Incredibly Thrilled About a Life Changing Rhinoplasty from Dr. Kwon!

I saw that Dr. Kwon added my before and afters so I decided a full review would be helpful as well! I am one year post op from a DCF rhinoplasty and alar base reduction from Dr. Kwon and I am incredibly thrilled with the results. They were lifechanging, to say the least. I will try to give as much detail as possible for those with questions about the process/my results!

My main concerns were with the overall flatness of the nose bridge, and bulbous/round nasal tip. I originally didn't have an issue with the nostrils, but Dr. Kwon actually suggested the alarplasty at my pre-op appointment. Dr. Kwon doesn't do morphs but I trusted his aesthetic completely. His before and afters on the website are pretty representative of his overall aesthetic (tailored to the specific patient, and very natural looking).

Dr. Kwon and his team (Lilit) were both wonderful. Lilit is super responsive over email (as well as post-op, you can text her with any concerns). Dr. Kwon is super chill and I never felt like he was trying to "sell" me anything or exaggerate the results. I thought he was kind and very honest about what to expect. Both wonderful people to have throughout the process!

My recovery was actually very easy. Dr. Kwon was very skilled and I had minimal post-op pain. I also probably lucked out and didn't have significant impact on my breathing, even with the splints inside my nose. I heard a lot of people have to mouth breath for a while, but I was able to breath through my nose pretty well the whole time. I also had relatively minimal congestion. I only took pain medication the first night, and just followed the post-op instructions diligently with no major issues. I do remember having a bit of extra dripping/bleeding from one of my incisions but that cleared up within two days. Aside from that you will just feel like your face is completely numb and frozen! I remember the incisions on my scalp and ear also yielding minimal pain. The itching ended up being worse than the pain :). One thing to note is that if you do get a DCF rhinoplasty, there will be an incision in your scalp from where the fascia is taken, which will prevent you from opening your mouth/jaw wide (and hurt a bit), so stick to soups and other foods that don't require too much chewing. Aside from that, I basically felt fine enough to go out and take walks/hang out with friends after day three.

After one week, I went back for my first post-op where the stiches and nose splint were taken out. This is probably the most pain you will feel during the process, but nothing to be worried about. A bit of a sting when the stiches are taken out.

The second week went much smoother than the first (as expected). At this point the staples in my scalp started to itch a bit more, with a very minor (1/10) amount of pain. Again, nothing significant. I still had trouble opening my mouth/jaw but it slowly got better day by day.

At the second post-op appointment, the staples in my scalp got taken out. I was very swollen at this point (swelling peaked around the second week) so I looked pretty silly, but I trusted the process and wasn't worried. Dr. Kwon gave me a red light treatment to help the swelling.

The first couple of weeks I continued to wear my cast as much as possible, as well as tape. Note that if you wear eye glasses, you won't be able to wear them for 6 weeks post-op. The first three weeks post-op my face still felt particularly frozen, and my nose bridge felt tender to touch but around the fourth week was when things started to drastically improve. I think my swelling overall was not bad. Around 5-6 weeks I was already super happy with the results. The tenderness in my nose bridge went away, but the tip of my nose remained very sensitive to touch until about the 4-5 month period. Each person's swelling will be different but around the 4 week mark I felt "presentable." It continued to go down drastically and around the 6-7 week mark I felt 70-80% had already gone away. I was able to fully unhinge my jaw with no pain in my scalp area around the 2-3 month mark (although I was able to open my mouth enough to eat most food well enough by the 3 week mark).

I'm now one year post op and incredibly thrilled about the results. All of my aesthetic concerns were absolutely addressed and I'm happy I followed Dr. Kwon's advice about doing the alarplasty. I think the nostrils are actually one of the highlights of the procedure. I think Dr. Kwon has an excellent sense of aesthetics and I just feel my facial features are in better balance. I do not have any scars from the procedure and healed beautifully. I grew up being incredibly insecure about my nose, to the point that it affected me socially and really hindered my overall life quality. I'm happy to say I don't even notice my nose in the mirror anymore and I'm enjoying life to the fullest.

Your nose will change a bit permanently after the procedure. This was something I was very worried about so I'll address some other long term concerns/questions I had about the procedure below:

- will your nose be "stiff/hard?": Yes, it will be stiffer and harder than it was pre-op. I can't grab the tip of my nose and rotate it in a circle. The tip of my nose has also lost a bit of sensitivity. That said, I thought the stiffness would be something that bothered me but I don't notice at all. Better not to touch your nose anyways :)

- will the skin be changed/affected?: For me personally, yes the skin changed a bit. It gets a lot dryer/will peel, but as long as I apply moisturizer semi-consistently this is also not an issue at all.

- Any changes to breathing?: Absolutely none for me. I was super worried about internal valve issues/collapse which is sometimes a side effect of reductive rhinoplasties, but I've had zero impact to my breathing (it might even be better than before who knows)

- Can I pick my nose?: I had this concern regarding the alarplasty that sometimes you won't be able to pick your nose anymore. I personally don't have this issue (although I wasn't able to until about the 6 month mark, when my nose really softened overall)

I think that wraps up any permanent changes I had to my nose. Overall, it was super worth it and there are no permanent changes that are super noticeable to me/impact my quality of life.

My last piece of advice to those considering the procedure is to carefully measure the risks and benefits. At the end of the day, Dr. Kwon is a supremely talented surgeon, but he's still operating on a living human body which can be unpredictable. I would weigh whether an good improvement to your aesthetic concerns would outweigh potential minor flaws (e.g., slight asymmetries, small blemishes/bumps etc.). My procedure was not 100% perfect but I would say it was about 90-95% so, which was an absolutely fantastic result. Thus, I can give Dr. Kwon a perfect 5 stars, and my glowing recommendation!