Why I Chose Dr. Charles S. Lee for my Asian Rhinoplasty

I've found that the most frustrating part of the healing process is the improvements with my nose are non-linear, meaning my nose does not necessarily look better one consecutive day after another, but on one day it can look sharp and small and the very next day it can go back to looking bulbous and round. Apparently this is very normal, but mentally frustrating nevertheless. My nose is, however, continuing to improve overall as time goes by. My nose at one month is overall much improved from when it was at two weeks. Here are a couple pictures at around one month; there are no filters, contouring or other alterations to the pictures. You can see the tip is sharper than at two weeks and I'm very happy with the bridge, which looks natural and the perfect height for my face. And my nose looks even better in real life than in pictures, FYI.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you cannot judge anything during the first couple weeks after surgery. While the splint is on, there's really nothing you can see so I never bothered to look at my nose during this time; what I focused on instead was making sure I was cleaning the nose and doing all the things they suggest to minimize the swelling. After the splint is off and the stitches removed at around one week, you still cannot see any real improvement yet as everything is very swollen. It wasn't until about two seeks post op that I started to see some improvement in my nose size and shape. And at about one month, there is more visible improvement. So for those that just had surgery, don't stress about what you're seeing. It will be very different in the coming weeks and you should start to see changes after about 2-3 weeks that should be encouraging.

Luckily, I've had no issues with my recovery so far. The only problem is when I tape my nose, the tape leaves a very sticky film that is difficult to remove, despite me using medical grade Goo remover. The swelling fluctuates day to day but on most days, I'm happy with it and am perfectly fine going out. I noticed that on the days after I eat salty food, my nose was more bulbous at the tip the next morning. It's hard to imagine that this swelling is expected to continue for another year or so! I just need to stay patient. At about two weeks post op, I was able to capture the changes in photos and thought it'll be helpful to share. Dr. Lee did a solid rib graft on my bridge that was about 2 mm, reduced my alars and de-fatted and refined my tip. My main goal was to improve my frontal view,. The attached photos have no filter or any retouching; I was in different areas of the house so the lighting was different. In the before I have no makeup on. In the 2 weeks after, I have makeup on my face but not my nose (didn't want to clog the pores on my nose since I cannot clean it properly right now). I'm happy so far with how it looks despite all the swelling and am feeling good about having chosen Dr. Lee. Hope this helps anyone out there doing their research.

I've benefited greatly from reading everyone's posts and reviews about Asian rhinoplasty and so I wanted to share my own experience in case it helps someone contemplating the procedure. Sorry if it's a bit long but I really enjoyed reading more detailed reviews so I'm trying to do the same.
Why did I do it and why now? I had been contemplating rhinoplasty on and off for more than 10 years. I have a round, short nose tip but my bridge was decent. My nose went with my overall face even though I always felt I would look better if my nose was improved. I don't use a lot of makeup or contour my nose/face and my preference was to get a permanent change. I didn't get the procedure done earlier because I was always concerned with the risk of not liking the results and because my nose did not bother me that much. 
During the pandemic, I started asking myself whether there were things I always wanted to do in life but had not done. Getting a rhinoplasty was on my list (along with other non-beauty related things, please don't judge me, haha), and so I made a decision to either do it now, or just forget about it forever. 
Who did I consider? In my prior years of research, I had consults with Dr. Anil Shah in Chicago, Dr. Sam Rizk in New York, Dr. Robert Kotler in LA (really not sure why I considered him since I don't think he specializes in Asian noses) and several other LA doctors. There were not many surgeons specializing in Asian rhinoplasty ten or so years ago and so I considered doctors that had experience with ethnic rhinoplasties. I'm not sure if Dr. Donald Yoo was practicing yet at the time I first started researching and while I recall seeing Dr. Lee's work online, back then, I believed his results were too subtle and I thought I wanted more of a change.
When I I re-started my research about six months ago, I narrowed it down to Dr. Lee and Dr. Yoo. I had already had a consult with Dr. Yoo two years ago and went back to see him again and both consults had gone fine. Dr. Yoo described the results he thought I could achieve based on my current nose and frankly it was not too dissimilar to what Dr. Lee ended up saying. I thought Dr. Yoo would be the one. 
Why did I ultimately chose Dr. Lee? As I kept thinking more and more about the results I wanted, I realized I just wanted a more refined version of my existing nose and I did not want a drastic change. I wanted to still look like myself, just better. Thus, I decided to get a consult with Dr. Lee and started to look at his before and after pictures. I also looked at every before and after picture from Dr. Yoo I could get my hands on. And what I realized was that both doctors were very good at what they did but many of Dr. Yoo's before and afters completely changed the look of the person's face (and this could have very well been what those patients asked for). Youtuber Maiphammy is one example of a very drastic change and I realized I did not want anything remotely close to such a change. The post of HonestRhinoplastyReview also had an impact on me as I completely agreed with everything she said about the aesthetics of her after nose by Dr. Yoo as opposed to her wish pictures. I don't doubt Dr. Yoo is fully capable of doing the same natural, conservative noses as Dr. Lee and everything in between, but I thought there was a small risk his aesthetics may not be the same as mine. So I ultimately decided to choose Dr. Lee over Dr. Yoo because I would rather take the risk of getting too minimal of a change and still look like me, over the risk of getting a nose that didn't fit my face. 
I also selected Dr. Lee because he has more than 20 years of experience as a surgeon (not to say surgeons practicing for a shorter period are not good but it brought me comfort that he's probably seen it all given how long he's been practicing) and he was very accessible during my decision making process. I had his cell phone and felt comfortable texting him questions and pictures. Every question I asked him, his responses made sense to me and he appeared to understand all the nuances of what I was trying to achieve through the rhinoplasty. In all, I had three virtual discussions with him (15-30 minutes each) and one in person meeting (about 45 minutes) prior to my surgery; I also sent him a few emails in between with pictures and notes of my goals. He never made me feel like I was bothering him and I would have felt comfortable calling him directly after my surgery if I had any questions or concerns. 
As to price, it was not a factor for me because both Dr. Lee and Dr. Yoo are expensive when compared to the "average" rhinoplasty cost. If you break it down, Dr. Yoo is actually not more expensive because his surgeries take longer and thus you are in the OR and with the anesthesiologist longer. Dr. Yoo estimated about 5.5 hours for my surgery and Dr. Lee estimated 2.5 hours, and it turned out about that long. The shorter surgery time was a favorable factor for me because I believe the shorter the time under GA, the better. 
Dr. Yoo's method also requires a third component of removing some fascia on the scalp to wrap the diced cartilage. Dr. Lee's rib incision is about 1 inch or 3 cm versus Dr. Yoo says his is only 1 cm, so it probably takes Dr. Yoo longer to remove your rib cartilage with such a smaller incision (btw, I looked into it and 3 cm is about the average incision size for most surgeons). My breasts are such that any scar would be covered by my crease so trying to save 2 cm was not significant to me. I thought, however, avoiding getting the fascia removed was a factor that weighed in favor of going with Dr. Lee's method. 
For those deciding between these two doctors, keep in mind they use different rib graft methods for the bridge. Dr. Lee does solid rib and Dr. Yoo does DCF. That was another factor in my decision making as I was concerned of the possible complications with solid rib, mainly potentially warping. It appears most doctors use DCF so I was also thinking maybe it's better to go with the majority? But if you do the research, the risk of warping for solid rib is less than 2% and in experienced hands like Dr. Lee, it might be less. When I asked Dr. Lee why he used solid rib, he said he used to do DCF but switched to solid rib because it was more predictable. He explained that doctors have to estimate how much the DCF graft placed on the bridge will be absorbed by a patient and overfill or make the graft larger to account for this, and sometimes it doesn't absorb as much or too much, thereby not resulting in the intended or ideal height -- so there's some chance to DCF. With solid rib, it's pretty much what you see when you put it in; but I think this could also be a negative because if you get too high of a bridge, it's not going to absorb. I think there are pros and cons with either method but I was comfortable with solid rib after hearing Dr. Lee's explanation. Plus, as I said earlier, I believed there was a benefit to a shorter surgery time and one less procedure on the scalp.
How do I feel about the procedure and my results so far? I know many of you may ask for before and after pictures but at this point I'm still very swollen and have not decided whether I feel comfortable sharing my pictures. Dr. Lee did what we discussed and even at my swollen state, it is a better version of my original nose. I can say that after the cast removal, I was preliminarily happy with the results and can envision how my nose will continue to become refined as time passes, and I sure hope it does so! As I write this, I have no regrets on going through with the procedure. Only time will tell if I'll like my final results, and I'll try to post an update then. 
What I've also realized is even though in person I can already see impactful changes to my nose, I cannot capture it on camera. On camera, my nose looks similar to my original nose from the front. But in person, it's less round and more projected, as I requested. It's a little bizarre but true. So what I learned from this is that sometimes photos do not capture a doctor's work, especially when it's more subtle. I will see if the changes become more noticeable on camera as I heal and will update then.
One last note is that I also consulted with Dr. Goretti Ho Taghva for my rhinoplasty and although she seems like a genuinely nice person and could potentially give me the results I wanted, I ruled her out fairly quickly because: 1) she did not have a point of view on which bridge grafts to use on me -- she uses artificial, DCF with a person's rib or cadaver rib, whatever the patient prefers -- and I wanted a surgeon with extensive experience in their preferred technique, and 2) her quoted pricing was right up there with Dr. Lee and Dr. Yoo, which surprised me. 
I hope my comments were helpful and I wish everyone the best of luck on their rhinoplasty journey.