Seoul is rightfully considered the world capital of plastic surgery - it is here that a record number of plastic surgeries are performed annually. In the famous Gangnam area alone, known as the Seoul Beauty Belt, there are more than 400 plastic surgery clinics, which massively attract not only Koreans themselves, but also medical tourists from all over the world. Together with specialists from the Seoul Plastic Surgery Clinic REGEN Heroine will tell you what are the features of plastic surgery in Korea, what operations are considered top-notch, and why you should come here to correct your appearance.
Acceptable prices
Thousands of foreigners visit South Korea every year, not to relax on Asian beaches, but to tighten their eyelids, straighten their noses, or sharpen their facial contours. First of all, they come from China, America, Russia, Japan and Indonesia. The main reason for such an active flow of medical tourists is the affordability of prices. Plastic surgery in Korea is much cheaper than in Europe or America. Thus, prices for rhinoplasty in Seoul clinics usually start at $1,000, in America the bar rises to $9,000, and in Germany such an operation will cost no less than $6,000.
BeautyMan-Made Ideal: Plastic Surgery Boom in Korea
According to legend, the surgeon’s first clients were sex workers who wanted to please the stationed American soldiers. It seems that the doctor himself promoted the idea that a “more Western” eye shape would help Koreans assimilate into the new, international economy. Thus, Millard brought with him not only new surgical technologies, but also everyday racism and sexism. Even after more than half a century, Western publications traditionally begin stories about body changes in Asians with the line “They want to be white!” or the surprised “You won’t believe it, but they don’t want to be white!” Whatever happened decades ago, arguing today from the position that Korean women want to be like American women is as correct as linking the fashion for balayage with the fact that in Ancient Rome they dyed their hair blonde in competition with German slaves. That is, perhaps it once happened, but it hardly has anything to do with the current state of affairs.
Western beauty standards are for the most part alien to modern Koreans. It only sounds similar in words when we talk, for example, about “big” eyes. In practice, everything is completely different: the same popular blepharoplasty is done not with the goal of becoming like a European, but like local stars. Ideas about ideal features have been honed over decades: today girls dream of eyes like Suzy or Ga In, lips like Sulli and a nose like Tiffany. This is noticed by many foreigners who worked in Korea as English teachers and interacted with schoolchildren and students every day. They were faced with the fact that their students often see Western stars in a completely different way: they seem ugly, provocative or simply strange to them. What seems strangest to them is that in the West there is no single ideal type of appearance, because in Korea everything is completely the opposite. There is still a very small foreign diaspora within the country (and for the most part these are residents of neighboring Asian countries), so society is still just getting used to other types of appearance.
Seoul has long been dubbed the plastic surgery capital of the world. Although South Korea is still behind the United States and Brazil in terms of the number of procedures, the country is unbeatable in terms of the number of operations per person. The same eyelid surgeries are performed so often in Korea that the attitude towards them is comparable to an ordinary trip to the dentist. In 2014 alone, almost one and a half million (out of fifty living in the country) people resorted to blepharoplasty; What can we say if even former President Roh Moo Hyun changed the appearance of his eyelids, about which he released an official statement. Genetically, Asians have a predisposition to drooping upper eyelids without a crease. Therefore, many people undergo surgery to achieve a “double” eyelid, and also lengthen the incision slightly to make the eye larger, and lower the outer corner to look less “aggressive”. Many teenage girls are given this operation by their parents for a good diploma, so after graduating from school they literally go into adulthood with their eyes wide open.
People's desire to change their body has existed for as long as awareness of physicality itself. We change our appearance to set ourselves apart from animals, to be like or unlike others, to overcome the fear of death or to prove our strength. In Korea, with its homogeneous society tied to collective tradition, many feel a burning need to customize their appearance. On the one hand, the desire to blend in with the masses prevails: South Korea has a strong national identity, partly due to a long history of conquest by other nations. Even in language, the collective “we” is often used instead of the selfish “I” when a person talks about himself.
High level of service
Competition in the field of plastic surgery here is fierce: in almost every major district of Seoul there are entire blocks given over to the construction of clinics. Each of them tries to win over as many clients as possible, so they rely not only on the quality of their operations, but also on a high level of service. Thus, for foreigners, most clinics provide a transfer, a personal assistant and a translator, and after the operation - accommodation in a clean and comfortable room so that the patient gets into shape faster.
WHY GO FOR PLASTIC ABROAD WITH THE BENEFIT COMPANY?
If you are seriously thinking about plastic surgery abroad, then we invite you to familiarize yourself with the list of advantages of contacting our medical tourism company:
- We have more than 8 years of experience working with foreign plastic surgery clinics in different countries.
- We are a direct representative of leading plastic surgery clinics in Asia and Europe. We work directly with medical centers, without intermediaries!
- The request to Benefit and all travel arrangements are free.
- It is thanks to our many years of experience that we know which doctor in which clinic is the best in a certain area of plastic surgery, as well as dermatology.
- Only Benefit clients receive exclusive DISCOUNTS at leading plastic surgery clinics.
If you still have questions or want to make a request, write to us!
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What we are going to do?
The Korean ideal of female beauty is a slender body with sexy curves in the right places and a baby-like face with big eyes, full lips and smooth fair skin.
The most popular operation is, of course, eyelid reshaping: since the 1980s, Asia has been obsessed with European ideals of beauty, and Mongoloid features are in great disfavor. Girls and young people ask doctors to remove the epicanthus - the “Mongolian fold”, lift the eyelids and lengthen the shape of the eyes to resemble Europeans. Another “tuning” is fat injections under the eyes, which makes the look more fresh and smiling, like a baby’s.
Another popular procedure is the “small face.” Many Korean women have problems with the width of their faces and ask the plastic surgeon to make it narrower. Of course, this operation is more complicated than blepharoplasty, but not for local doctors. For those who wish, the lower jaw is narrowed and the chin is slightly sharpened, and the forehead is made more convex - this oval shape is considered more “Western”.
Another advertisement reminiscent of the capabilities of Seoul doctors
Photo: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP
Korean plastic surgeons know how to sell their services, giving them beautiful names and convincingly explaining their necessity. For example, operations “Barbie doll nose”, “Beyoncé whitening injections” and “Latin silhouette”. They can also create narrower ankles, dimples, and lift the corners of the lips.
But “buying” large breasts in Seoul is unfashionable. Usually girls ask for a medium size so that it is simply “no worse than other people’s.”
Plastic surgery to correct the shape of the face
Correction of the shape of the lower jaw (protruding, massive, with a protruding mouth, etc.) requires only 2-3 days of inpatient treatment and observation, and complete recovery occurs within 7-14 days after the intervention.
Contour plastic, thanks to which you can give the face an ideally correct shape, is performed by grinding the protruding areas of the bones. You can leave the hospital after such plastic surgery in Korea the very next day.
How much does breast augmentation cost in South Korea: price range
The cost of the operation depends on the pricing policy of the institution you are applying to, the type of implants, the initial condition of the breast, the chosen intervention technique and other factors. The average cost range for magnification surgery ranges from $5,000 to $12,000. Below you can see approximate prices. The price already includes related medical expenses:
| Min. price in USD | Max. price in USD | |
| Augmentation with spherical implants | 7 000 | 10 000 |
| Augmentation with anatomical implants | 8 000 | 12 000 |
| Augmentation with lipofilling | 5 000 | 8 000 |
| Breast lift | 6 000 | 10 000 |
Sometimes it doesn't work out
From everything written above, however, it does not follow that Seoul doctors are super-professionals. News regularly appears in the local press about people suffering from cosmetic surgery and even dying on the operating table.
There are often cases when it turns out that the operation was performed by a doctor who has nothing to do with surgery at all: a dentist, a psychiatrist, a radiologist. Or even a nurse.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that 80 percent of plastic surgeons practicing in Seoul do not have a degree in the field. The vast majority of clinics are not equipped with resuscitation equipment (defibrillators and ventilators), but they may be needed at any time.
Blepharoplasty
Photo: Jo Yong-Hak/Reuters
Oddly enough, all these facts have absolutely no effect on demand: they are in demand both among locals and among foreigners.
Nuances of Korean plastic surgery
Seoul is literally covered with advertisements calling for a better face, which, according to the advertisers, will improve life. Most of the city center is occupied by plastic clinics. According to statistics, every fifth Korean woman has visited a plastic surgeon at least once in her life. In a country where there is a cult of beauty, it is handsome men and women who occupy leadership positions and are successful in their personal lives.
In Korea, appearance is not a gift, it is a tool on the path to a successful life, therefore operations are routine, and doctors have truly enormous experience. Popular Western performers became the founders of the boom in the country, but now Korea itself dictates the norms and standards of plastic music throughout the world.
