One Year After Cosmetic Surgery in Korea: The Honest Update Nobody Talks About
Last Updated on July 2, 2026
You might think that by the time a year has passed after cosmetic surgery, everything has settled, healed, and resolved itself neatly. And in many ways, it has. But there are also things I’m still noticing, still adjusting to, and still thinking about that I wish someone had told me beforehand. If you read my original post about my experience with genioplasty, elasticum, Accu 2 Part, and submentoplasty at AB Plastic Surgery Clinic in Seoul, you already know the week-by-week recovery story. This is the chapter that comes after.
A year on, I want to be honest with you in the way that only time allows. Not just the results, but the strange sensations that linger, the moments of doubt, the things I’d do differently, and the things I’d absolutely do again. Korea’s cosmetic surgery scene is booming, and Seoul Cosmetic Surgery and AB Plastic Surgery Clinic gave me an excellent experience. But no clinic can tell you what it’s like to live inside your new face for twelve months. That part is all yours.
So here it is, the real one-year update.
Here’s what I want to share with you about life one year after cosmetic surgery in Korea:
- Procedures I Had Done For My Sagging Chin
- The Sensation (or Lack Thereof) Beneath My Chin
- What I Wish I Had Known About the Genioplasty
- Did Anyone Actually Notice?
- How Long Does Swelling Really Last?
- Would I Do It Again?
- My Honest Thoughts
- Things I’d Tell Anyone Considering Cosmetic Surgery in Korea
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Procedures I Had Done For My Sagging Chin
What I decided to do about my sagging chin while in Korea:
- Genioplasty: A surgical procedure that repositions or reshapes the chin bone to improve facial balance and profile. Unlike chin implants, it works with your natural bone structure for results that feel completely your own.
- Elasticum: A minimally invasive thread-lift technique that uses elastic threads to gently lift and support sagging skin in the neck and lower face. Think of it as an internal scaffolding system that encourages the skin to sit higher and firmer over time.
- Submentoplasty: a procedure that tightens the muscles and removes excess tissue beneath the chin to create a cleaner, more defined jawline. It’s often combined with other treatments to address the neck and chin area as a whole.
- Accu 2 Part: A precision contouring treatment that targets localized fat deposits with accuracy, reducing unwanted fullness while sculpting the surrounding area. It’s especially effective for refining the chin and neck contour without the recovery of traditional liposuction.
The Sensation (or Lack Thereof) Beneath My Chin
Here’s something nobody warned me about (that I can remember), a full year later, I still can’t fully feel beneath my chin. It’s not painful, not alarming, but it is strange. I can sense that my shirt or sweater is touching my chin, the way you might feel pressure from the outside in, but the chin itself doesn’t register it the way the rest of my skin does. Sensation is coming back… but it’s as though my brain gets half the message.
I understand this is likely due to scar tissue and nerve regeneration, which is a known part of recovery from procedures like submentoplasty and genioplasty. Nerves are slow travelers. Still, living with it is its own experience that no recovery guide quite prepares you for. It’s not unpleasant exactly, more like a constant low-key reminder that something changed here. It’s high-key enough though that in the winter, I didn’t really want to wear turtleneck sweaters that would casually touch my chin because it was… vexing and weird.
If you’re considering any of these procedures, go in knowing that numbness in the chin and neck area is common and can last well beyond the typical “six to eight week” recovery window many clinics suggest. For some people it resolves fully. For others, a degree of altered sensation becomes simply part of life. My experience has been somewhere in between.
What I Wish I Had Known About the Genioplasty
I want to be honest here because I think it matters. When I catch a glimpse of my profile in a mirror, there are still moments where it catches me off guard. Not in a bad way exactly, but in a way where I think, that’s different. That’s me, but different.
Looking back, I think I could have achieved results I’d have been equally happy with by doing just the elasticum, submentoplasty, and Accu 2 Part. Those three procedures address the sagging, the fat, and the lift beneath the chin, and together they probably would have made the difference I was really after. The genioplasty goes further. It physically repositions the chin bone to change your profile, and that’s not a small thing. It is an altered silhouette.
I don’t regret it. That’s important to say clearly. But there’s a difference between not regretting a choice and knowing, with hindsight, that you could have been happy with another choice as well. The genioplasty gave me a sharper, more sculpted profile. What it also gave me is a profile I sometimes don’t immediately recognize as mine.
You live and learn, and what I learned is this: if you’re considering genioplasty, think hard about whether you’re ready for a real structural change, not just a refinement. Look at profile photos of yourself. Study them. Ask questions. Discuss it thoroughly with your surgeon. The doctors at AB Plastic Surgery Clinic were thorough with me, and the choice was ultimately mine. Had I done the other three first and held off on genioplasty for later, I probably would have been happy with my neck area though.
Did Anyone Actually Notice?
Most people in my life simply didn’t notice. Close friends who saw me week to week had no idea anything had changed. A few remarked that I looked refreshed, or good, without being able to say why. They thought I’d lost weight perhaps. It was only when I showed someone a direct before photo that they were astounded and I mean really gobsmacked. Side by side, the difference is clear. But on my face, going about daily life? Most people just saw me. Apparently the sagging chin I loathed was really a me thing and wasn’t bothering anyone else.
There’s both comfort and a certain irony in the fact that most people didn’t notice. You go through surgery, recovery, weeks of soft food and sleeping upright, two months of swelling, and a year of adjusting, and most people just think you look nice. Maybe that’s exactly the point though.
How Long Does Swelling Really Last?
Longer than they tell you. That’s the honest answer.
By week six, I was back to most normal activities and most people wouldn’t have noticed anything unusual. But I could see it. When you look at your own face every single day, you notice the subtle puffiness in the evenings, the way the jawline looks slightly different in certain lighting, the moments when you think it’s finally settled and then the next morning it hasn’t quite. It’s not dramatic, but it’s there.
For some people, residual swelling resolves completely by three to four months. For others, particularly with procedures that involve bone restructuring like genioplasty, the full results can take closer to a full year to emerge. I was still noticing slight swelling after I was doing rigorous movement or random rainy days. I believe I only stopped seeing changes in the last couple of months. A year in, things feel stable in a way they didn’t at six months.
The takeaway: Be patient with yourself. Don’t judge your results at six weeks or even three months. And if you’re a person who looks at yourself critically every morning, be gentle. Recovery isn’t a straight line.
Would I Do It Again?
Yes. With more questions. Though I’m not sure I knew exactly what questions to ask…
I would absolutely return to AB Plastic Surgery Clinic, and I would use Seoul Cosmetic Surgery as my concierge again without hesitation. What I would do differently is slow down the decision-making process around the genioplasty specifically. I would ask to see more profile comparisons of patients who had the procedure versus those who didn’t but opted for the other procedures only.
Korea is still, in my mind, one of the best places in the world to pursue cosmetic procedures. The expertise is real, the value compared to Western prices is significant, and the support infrastructure around medical tourism has only continued to grow.
My Honest Thoughts
AB Plastic Surgery Clinic is a busy clinic, and I won’t pretend otherwise. There is waiting involved, sometimes quite a lot of it. But what I appreciated is that when you are with the doctors, they are actually with you. They take time to walk through procedures, answer questions, and engage with your concerns. I did have some issues with stitches not holding and they were there to help me through that.
If you’ve spent any time in Korea, you know that doctors here often operate at a rapid pace, in and out before you’ve finished your first question. That is not the experience at AB Plastic Surgery Clinic, they want you to ask all of the questions.
Seoul Cosmetic Surgery operates differently from the clinic itself, and that difference matters. Clinics often have inhouse translators, so you’re not using Seoul Cosmetic Surgery for that. Their focus is entirely on the client. Throughout the whole process, from the first consultation through the weeks of recovery, they are checking in, making sure you’re comfortable, and prioritizing your wellbeing over any single clinic’s interests. That kind of advocacy, especially as a foreigner navigating medical decisions in another country, is something you really can’t put a price on. If you’re here and going through this alone, Seoul Cosmetic Surgery is the friend and support system you’ll want.
If you’re thinking about cosmetic surgery in Korea and don’t know where to start, that’s exactly where I’d tell you to begin.
Things I’d Tell Anyone Considering Cosmetic Surgery in Korea
Give yourself a full year before judging results. Truly. What you see at six weeks is not what you’ll see at twelve months. Swelling, nerve recovery, and skin settling are long processes, especially with structural procedures. I had no idea and even at 3 months was a little nervous I’d have a chin that was a bit too protruding for my face… it was just swollen.
Know the difference between refinement and restructuring. Procedures like elasticum, Accu 2 Part, and submentoplasty refine what’s already there. Genioplasty restructures. Both are valid choices, but they require different kinds of readiness and different questions going in.
Numbness is real and may linger. Particularly beneath the chin and along the jawline. It’s not dangerous, but it is something to be aware of and prepared for mentally. Is it weird to sort of feel something touching my chin? Yes… very.
Use a concierge service. Seoul Cosmetic Surgery connected me to the right clinic and supported me every day of recovery. That support system is worth looking into. I appreciated their years of experience and when they thought I seemed nervous or unsure, they told the AB staff to wait a moment while they asked me my thoughts to help navigate the process.
Be patient with the emotional side. There will be days when you look in the mirror and wonder why you did it. There will also be days when you catch your profile at the right angle in good light and feel genuinely pleased. Both are part of the journey, and both are normal.
One year on, my chin still surprises me sometimes. But I also catch my profile in photos now and like what I see. The angular jawline I was hoping for is there. The neck is smoother. The version of myself looking back from the camera feels more like the version I had in my head. That part, I have no complaints about at all.
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