Beautiful results

The swelling continues to decrease as the months ago by. I kinda miss the swollen look because my bridge was so high, but how the results have progressed fits my features perfectly. It looks very natural and was what I asked for.
I have normal sensation in my nose and lips, and my smile is normal now. While the tip is still a tiny bit hard to the touch, it isn't uncomfortable or as stiff as it was when I was only one or two months post-op.

I'm so happy with my new nose! I'm getting used to how it looks and am still admiring how my face looks at different angles. Recently, I went back to work, and no one has made comments about my nose. However, I am receiving compliments that something is "different," usually about my face being slimmer or my eyes looking different.
I did recently tell a friend about it, and now they want work from Dr. Kwon too! Hehehe.

I'm a young woman who has always been relatively insecure about the height of my nose and how bulbous the tip was. My dad has a really high, bulbous nose and my mom has a low bridge but a really petite and refined time -- I kinda ended up with an unfavorable combination of the two. LOL. Even though I still felt pretty and had no serious issues with my looks, I knew that a nose job would improve my facial harmony and balance out my large eyes and strong jawline!
It took about a year and a half of research for me to pick the right doctor. I'm so happy that I decided to have my Asian Rhinoplasty with Dr. Kwon! I consulted with two other well known Asian rhinoplasty doctors in Beverley Hills, but I felt that I didn't agree with their aesthetic styles. In addition, the two other surgeons made me feel a bit rushed. I did a bunch of stalking and also found that Dr. Kwon trained with Jay Calvert and Rollin K. Daniel, well-known plastic surgeons who pioneered and perfected diced-cartilage fascia. This was a big selling point for me! Most importantly, I liked Dr. Kwon's before and afters, and I reached out to three of his former patients through Instagram, Reddit, and Realself. They were all very happy with their rhinoplasty results and encouraged me to go with Dr. Kwon. This was a lot more reassuring than reading anonymous reviews online (shout out to Jess tlu (who shares the same name as me), and checkerpattern!). 
When I spoke to Dr. Kwon, I felt confident that I could have a long-term doctor-patient relationship with him as a result! He is very straight-forward, down-to-earth, and has a great sense of humor. There was a lot of laughing in his office and side-conversations. I think Dr. Kwon brings his whole self to his work, and it shows through how well he treats his patients! He honestly feels like a cool uncle that I would hang out with on weekends. We also bonded over the fact that he did some schooling in the Bay Area! Anyway, when I showed him my aesthetic goals, he informed me that this was a bit more aggressive and asked if I was OK with that. Dr. Kwon also is really objective and sensitive when it comes to patient communication. I knew my bridge was low but he confirmed it really gently. Another thing to note is that Dr. Kwon doesn't really like marketing very much, and actually mentioned that social media is something he *had* to eventually do. I really liked this about him because even with minimal marketing, he has two locations and stays relatively booked out. His work really speaks for itself. His before and afters are BEAUTIFUL, and how down-to-Earth he is was very refreshing after consulting with several high-profile doctors. I would call him a hidden gem! 
Technically speaking, he explained to me that he would have to use a septal extension graft to extend my tip, manipulate my lower-lateral cartilages, and use diced-cartilage. My tip was slightly rotated downwards, so he planned to de-rotate my tip to project at a more feminine angle (~106 degrees), and then to augment my bridge by placing a diced-cartilage dorsal graft. One of my concerns was my low radix, which I wanted to increase the height of without risking an avatar-look. He explained that this would be corrected with the dorsal graft. One big thing I appreciated about Dr. Kwon was that he gave me less-invasive options and emphasized that it would be better if I had fewer wounds. For instance, he gave me the option of using cadaveric cartilage instead of my own rib (this yields almost identical results to your own rib since it's wrapped in fascia or porcine-mesothelium). He also asked if I wanted to use my own fascia or porcine-mesothelium, which is a bio-material that also yields identical cosmetic results. In the end, I went with meso-diced-cartilage rhinoplasty, with rib-cartilage from my own tissue.
At the surgical center, I went in around 7 AM and met with nurse Jane and Dr. Riggio, my anesthesiologist. Jane was super kind, and she helped me calm down a lot before my surgery. Dr. Riggio also promised he would take care of me, and we had a nice banter. He told me he's been doing anesthesiology for over 20 years, so it was super reassuring! I honestly don't even remember when I knocked out, but it happened very quickly. Going under isn't that scary when you have the right people taking care of you. Dr. Kwon was also super present to check in on me before surgery -- he stopped by to say hi and ask how I was doing, and then we took before photos. I was so anxious but he kept making me crack up, so by the time I was wheeled into the OR, I felt really safe. 
After my surgery, Dr. Kwon stopped by and told me that the surgery went well. I barely remember this since I was so drugged up, but he mentioned that he actually took an extra hour on my nose. The surgery was projected to be 4 hours, but he was unhappy with the results since it looked "ok" but it wasn't good enough for him. So he took everything out and kept iterating and sculpting the grafts until my nose looked perfect. They took several photos of this process, and they showed me after! There were about 4-5 photos of different iterations on my nose. For one interaction, the nose was too upturned and short, in another iteration he felt that there was too much volume near the tip, and so he kept sculpting it until everything was balanced. I really appreciated that Dr. Kwon took his time with my nose. He's someone who is proud of his work, and it shows! 
Before and during my recovery, I spoke a lot with Lilit, his wonderful patient care coordinator! She's super kind, gorgeous, and very easy to talk to. My sister, who came with me, and I LOVED her. She really hooked it up, by making sure that I got LED-light therapy to reduce swelling a couple of days after the surgery and making sure that my sister got the aesthetic that she wanted for her lip injections with Dr. Kwon. 
I actually have less than average-swelling, so I don't think the final results will be that different from the images shown here. The radix has gone down a lot, but tip refinement will continue to occur within the next couple of weeks! Overall, I feel so incredibly lucky to have found Dr. Kwon and to have had the opportunity for him to do his magic on my nose! It's my face, and his work really made me look and feel prettier than I already was! He matched my aesthetic very closely, while still retaining the personal characteristics of my nose which made me look like myself. My side profile now looks very feminine, with a natural dip in the radix and a nicely projected upturn! The front doesn't look pinched but instead is refined while retaining a cute softness. I feel prettier! The result is so natural that my friends can't seem to figure out what I had changed. My friend said that my face looked slimmer and that I was "losing baby fat and aging like a fine wine," and I laughed and thought "Ah, keep em' guessing." This was really the best decision I have ever made. Go to Dr. Kwon!