Former Employee of A Korean Plastic Surgery Center Reveals Why She’s Now Against Cosmetic Procedures

YouTuber Renée started off the video by saying, “When I opened this YouTube channel, I had a lot of people commenting about the shape of my eyes and how the double eyelid surgery would make me look better.”

She added, “As some of you know, I did work for a large plastic surgery center as their English interpreter — so I’ve had my chances at staff discounts.” Renée revealed, however, that what she witnessed in the center during her four months of employment there has forever turned her off to the idea of getting any cosmetic procedures done.

One of the biggest reasons she is now against plastic surgery in Korea is the possibility of being operated on by a “Shadow Doctor”. Renée explained, “I’m sure there are centers that run their business honestly. But there are also centers like the one where I worked.”

There was a patient from Vietnam who had to go through multiple nose jobs, because the very first one she had gotten was not successful. She went under the knife so many times that her nose needed reconstruction. So when she came to the center to get her surgery done by our head doctor, we really wanted the best for her. Now, our head doctor came with a lot of experience in the field. He was a star doctor. So naturally, having him do the surgery would cost a lot more. But she didn’t mind.

— Renée

Renée claimed, at the very plastic surgery center where she worked, the illegal practice of having shadow doctors take on surgeries without patient consent has been frequent. Thus, knowing that there is a potential of paying a lot of money to receive a highly dangerous operation by an unknown doctor, she can no longer consider plastic surgery safe and worth the risk.

When the patient came out of the surgery and I ran into the head doctor in the hall, I told him that everything looked good and that the patient was feeling okay. The head doctor looked at me like he had no idea who I was talking about — when he supposedly just operated on her. Later I found out that as soon as the patient was put under anesthesia, a different shadow doctor, who is less known and so has a less packed schedule, went in to operate on her.

— Renée

In addition, Renée pointed out that some plastic surgeons are not as competent as they seem on advertisements. Though she clarified, “I understand that doctors are humans too and they can unwind with a drink or two after work,” she also stated, “I personally would not want a doctor who is severely hung over to operate on me.” And the fact that she has personally witnessed a severely hung-over doctor operate on a patient without a sense of guilty conscience has driven her even further away from the idea of going under the knife.

Once, I heard one of the doctors at the center say, ‘Oh man, I drank too much last night,’ as he was slitting a patient’s eyelid for an eye shape procedure… Honestly, if I knew that the doctor who was scheduled to operate on me got really drunk the night before, I would probably rethink the whole operation.

— Renée

Finally, she disclosed the dirty truth about the huge discount rates given at plastic surgery centers. Including the one in which she worked, plastic surgery centers often promote different procedures at certain percentages off. Renée pointed out that while these seem like a good deal, they are often good “practice” for new and/or unexperienced doctors who need to “build their portfolios with real before-and-after pictures.” Hence, even when she had the “staff discount” option, she didn’t get any surgeries done — and she most likely never will.

The center hired a new doctor to focus on facial structure procedures. But he said he used to do breast implants at his previous workplace — and insisted that he does some at the center too. So he first asked if anyone from the staff wants the procedure done. When no one stepped up, he decided to promote breast implants at 30-50% off, only so he can take before-and-after pictures to use as his portfolio. When people asked me why the discount rate is so big, I was specifically ordered to say that it’s a special sale to celebrate the new doctor joining the team. But they don’t know about the side effects of such cheap procedures.

— Renée

Following the video, in a separate comment, Renée also shared that these plastic surgery centers are “not dumb enough to leave any evidence” of such malpractice. Therefore, it is impossible to know what actual horror goes on behind the closed doors of an operation room.

Renée wrapped up the video stating that she now not only avoids plastic surgery herself, but also tries her best to talk any interested family or friends out of it too. She concluded, “Plastic surgery is never as simple as you see it on TV.”

The success stories you see on TV or even hear from people around you make plastic surgery seem so easy. Like, there is that miraculous ‘benefit’ of becoming beautiful in such a short period of time. But I wanted to share how it is never as simple as they make it sound.

— Renée

Watch the full video here: