Featured News Article from Korean Tourism Newsapaer
[LIFE Plastic Surgery in Spotlight]
Providing 1:1 Personalized service through
perfect after-care.
Total of 6 specialized surgery center including
Body line center
English and Chinese Coordinator in the
clinic and alliance with 5 star hotels
Q: Your clinic seems to have nice name.
Please introduce your clinic.
A: I named the clinic, LIFE Plastic surgery
in order to create comforting feeling to foreigner patients. Many people seem
to receive the name well so I feel the importance of name more and more.
Currently, at LIFE Plastic Surgery, we have total of 6 specialized centers for eye,
nose, facial contouring, breast, anti-aging and body line to seamlessly
integrate cosmetic surgery and beauty industry.
Furthermore, in order to attract foreign
patients and for satisfactory service and after-care, we have our own
international department. We have our own English and Chinese coordinator in
our clinic to accommodate foreign patients’ needs. Furthermore, by having
alliance with five star hotels, we provide personalized 1:1 service for
customer’s satisfaction.
Q: How is the result of foreign patients
attracting effort?
A: In Korea, there is even saying it is
harder to find people without any plastic surgery experience. That just shows
how popular plastic surgery has become and how many clinics there are. Domestic
markets are already in saturation. To find more patients and to provide service
to where it is needed, we are putting much effort to attract foreign patients. We
feel as though foreign patients are our especially valued future customers and are
doing our best to provide perfect service to patients from abroad.
Every year, medical tourists that visit
Korea are increasing. Customers from Asian countries like China and Mongol as
well as from North America and Europe are increasing every year. In order to attract
foreign patients, we made various efforts, and 30% of our total customers are
from abroad.
Q: What is your opinion about medical
tourism after-care?
A: In fact, for plastic surgery, checking
up on the patient’s condition after the surgery is a must. To see whether the
patient is experiencing any side-effects, whether there is anything to check-up
on, we need to look at patient’s long term recovery. However, when there is
medical tourism through some broker, due to extravagant amount commission issues,
there are often insufficient after-care.
This not only damages Korean wave that we
have difficultly accumulated over times but also brings negative stigma to
plastic surgery number one location. Therefore, all the cooperation from
medical tourism service industry is needed to adequate respond to needed
after-care.
Q: How would you compare Korea’s Plastic
Surgery technique with that of other
renowned countries’?
A: I would say South Korea’s Plastic
surgery technique and quality is the world’s best. In 2006, I had a chance to
visit US to observe top-touch American surgeons during operation. During that
time, I felt that Korean surgeons have better technique and skill. Unless there
have been much shift or changes I am sure the gap in technique and quality has
become wider. Personally, if I were to think about the reason for that, Koreans
have very have difficult facial structure to perform surgery on to begin with.
This is because compared to westerns the facial features are smaller and even subtle
changes make big impact. It takes skillful technique to incorporate beauty into
the tiny features. I am sure there had been many trial-and-errors. Fundamentally,
Korean patients have really high standard and are often very difficult and
particular (laugh).
Q: What would you say is LIFE’s
competitiveness?
A: Perhaps it is because I was aired on
Australian TV News, but I have had much experience performing surgeries on
foreign patients. There is subtle difference in surgeries on westerners and on Asians. Not only the physical features are different,
but also bone structure and body types are different. Therefore, through rich
experience in performing surgeries, the doctor needs to know the difference,
and only then the surgery result is more effective.
Also, Life Plastic Surgery is run according
personalized 1:1 care system. Therefore, the wait is relatively short and from
consultation to after-care, we provide customer-oriented service at all times.
We always adhere and be true to the basics to provide the best service
possible. We are using various means and routes to advertise Life Plastic
Surgery’s outstanding medical service to customers all over the world.
Q: When is the time that you felt most
proud about your work as a plastic surgeon?
A: There was a patient who wanted to be a
stewardess. Her personality and body traits were suffient, but her facial image
was getting in the way of realizing her dream. When I was performing surgery, I
was not aware of her situation, but after about 6 months she came back with her
uniform on. She told me later that after getting the surgery, she became a
flight attendant. She thanked me for excellent result. In such cases, I get exhilarating
joy and rewarding feeling as a doctor.
Ultimately, physical traits are nothing but
subjective opinions of what is beautiful and what is not. However, in Korea, if
two people have competency, the reality is that a company is more likely to
pick those who are more good-looking or beautiful. Therefore, I think getting a
surgery according to the one’s situation and appropriate for the individual can
be great life turning for anybody.
Q: What would be the future of LIFE Plastic
Surgery?
A: LIFE is emphasizing and putting much
effort on global marketing with medical professional such as translator and coordinator.
Often times, for patients from abroad, they get multiple surgeries at once and
often they cannot stay long in Korea. Short recovery period might interfere
with the after-care. Therefore, sufficient communication is needed before
planning your schedule and visiting the clinic, to allow enough recovery time period
and perform surgery at a most suitable time. For foreign patients we provide
on-line consultation to provide thorough after-care.
Q: As a doctor, what would be your future
goal?
A: In general, when people think about plastic
surgeon, they think of only aesthetic surgery. In other words, they think off
doctors who only care about money, but that is a misconception.
Plastic surgeons fundamentally study from
reconstruction during their college year. However, if the clinic is not
big-sized clinics, there is much difficulty performing reconstructive surgeries.
There are numerous cases where the circumstances, facility wise, do not work
out. If I get a chance, I want to provide medical service to those who have
much physical damage and require reconstruction in their body, to make them
look close to average healthy people and give back through performing
surgeries.
Representative director/ Board Certified Plastic Surgeon
Rhee Se Whan
•Master & Bachelor degree, School of Medical Hanyang University
•Specialist, Plastic Surgery, Medical Center, Hanyang University
•Adjunct Professor, Plastic Surgery, Medical Center, Hanyang University
•Member, The Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon
•Member, The Korean Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
•Member, Korean Cleft Lip and Palate Association
•Member, The Korean Society for Microsurgery
•Member, The Korean Society for Surgery of the Hand
•Member, The Korean Society for Hair Surgery Association
•Member, International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
•Member, Japanese Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
•Member, American Society of Laser Medicine Surgery
•Member, International Confederation for Plastic Reconstructive Aesthetic Surgery
•Member, Japan Society of Aesthetic Surgery
•Member, European Academy of Cosmetic Surgery
Free Consultation with Life Plastic Surgery
TEL: +82 70 4726 4302
