Tae Ho Kim, MD

Hi everyone, I am excited to be sharing my experience at BRAUN Plastic Surgery in Seoul, Korea. I hope this is helpful for all of you interested in getting surgery here. FYI, I am going to update this thread continually so stay tuned!

Background: I had my heart set on Braun after watching their plastic surgery vlogs on YouTube and being really impressed by how amazing the results were, especially on South East Asian faces. I also scheduled with a couple more clinics just to get a fair ideas and various opinions on my facial features.

The overall atmosphere of the clinic was very neat and spacious and the staff members were all super polite and helpful. There were always people waiting in the lobby so it was a good sign. First, we did the CT scans and bloodwork to make sure I was healthy. My main areas of concern for surgery were my nose, and face shape. I wanted a smaller face and taller nose (but still have an overall natural look, not too overdone). I had prepared some reference photos in advance to show the doctors.
The consultation lasted around 2 hours, but around half that time was spent waiting for the facial contouring doctor, Dr. Tae-Gyu Kim. You get the feeling that he is a very busy man. Dr. Tae-Gyu Kim is undisputedly the face of Braun, as you can see very clearly when you walk across a big poster of him advertising one of the videos that he has on YouTube as you exit the subway station to Gangnam. He is a very decorated facial contouring surgeon, having developed his own patented inverted-V osteotomy technique. Unlike the other clinics that I visited, Braun did not seem to have any VIP rooms, probably because Dr. Tae-Gyu Kim prefers to consult with you in his personal consultation room that he has decorated with his vast awards.

I consulted with Dr. Tae-Gyu Kim for facial contouring and Dr. Ji-Won Lee for nose. The diagnosis for my nose was basically the same as the doctors from other clinics. But the facial contouring was slightly different. Dr. Tae-Gyu Kim also recommended paranasal augmentation to lift up the sunkeness right next to my alars. This was something the doctors from other clinics did not mention.

To be honest, I didn’t expect so many procedures need to be performed on my face. But you can see with your own eyes that Dr. Tae-Gyu Kim has the expertise that other doctors do not have. He is the only one I can tell who has patented a surgical technique that he himself developed. He has personally published several papers on facial contouring. You can tell the moment you step inside his consultation room that he is the real deal. And that is something the other clinics I consulted with just do not provide.

All in all, if you're planning to go to Korea to get plastic surgery, you'd better save up a lot of money. Some clinics will even offer you the same promises and post-ops care at a more competitive prices, but do not be fooled. Not only is it your money, it is also your face and your future depends on it (I'm being a little dramatic but it's somewhat true!). At the end, it is the skill of the doctors and their ability to provide you with the appropriate diagnosis and treatment that all matter. And that is why I chose Braun.

Also wanted to shout out to the translation team, especially Esther. She is the one who guided me through everything and helped translate for me during the consultation.

Anyway, I'll be updating this post with a 1-mth, 3-mth, and 6-mth post ops in the future. So if Braun screws up my face, I'll let you know. Hope it's not the case though lol!

So appreciate Dr.Kim! He is such a skilled plastic surgeon for those looking for very very natural results. Healing time was very short and I even heard nurses say how careful and gentle he is in the surgery room. Dr. Kim doesn’t charge for his consultations which is a big plus and is super patient. It’s been a few months since I had surgery and I am just loving the results. I really appreciate his staff- they are all like family. He doesn’t show past patient results which got me nervous but I trusted him the most out of all the plastic surgeons I met with in nyc! You will not regret working with him!!

I got my chicken pox scar excised 2 weeks ago and I love what he did, he turned it into a line that had flat contours, so it’s easily covered by makeup. Before, the scar was in a prominent position on my cheek and cast a significant circular shadow when my hair was down.

I got a primary rhinoplasty and it’s been two weeks but it already looks great. I had a typical asian nose, bulbous tip and wide alars. He narrowed the alars so it harmonized with my other features and added cartilage grafts to define my tip. It’s only two weeks so I’ll wait another 22 months to update as I have thick skin.

Updated on 6 Apr 2021:
Update on my nose job. Looks great. No one can tell I did something until I tell them. It makes me look younger. Everything about my old nose that didn’t fit my face is gone - the wideness with the alarplasty, the thickness with the tip plasty. People keep DMing for photos so I attached a before and after, both with the same makeup.

I have chicken pox scar since I was a kid and wanted to remove them since long time ago but i worry too much about the price and the result so i decide to do removal surgery on July 17th 2019. I really hope it turn out good.

Updated on 22 Jul 2019:


Updated on 6 Nov 2023:
After 4 years. I am happy with this cut scar than chicken pox scar. Its been a quite while but definitely worth it. I will do more if i have to but money is tight now si ill wait for next treatment. I wish i have known sooner

I had my rhinoplasty done with dr Kim in 2018. That was one of the best, most correct and successful choices in my life!!! He is an artist and he truly knows aesthetics. My nose was both too big and too wide, and the angle between my nose and my upper lip was too small. He shrank my nose magically and changed the angle to what I want. My nose matches my face beautifully now, and it looks so natural. A lot of people say I looks prettier but cannot tell why. I'm so happy with the results!

wanted a natural looking treatment to combat looking tired. I did not want to do any sort of surgery and read up on a product that makes your body produce its own collagen. The injectios were done over two sessions a few weeks apart. The procedure was fairly painless... akin to getting blood drawn at its worst. the swelling/ bruising/ soreness was minimal. I was able to go right back to work. after care is very simple and easy. and results were extremely natural

Had my rhinoplasty by Dr. Kim of West Village Plastic Surgery on 3/3/2016. I had a pleasant recovery with a normal amount of swelling, NO bruising, and minimal pain. I went back to work a few days after the splint was removed. Dr. Kim is a true artist and gave me the nose of my dreams! He doesn't give you a "plastic" look. My nose is beautiful and makes my entire face look better without screaming "nose job". In fact, no one has even asked me yet if I had one- but I've received other questions/comments asking if I've lost weight and telling me I look good- but no one (not even my relatives or co-workers) have noticed that I got my nose done. It hasn't even been a month and my swelling has gone down significantly, and I love my nose!

I had several moles removed when I was 11 and resulted in several deep and ugly scars on my face. They look very much like chickenpox scars, and I decided to repair the them last year and have been researching for doctors for a while on this forum. I have my worst scar excised on Nov 25th and I'll update once the stitches are removed, right now it is still covered under the surgical tape.

Updated on 4 Dec 2015:
I saw my new post op scar for the first time today, and happy with the progress. Dr. Kim said I need to apply sunscreen and it will still take a year to fully heal.

Updated on 11 Dec 2015:
My scar is still red, but flattened a lot.

Updated on 7 Jan 2016:
Here's an updated photo, my scar is still hard and red, but it's getting better. Since I have a long scar, I know I need to give it more time to heal, but it looked much better from a month ago, right?

Updated on 27 Jul 2016:
After more than 6 months, I went back to check with the doctor again and found sometime to take a picture. The lighting wasn't good for the picture, but you have my other scars as comparison. My scar is almost flat, sometimes it is still a little red, other times you can barely see it. Overall I'm happy with the operation.

Updated on 11 Feb 2017:
It's been more than a year since Nov 25th, 2015 and I love how my old scar looks now. You can still see a line when you look closely and when it's really cold outside (like right now in NYC), my old scar looks more red and obvious, but it is such an improvement from what it was before. I'm still planning to improve it, maybe with laser, but still researching my options. I don't plan to start the treatment with my next scar until I'm completely satisfied with this one.

I had noticed some signs of aging in my face which gave me a bit of a tired look, even though I've been sleeping very well. In particular, there were some hollowness under my eyes and my naso-labial folds were getting more pronounced than they used to be. I had no deep wrinkles yet, but I was frustrated by these folds/bags which gave me a stern/severe look.

After doing some research online, I chose to visit Dr. Kim to enquire about treatment options. As I expected based on his writings online, he recommended Sculptra and advised me to steer clear from other facial fillers like Juvederm, which - in his opinion - give an unnatural look and are not long lasting.
I followed his advice and did two two rounds of Sculptra injections, spaced out by a month.

It's been over two months since the first treatment and I am very pleased with the results. My cheeks have regained volume, which visibly smoothed my naso-labial fold lines and made the hollowness under my eyes disappear. The tiredness I was seeing in my face is completely gone and I feel that I look fresh, well rested and rejuvenated.

As promised, the results are extremely natural. It doesn't look at all since I had anything done, which is exactly what I wanted to avoid. It took a few weeks for the results to start showing. I was on the fence about doing a second round of injections, since I was already fairly satisfied with the changes observed a month after doing the first round, but I'm glad I injected a second vial, as it makes me feel as though the results will be even more satisfying and long lasting.

In summary, I'm very satisfied with the results of the Sculptra treatment. I got exactly the results I was hoping to achieve. I thought the price ($950/vial x 2) was a bit steep, but in the end, I think it was definitely worth it.

I went back to see Dr. Kim to get my Botox done! I looked through yelp and he has everywhere these amazing reviews! I also got my sculptra done and I looove it! I don't look so tired any longer since I got that done. Well anyway back to Botox or better Dysport! Dr. Kim gave me a free consultation and evaluated my face. I really like the in depth education I always get from him.
Its now over a week and I am sooo amazed by the outcome. I look fresh and relaxed. I also feel better! I would recommend Dr. Kim to anyone who would like to naturally look fresh and is complaining about looking tired!