shape that is starting to show.
Thank you Dr. Lee!

I underwent square jaw surgery, zygoma and front chin surgery (facial contouring) at DA Plastic Surgery in South Korea. I was considering having facial contouring surgery done for ages as I had square jaw and I did NOT like the way I looked. I always hid my square jaw with my hair and avoided taking photos.
DA Plastic Surgery's head surgeon, Dr.Lee Sang Woo is famous for facial contouring surgeon and after a consultation with him, I decided to undergo surgery.
On the day of surgery: I went in at around 9AM to the clinic and got changed into robes. I was so nervous but the nurses there calmed me down which helped a lot. I saw the doctor before going into surgery and he explained to me what was going to happen and where he is going to operate etc. Then I went into the operation room and I remember it being very clean and cold. I was so nervous then but the anesthesiologist came and asked me some questions and I went straight to sleep afterwards. I woke up few hours later and I was groggy as anesthesia hasn’t worn off 100% and I wasn’t in pain but I was feeling chilly and dizzy. I was also very thirsty but I couldn’t consume water for 4 hours!! That was the worst part. After that I stayed overnight at the clinic and I just slept and slept.
Swelling wasn’t bad on the day of surgery but after 3~4 days, it got extremely worse. My cheeks and lips were all swollen and I couldn’t even open my mouth. It was horrible. I consumed pumpkin juice which apparently helps de-welling and I walked around a little bit and swelling decreased but very slowly..
I went to the clinic on the 3rd day to get my stitches removed and I remember the nurse being really friendly. I asked a lot of questions as I am nervous about everything but she was very kind to answer all of them patiently. Stitch removal didn't hurt that bad.
The worst part of it all is that you cannot eat solid food!!! That's the worst part of jaw surgery. And you can chop food into little pieces or soak it in liquid to make it less hard.. I think I lost a lot of weight after surgery due to this.
I am currently 1 month post op and everything is great so far. Swelling went down rapidly after 3 weeks, and I LOVE seeing my slim jaw line, front and side! No more hiding my jaws with my hair!
I do NOT regret my decision to undergo surgery and I would recommend DA Plastic Surgery for those who are thinking of getting facial contouring surgery.

I did V-Line surgery and revision of rhinoplasty at DA plastic surgery clinic just 3 weeks ago (on 21 Oct 2016). I would like to share some of my experience at DA clinic here.

Prior to the surgery, I had a crooked chin and nose due to my previous surgery in a small clinic in Korea. The experience from my first surgery was not really good. Hence, I actually spent more effort with my research to find a reputable clinic. I found DA from the search engine at Instagram #maleplasticsurgery. Apparently, DA has a special category of surgery for guys, which really attracts me.

Some points to highlight about DA is their star surgeon, Dr Lee Sang-Woo. He is the owner of the clinic and has appeared in many talk show in Korea, i.e. "Let Me In" and "white swan". His video can be easily found in youtube. Based on many reviews, Dr lee specialty is on facial contouring, which what I was interested in. He is like one of the celebrities surgeons in Korea and I was quite convinced with his works and credentials.

I contacted DA through KakaoTalk (ID: daprsen). The response was very fast. The consultant speaks very good English and there was no problem in communication. I had a so-called online consultation by sending them my pictures. Based on the pictures, the consultant advised me on the possible surgery procedures and the price range. So, I roughly had an idea and could prepare the budget before heading to Korea. However, it is important to know that the proposed surgery and pricing could differ during face-to-face consultation. For the pricing, it is actually quite similar with the price offered from other clinics.

After the actual consultation and meeting with the doctors, the proposed surgery for my case would be:
1) V-line and revision of genioplasty to fix my crooked chin and improve the shape of my jaw line. Doctor in-charge: Dr. Lee Sang-Woo
2) Osteotomy rhinoplasty (shaving part of the nose bone) to straighten the shape of my nose. Doctor in-charge: Dr. Choi Hang-Seok

Booking of the surgery date usually requires 3-days advance notice in DA. As for my case, it happened that they have available slot in the afternoon during the consultation day It usually requires 8 hours of fasting before surgery and I was lucky that I had not eaten anything when I went for the consultation.

I was put to sleep with general anesthesia during the surgery. I could not remember anything after lying on the surgery bed. The whole surgery took 3 hours to complete but It felt like I was asleep for less than 5 minutes. When I was awake, it was really painful and I could literally felt my bones were being cut. The pain level was like 8 out 10 and my tears started to flow the moment I woke up. Eventually, after the nurse injected some pain killers, the pain was slowly subside. Post-operation experience was a torture as I had dry and bad sore throat due to the effect of anesthesia. I could only drink water 3 hours after the surgery. My condition was much improved after I was allowed to drink water.

I was required to be hospitalized for 1 day after the surgery. During this period, the nurse will be periodically check on my condition, replaced the ice-pack and provide injection to prevent further swelling. Some of the nurses in DA speak Chinese, It was a relief as it eased the communication barrier when I needed help from them.

After the first night, my conditions was pretty much improved. After I had discharged from the hospital, I was able to walk around and did some shopping. It was no longer painful but there were a lot of restriction on my movement and I could only have soft diet for the first 7 days. As I also did osteotomy rhinoplasty, I could only use my mouth to breath. Hence, I felt a lot of discomfort due to the dry lips and sore throat for the first 3 days. I also need to consume sufficient pain killers otherwise the pain would start to come back.

The swelling was eventually the worst on the 3rd day. However, it felt more comfortable, as I could start breathing through the nose again. I could not wash my hair or face with all the bandages on my face. Fortunately, DA provided shampoo service and laser treatment for me to freshen up. Not many hospital or clinic will actually provide this service. So, the post-surgery service experience with DA was very pleasant.

After the 7th days, the bandages were finally removed. My jaw had more strength and I could start eating some proper foo, like rice and small-cut meat or vegetables. I was finally able to taste Korean kimchi again.

The stitches inside my mouth was removed on the 10th days. As for my nose, it took longer time to heal and the stitches could only be removed after the 14th days. Probably because this was my revision surgery and the wound would take longer time to recover. The pain during stiches removal was quite bearable. It was not as painful as what others had described. Probably the nurse that attended to me was more gentle and experienced. At the 10th days, I looked almost like a normal person although the jaw movement was still very restricted.

2 weeks after my surgery, I could resume back my normal routine and lifestyle. Most of the major swelling are gone and I looked very normal. Not many of my friends actually realized that I had a plastic surgery. Surprisingly, my overall recovery is very fast. The overall shape of my chin has been improved. However, the actual outcome of the surgery is still very vague as both my chin and nose still look slanted. Probably it is due to the swell and the numbness.I could not wait to be fully recovered and see the actual shape of my new chin and nose. For now, I will stay positive and will provide more before and after picture in future.

Hello everyone,

My whole experience at DAPRS in Korea was mostly satisfying, so I want to share my experience to help others. I found this clinic by talking to people who were also looking for similar surgeries. I really appreciate their help! I did my surgery during spring of 2015. **This is my experience, please do not decide on your clinic just based on me. Please do a lot of research and make sure you like your doctor and post operation care.**

Here is my full review of all the clinics I visited during my trip: http://forum.purseblog.com/asian-plastic-surgery-and-cosmetic-procedures/my-experience-with-daprs-or-da-and-other-901515.html

Here is DAPRS's website, so you know what clinic I am talking about: http://daprs.com/en/

Surgery I had during this trip: V-line, zygoma reduction, fat graft on forehead, fat repositioning under the eyes, and acculift for neck and jaw.

Experience at DAPRS: The waiting time was not bad and I had around 30 minutes to talk with Dr. Lee and a little less time to talk with the nose doctor. I decided to do my surgery after one visit, but you can visit again before you decide. I did not spend that much time with the consultant, which I like. Getting to the final price was quick too because I told them my price and the consultant went to talk to the doctor and then they came back and said that they agree. I felt like I got a local price, so it was not a deal, but only a reasonable price. DAPRS seem like that make everything expensive and then they give you discount to make you feel like you are getting a good deal. There are clinics that are expensive because you pay for the skills of the doctor, but some clinics they just like to give you high prices because they are getting popular or because you are a foreigner. For DAPRS high original prices, maybe a part of the reason is because of the doctor’s skills. Dr. Lee did all my surgeries for this trip and so far, I think his skills are good because my results are good. I still like DAPRS even though they use the high price and discount strategy. I like them because of Dr. Lee. He is good at face contouring and many people come to him for fc surgery. Even though I went during the low season, he is still busy and whenever I visit the clinic for check-ups, I see people healing from face contouring.

This was the clinic I went to do all my surgery for this trip. I chose this clinic because I knew 2 and maybe more girls going there for face contouring. One girl asked for as much v-line as possible, so it looks a little unnatural, but that was what she wanted. When Dr. Lee perform face contouring, he look at the overall face and does not use a ruler. He uses his eyes to determine how much he should cut to get a nice shape. Dr. Lee is like an artist. When I met Dr. Lee, I was lucky to have the nose doctor translate for me because Katie, the in-house translator was on a short vacation. Dr. Lee can understand English, but he does not or choose not to speak it. He took the time to answer my questions, but because he is busy, he tries to stop you from asking so much technical questions. He recommends procedures that you need, which may offend you, but he only recommends a surgery if you ask for his input. He does not push you to doing anything. I knew what I wanted, so he did not have to recommend much. He said that acculift on the jaw was not really needed and my cheekbone was not bad, so they do not need surgery. I was thinking of having chin implants, but he thinks that if I do jaw reduction, I should fix the chin by cutting the bone too. My angle was reduced and shaved from ½ inch from my ear to almost to my chin. The chin was cut horizontally and a piece of the angle bone was place in between the cut at the chin to lengthen my chin and forward it. For both the chin and zygoma surgery, he used titanium plates to fixed the bones to prevent sagging after surgery. Proper fixation is needed so sagging does not form because of face contouring surgery. He did not recommend sliding genioplasty for lengthening and forwarding the chin because the cut would be very wide. It is hard to imagine, you have to look a 3D skull to understand. Still, sliding genioplasty for shortening and forwarding the chin is a good method.

Pros:
1. Dr. Lee is great at face contouring. He worked at View before, but made his own clinic after working there and he is known for face contouring. You also have time to consult with him, but that time is limited because he is busy. I talked to him for 30 minutes or more for my consultation. He takes the time to answer your questions, but also try to stop you from asking too much technical questions because he cannot answer them all.
2. I know other girls who also had face contouring at DA
3. Post op was good overall, rating is 8.5/10
4. Price is affordable and reasonable if you know how to bargain

Cons:
1. Their original prices are expensive (sorry I do not have a record of the original prices)
2. Katie (the English translator) is not so talkative, so she may not tell you everything that is going on during your visit at DA. Still, she does her job, is helpful and friendly.

My experience/check-up after surgery:

Post op- After I woke up from the surgery, I felt like throwing up and I did for a few hours. I threw up mostly saliva and blood. I was supposed to go to my own room to rest, but I felt really sick and did not want to move to another room. I woke up around 6 pm and moved to my room around 11 pm. I was thankful to the nurses for letting me stay in the generally room until I felt well enough to move. The anesthesia makes you feel really sick and some clinic will ask you to walk to another room with that feeling. After I was in my own room, I just rested and called for nurses when I needed them. There is a control you can use to call for nurses to your room. The nurses got me water, ice packs, and pain medication when I started to feel pain. I tried not to use pain medication if I did not need it, so I waited until my pain reached to level 5 out of 10 and then I told a nurse that I am in pain. It hurts in Korean is “Ah pa yo,” but if the nurse is younger than you then you can say “Ah pa.” The only thing I did not like was that around 5 to 6 am, the nurses are tired so they may not come to your room when you use the control. I had to use the control 3 times within an hour before a nurse came. That same nurse was also not so careful during the early morning, so she poked me with a needle accidently when she was trying to inject something into a tube on my wrist. Not all nurses at a clinic are good and I just met one bad nurse at DAPRS, the rest of the nurses were decent and good. Anyhow, I felt better after the anesthesia was gone which took more than 6 hours after I woke up from surgery. Also, I did not even noticed the 2 tubes in my mouth to drain bloods out until a nurse came to empty a sack of blood that was attached to my shirt. The tubes were taken out by Dr. Lee at around 7 am and it was not that painful, around 2.5/10. After resting in your own room, the clinic will release you at 10 am or a little after that time. They will give you a bag with this salty water to gargle, medication for a week, masks, a card that tells you when your next appointment is, and other items. Remember to keep the appointment card because you will need it for all your appointments with the clinic.

2 days post op- Katie will always be at the clinic with you to help you understand what is happening. Although, she may leave or is not there when not much translation is needed. I went there for light treatment to help with swelling. It is basically a light that shine on your face for 20 minutes. I think it sort of help to decrease swelling, but not really effective. Maybe it takes multiple session before the light helps. The nurse checked my stitches inside my mouth to see if I cleaned them well with this salty water they gave me. Also the nurse cleaned my ears because there were bloods inside and cleaned my eyes too. Then a lady washed my hair which was pretty quick, it took less than 5 minutes. I wished that lady would wash it longer or at least let me scratch my scalp more because it was getting itchy after many days of no shower.

5 days post op- I came in to remove tapes on my thigh and chin. I had tapes on my thigh because of forehead fat graft. A nurse also removed my stitches on my thigh and it did not hurt much. Removing tapes hurt more, so maybe you could remove tapes yourself before seeing the nurse. Ask if you do that first. I was wearing jeans and after they took off the tapes, tiny pieces of the jean’s fabric got stuck onto the leftover stickiness of the tapes. Maybe you can find something to get rid of the stickiness. Also, the nurse removed the stitches from an incision for the zygoma reduction which is nearby the hair. I also asked for the light treatment to reduce swelling and Katie told me to come back in an hour for it.

2 weeks post op- I came in and waited a little bit for Katie and then she brought me to a nurse to remove my stitches from inside my mouth. I felt odd during that time because Katie did not say much and just brought me to the nurse. Katie only started talking after the stitches of the jaw and zygoma surgeries were removed. Removal of the chin’s stitches were really painful (9/10), so Katie warned me about the pain before it happened. The removal of the zygoma’s stitches were the 2nd most painful (4/10) and the jaw’s stitches were not that painful (2/10). I teared naturally because of the removal of the chin’s stitches, but luckily it only took about 3 minutes to remove. I also got light treatment during this visit.

My last appointment with DA was just before I left Korea. They took CT scans and pictures of me before I saw Dr. Lee. I asked Dr. Lee questions about my concerns and he showed me my before and after. I talked to him for around 10 minutes or less and then I got a light treatment again to reduce swelling.

My experience with side effects after surgery at DA: I am happy that I did not experience major side effects from my surgeries. My jaw and neck are numb, but hopefully the numbness will all be gone after 1 year. After 1 month post op, about 30% of my numbness went away. The first week after surgery I felt odd sensations, such as my teeth being pulled out, my jaw being pulled in different directions, and sharp pains. These sensations were not that painful and most went away after 1 week. For swelling, it was worse on the 3rd or 4th day after surgery in which my skin was very tight because of how much it stretched and it was hard to open my eyes. My lower eyelid was red because of fat repositioning. In addition, bruising will show up within the first week after surgery. Also, I have not noticed any sagging after surgery and I am more than 1 month post op.

Eight months post op: My face shape is nice even though it is still wide because I have a strong masseter muscle. I still have some numbness at my chin. Fat repositioning works very well, it still looks nice and I don't look tired like before. Some of my fat graft on my forehead is gone, I am not sure how much is left but I am guessing maybe 40-60% is still on my forehead. I don't smoke or drink alcohol to maximize the fat retention. Don't do fat graft if you smoke or drink because you will lose most or all of the fat. Also, fat graft at the jaw area may cause you to have the sagging look or the minor version of jowl. For acculift, it did help tighten the skin at my neck a little bit. I still have two bumps on my neck which were caused from acculift, but it is not noticeable. I am not sure how much acculift improved my jaw, but acculift didn't work that well for me overall. Though, I am happy with my facial contouring result because my face is not sagging.