Trouble brewing in South Korea's plastic surgery paradise
Sat, Nov 1 2014
By Ju-min Park
SEOUL, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Kim Bok-soon disliked her nose and fantasised about getting it fixed after learning of the Korean superstition that an upturned nose makes it harder to hold on to riches.
While waiting in a hair salon, she saw a magazine advertisement for a plastic surgery clinic and decided to go for it, despite her family's objections.
In South Korea, where physical perfection is seen as a way to improve the quality of life, including job and marriage prospects, plastic surgery procedures can seem as commonplace as haircuts.
Kim's doctor said he could turn her into a celebrity lookalike, and Kim decided to take the plunge, taking loans and spending 30 million won ($28,000) for 15 surgeries on her face over the course of a day.
When the bandages came off and she looked in the mirror, she knew something had gone horribly wrong. Only later did Kim find out her doctor was not a plastic surgery specialist.
Five years later, Kim struggles with an array of medical problems, and is unable to close her eyes or stop her nose from running. The 49-year-old divorcee said she was unemployed and suffers from depression.
"It is so horrible that people can't look at my face," Kim, crying, said in her tiny one-room Seoul flat filled with photographs from before and after the surgeries.
"This is not a human face. It is more revolting than monsters or aliens."
A record from the Seoul central district court shows that Kim's doctor faces a pending criminal case on charges of violating medical law. The case began in 2009 after several patients including Kim reported him to the authorities. The doctor's lawyer turned down Reuters' request for an interview.
The boom in South Korea's $5 billion plastic surgery industry - that's a quarter of the global market according to the country's antitrust watchdog - is facing a backlash, with formal complaints about botched procedures and dodgy doctors doubling in 2013 from a year earlier.
Some plastic surgeons say safety fears could stifle the country's nascent but fast-growing market for medical tourism, especially from China.
Complaints range from unqualified doctors to overly aggressive marketing to "ghost doctors", who stand in for more qualified doctors and perform surgeries on unwitting, anaesthetized patients.
Cha Sang-myun, chairman of the Korean Association of Plastic Surgeons, which represents 1,500 plastic surgeons, is worried about their reputation. Cha and some lawmakers are among those calling for tighter supervision and stricter advertising rules.
"We've got to clean ourselves up," Cha said at his clinic in Seoul's high-end Gangnam district, which is filled with plastic surgery clinics.
"Now, patients from China are coming in the name of plastic surgery tourism but if things go on like this, I don't think they will come in the next few years," he said.
GHOST DOCTORS
In a notorious case last December, a high school student ended up in a coma after surgeries to fix her nose and get a "double-eyelid", a procedure that makes the eyes look bigger.
Cha's group looked into the incident and found the hospital that performed the surgery hired such ghost doctors, and referred the case to prosecutors. It is still under investigation by prosecutors and nobody has been indicted, an official at the association said.
Critics blame lax regulation, excessive advertising and society's obsession with appearance for fuelling an industry run amok.
South Korea is home to more than 4,000 plastic surgery clinics and has the world's highest rate of cosmetic procedures - 13 for every 1,000 people in a population of 49 million - according to government data.
The boom is gaining steam, fuelled by tourism, with the number of visiting Chinese patients tripling between 2011 and 2013, government data shows.
"Advertising too much has made people think surgeries are a commodity. People now think plastic surgeries are like buying stuff somewhere," said Cha, who has performed plastic surgeries for more than two decades.
"But plastic surgery is a surgery too, which can risk your life," he said.
A Miss Korea contestant in the 1980s underwent breast augmentation in 2008 in the hope that it would boost her chances of finding a husband.
Park, 50, who is divorced and gave only her surname, ended up going to the same doctor as Kim. Due to a series of post-surgical infections, her right breast ended up half the size of the left.
"I regret it so much that I tried to kill myself twice," she said. "Plastic surgeries are like an addiction. If you do the eyes, you want to do the nose. And doctors don't say 'you are beautiful enough', but get people to do more." (Editing by Tony Munroe and Tony Tharakan)
-end-
Money Honey :-
There are many plastic surgery establishments here in Singapore too.
Here are a few of them :-
Sloane Clinic
Dream Plastic Surgery
Gangnam Laser Clinic
Cambridge Medical
KAE Clinic
Atlas Medical
there are many more similar aesthetics clinics here in Singapore.
additional read :-
Lollipop.sg
Straits Times
The Asian Parent
The New Paper
There are some similarities between plastic surgery and stock investing.
Plastic surgery is an investment to a land a dream job perhaps. People investing into stocks which they deemed as necessity in order to achieve their 'end goal' dream; many ended up attending get-rich-quick workshops.
Peer pressure is also another cause for plastic surgery especially when your group members have flawless skin and the right shape. In stock investing l see herd instinct as a form of peer pressure to conform; what the majority are doing (buy now! quick cut loss! etc etc) can never be wrong if l follow too.
Both plastic surgery and stock investing are not risk free.
SEOUL, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Kim Bok-soon disliked her nose and fantasised about getting it fixed after learning of the Korean superstition that an upturned nose makes it harder to hold on to riches.
While waiting in a hair salon, she saw a magazine advertisement for a plastic surgery clinic and decided to go for it, despite her family's objections.
In South Korea, where physical perfection is seen as a way to improve the quality of life, including job and marriage prospects, plastic surgery procedures can seem as commonplace as haircuts.
Kim's doctor said he could turn her into a celebrity lookalike, and Kim decided to take the plunge, taking loans and spending 30 million won ($28,000) for 15 surgeries on her face over the course of a day.
When the bandages came off and she looked in the mirror, she knew something had gone horribly wrong. Only later did Kim find out her doctor was not a plastic surgery specialist.
Five years later, Kim struggles with an array of medical problems, and is unable to close her eyes or stop her nose from running. The 49-year-old divorcee said she was unemployed and suffers from depression.
"It is so horrible that people can't look at my face," Kim, crying, said in her tiny one-room Seoul flat filled with photographs from before and after the surgeries.
"This is not a human face. It is more revolting than monsters or aliens."
A record from the Seoul central district court shows that Kim's doctor faces a pending criminal case on charges of violating medical law. The case began in 2009 after several patients including Kim reported him to the authorities. The doctor's lawyer turned down Reuters' request for an interview.
The boom in South Korea's $5 billion plastic surgery industry - that's a quarter of the global market according to the country's antitrust watchdog - is facing a backlash, with formal complaints about botched procedures and dodgy doctors doubling in 2013 from a year earlier.
Some plastic surgeons say safety fears could stifle the country's nascent but fast-growing market for medical tourism, especially from China.
Complaints range from unqualified doctors to overly aggressive marketing to "ghost doctors", who stand in for more qualified doctors and perform surgeries on unwitting, anaesthetized patients.
Cha Sang-myun, chairman of the Korean Association of Plastic Surgeons, which represents 1,500 plastic surgeons, is worried about their reputation. Cha and some lawmakers are among those calling for tighter supervision and stricter advertising rules.
"We've got to clean ourselves up," Cha said at his clinic in Seoul's high-end Gangnam district, which is filled with plastic surgery clinics.
"Now, patients from China are coming in the name of plastic surgery tourism but if things go on like this, I don't think they will come in the next few years," he said.
GHOST DOCTORS
In a notorious case last December, a high school student ended up in a coma after surgeries to fix her nose and get a "double-eyelid", a procedure that makes the eyes look bigger.
Cha's group looked into the incident and found the hospital that performed the surgery hired such ghost doctors, and referred the case to prosecutors. It is still under investigation by prosecutors and nobody has been indicted, an official at the association said.
Critics blame lax regulation, excessive advertising and society's obsession with appearance for fuelling an industry run amok.
South Korea is home to more than 4,000 plastic surgery clinics and has the world's highest rate of cosmetic procedures - 13 for every 1,000 people in a population of 49 million - according to government data.
The boom is gaining steam, fuelled by tourism, with the number of visiting Chinese patients tripling between 2011 and 2013, government data shows.
"Advertising too much has made people think surgeries are a commodity. People now think plastic surgeries are like buying stuff somewhere," said Cha, who has performed plastic surgeries for more than two decades.
"But plastic surgery is a surgery too, which can risk your life," he said.
A Miss Korea contestant in the 1980s underwent breast augmentation in 2008 in the hope that it would boost her chances of finding a husband.
Park, 50, who is divorced and gave only her surname, ended up going to the same doctor as Kim. Due to a series of post-surgical infections, her right breast ended up half the size of the left.
"I regret it so much that I tried to kill myself twice," she said. "Plastic surgeries are like an addiction. If you do the eyes, you want to do the nose. And doctors don't say 'you are beautiful enough', but get people to do more." (Editing by Tony Munroe and Tony Tharakan)
-end-
Money Honey :-
There are many plastic surgery establishments here in Singapore too.
Here are a few of them :-
Sloane Clinic
Dream Plastic Surgery
Gangnam Laser Clinic
Cambridge Medical
KAE Clinic
Atlas Medical
there are many more similar aesthetics clinics here in Singapore.
additional read :-
Lollipop.sg
Straits Times
The Asian Parent
The New Paper
There are some similarities between plastic surgery and stock investing.
Plastic surgery is an investment to a land a dream job perhaps. People investing into stocks which they deemed as necessity in order to achieve their 'end goal' dream; many ended up attending get-rich-quick workshops.
Peer pressure is also another cause for plastic surgery especially when your group members have flawless skin and the right shape. In stock investing l see herd instinct as a form of peer pressure to conform; what the majority are doing (buy now! quick cut loss! etc etc) can never be wrong if l follow too.
Both plastic surgery and stock investing are not risk free.
Money Honey,
ReplyDeleteI've got a male colleague who spent more than $3,000 plus on "hair treatments" at the salons. No results on his thinning hair.
I told him even if he wants treatment, shouldn't he go to a proper hospital or medical specialist than those salons at shopping centres? With pretty girls dressing up to look like medical professionals?
Logic and common sense evidently is no fight to glossy advertisements...