The Second Treatment @ Oracle Skin Land in Gangnam, Seoul

Photos taken the days following my second treatment at Oracle Skin Land in Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea.

Oracle Skin Land
To book a consultation in English, contact Ellen Choi @ 010 9938 3373

 

 30 days after my first treatment, heading back to Gangnam for my second round

 Waiting room of Oracle Skin Land in Gangnam, buttered up with numbing cream and left to bake for 40 minutes ^_^

1 hour after 2nd Intracell and Laser treatment... They were less invasive this time and only burnt me a little bit

 Day 1. Less leaking than last time

Day 2 after 2nd treatment

 30 days after 2nd treatment, skin surface is leveling off

Bandage me up and send me home!

Once I had endured the 4 different rounds of treatment that took approximately 40 minutes to complete, I was sent off with a nurse for a cooling facial and to dress my battle scars.  I was again asked to lay down and some type of cooling machine was ran over the surface of my face for about 5 minutes.  It felt like an ice cube being applied directly to my skin and produced an uncomfortable cold burning sensation.  After this there was a kind of light treatment for another 5 -10 minutes and finally I was bandaged up with Duoderm slow healing bandages and sent on my way.  I had scheduled an appointment for exactly a week to have my bandages removed and receive another facial and cleansing.

With my hat pulled down close to my eyes and my head down, I made my way back to Gangnam station amidst the hustle and bustle of the usual Gangnam area foot traffic.  To my surprise no one really even looked at my busted face.  I guess when you live in Gangnam where plastic surgery clinics out number 7-11's, you become desensitized to seeing people in facial bandages.  The ride home was without incident, and when I finally made it back to my building I spent several minutes staring at myself in the mirror accessing the damage.  My skin was bright red, shiny and slightly swollen.  I looked like I had a bad sunburn.  The surface of my skin was dotted with tiny needle marks in perfect little rows and the texture was slightly leathery.  I had several giant Duoderm bandages covering my cheeks that I was instructed to leave on for at least 42 hours before changing them.  In short, I looked like a mess.  But the worst was yet to come because I was scheduled to teach the next morning.

The morning after the treatment was shocking to say the least.  I spent the night laying on my back (I usually sleep on my side) and kept waking up to avoid rolling over onto my face.  When I finally gained full consciousness and pulled myself out of bed I made my way to the bathroom to inspect my unusually tight feeling skin.  I discovered that the bandages had leaked though the night and the plasma that was discharged during the healing process had ran down my cheeks and dried in crusty yellow pools around my neck.  It was completely disgusting and fascinating at the same time.  My only concern was that in 2 hours I would be in front of a class of 24 fifth graders who were going to be wondering what the hell was up with my face.  But calling in sick was not an option so I pulled myself together and worked the entire day as my face leaked periodically.   I kept a tissue in my pocket at all times that day and would take it out and blot off any discharge that i felt seeping from the bandages as I taught.  (I would highly recommend that if you are a teacher in Korea and considering having this procedure, do it on a Friday night and by Monday morning with a bandage change, you will be good to go!)

The below pictures are of the first week after treatment, up until my bandages were removed (1 week) and 30 days after treatment:

Leaking bandages. For the first 42 hours, my bandages were leaking plasma. This was by far the most repulsive and uncomfortable part of the process.

The morning after the first treatment... It burns!

 

Day 2. The burning stopped and inflammation went down.

Day 2. Discharge subsided.

  Day 2. You can see the needle marks as well as patches from laser burns.

 Day 3. Bandage change. Laser burns in healing and crusty plasma... yummeh!

 Day4: Shedding my burnt epidermis.

Day 5: Dry and flaky skin and uncomfortable DuoDERM bandages... Incredibly itchy and I can't scratch! ㅠㅠ

 Day 6: Really tired of these DuoDERM bandages!

 Day 7: Post-check up and facial.  Still looking spotty... 3 weeks of bandage-free healing until my next encounter with lasers and needles ^^

Another Round of Needles!

The final procedure was another round of needling called Subcision or Subdermal Undermining.  The process involves separating the skin tissue in the affected area from the deeper scar tissue. This allows the blood to pool under the affected scar area, eventually causing the deep rolling scar to level off with the rest of the surrounding skin surface.  A much larger needle is inserted under the dermis on an angle underneath the scar allowing the blood to pool underneath it and push it out.  As awful as it sounds, it was one of the least painful for the procedures and only took a few minutes.  I felt only a slight pin pricking sensation where he was working and the skin being pulled slightly.

"You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!" Dr. Evil (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery)

The second procedure that I was to endure was Laser Therapy.  This was definitely the most painful and disturbing of the treatments.  So, after he had finished with the INTRAcel Micro Needling, he switched machines and took out the lasers.  From my perspective as the patient, the sensation was akin to getting a tattoo but on your face.  You can hear the "Snap! - Snap! - Snap!" inches from your ears as a laser is fired in succession at your face, basically burning the epidermis.  I think even worse than the pain, is the fact that you can smell your own skin being burn off.  My nostrils were flooded with the smell of singed flesh and I tried really hard to imagine something else and relax through this, but it is really hard to go somewhere else in your mind when your face is being burnt off.

After the high powered laser, a second laser, the Fraxel Laser was used.  This procedure was similar to the previous however instead of burning my epidermis, he slowly ran the laser along the contours of my face and over the entire surface area.  The sensation was much more mild and felt a little like getting shocked continuously (like when you were a kid in woolen socks shuffling on carpet to build up an electric charge to shock your siblings). The Fraxel laser works by controlled damage of the scarred areas.  It effectively further damages your skin in small areas separated by healthy skin and purposefully stimulates the body’s own restorative processes.. Reaching deep into the skin’s second layer, the dermis, Fraxel helps to stimulate the body’s restorative abilities and thus new collagen and skin is formed. Older skin that is damaged is removed from beneath the epidermal layer, the outermost area of skin.

More about Fraxel Lasering here:
http://www.dermanetwork.org/information/fraxel.asp

http://english.oracleclinic.com/xe/index.php?mid=wrinkles

http://www.fraxel.com/

Going Under The Needle

When my name was called I made my way to a room full of beds and nice shiny green silk-like bedding and the nurse gave me an injection (maybe for the swelling???) in the butt then proceeded to slather my face in white "numbing cream."  When she had finished, she sealed my face in plastic wrap and sent me back to the lobby to wait with the other masked monsters waiting for their various treatments.  Once you are all creamed and sealed, you must wait about 40 minutes for the cream to numb the epidermis.  I felt like some type of human casserole, set to bake at 350.

After what seemed like a lot more than 40 minutes, the nurses removed the numbing cream and escorted me to a tiny room in the back of the clinic with a single bed and various machines that beeped and clicked.  I laid down, covered myself in a protective blanket and waited for the dermatologist.  When he arrived, he said that the deepest scars were on my upper cheeks and that they would have to further freeze those areas which would require much more invasive laser work.  I was injected yet again in both cheeks and finally I couldn't feel my face at all.

The first treatment was the INTRAcel micro needling.  It consists of many tiny insulated needles on a small square head that penetrate the epidermis and deliver energy to the point of penetration.  This is supposed to stimulate collagen regrowth without damaging the epidermis (for a more in depth explanation, click here:   http://www.askinclinic.co.uk/index.php?page=78&area=ie&treatment=20).  The entire procedure only took about 5-6 minutes as he poked my face full of holes, but thanks to the anesthetic I felt next to nothing but a slight pressure every time the needles penetrated.

The Consultation

That Thursday I made the 40 minute train ride down to Gangnam and showed up barely on time for my seven O'clock appointment.  The clinic was located on the 11th floor with not much signage outside so after several frantic calls for directions from the staff I arrived sweaty and out of breath.  I felt oddly out of place at the boutique style clinic.  It wasn't because I was the only foreigner, but more because I was the only male at the clinic that evening.  The atmosphere of the clinic was very relaxed and its decor is stylish and modern.  I was greeted politely by the staff, checked in and asked to wait with the others in the waiting area.  It was particularly busy that night, which I took for a good sign.  Returning customers usually means good business.

 In the chairs around me various women sat quietly with strange masks of white substance on their faces sealed in plastic wrap while busily texting on their smart phones.  As uncomfortable as I felt with this new experience, I tried to act relaxed.  I felt like a fish out of water, a sweaty mess in some shiny new alien environment.

The nurse called me in to meet the dermatologist, so with uncertain steps I made my way to his office for the consultation.   To my relief he spoke perfect English and was really easy to talk to.  He set a mirror in front of me and using a flashlight shone from above (no one looks good lit from above, hasn't he learned anything from Tyra and ANTM?) he inspected my skin.  My scarring was a little deep he told me, and so because we were working on a time crunch (I was leaving Korea in just over 3 months) he recommended that we start as soon as possible.  Also, because my scarring was was quite extensive, he recommended a combination therapy.  So to my ears I just heard the "ca-ching" of cash registers as he talked me through the 4 recommended procedures.  I swear I was so concerned with the price I heard only half of what he was saying.  Thank God, I got to consult again with a nurse after leaving his office.  Anyway, they decided that if I paid upfront for 3 sessions they would give me a discount.  So the total would be 1.5 million KRW for 3 sessions which included Fraxel Laser Therapy, INTRAcel Fractional Needling, Subcision and facials.  I was slightly alarmed at the 600, 000 KRW jump in price from the ad in the magazine, however I trusted I would get the results I wanted.

So, because of the time line we were working with, I foolishly decided to start then and there.  Hey!  Why not jump in over your head?  I had no real idea of how invasive the procedures would be so I assumed I'd walk out of there in an hour with nothing more than a slightly red face (I was so wrong).

Visit Oracle Skin Land's English site here: Oracle Skin Land

(also available in Chinese, Japanese and French)

To book a consultation in English, contact Ellen Choi @ 010 9938 3373

Open: 10:00h - 23:00h (Monday - Friday) 10:00h - 17:00h (Saturday, Public Holidays)
Directions:  50m from exit 10, Gangnam Station on subway line 2.  Walk straight until you see BSX clothing store on your left.  11th floor Daewon building, 1305-3, Seocho 4-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul.

The Ad that started it all...

In April 2012, I was flipping through Korea's No. 1 Expat magazine, "GROOVE" and came across an ad for Oracle Skin Land clinic in Gangnam.  They were offering 3 acne scar removal treatments for 900, 000 KRW and the ad also said they offered their services in English.  I didn't really think too much about it, but the price was right and I'd be leaving Korea to return home to Newfoundland for the first time in 6 years, so why not go back with clear skin?  I called the clinic to set up an appointment for that Thursday after work.

Groove Korea Website

If it's broken, FIX IT!

After 2 years of living in Seoul, the time was right I thought to fix the acne scars that have plagued me since my mid-to late teens.  Living in a society that is much more concerned with physical appearance than my own, I was becoming increasingly conscious of the skin I was living in.  What I was okay with before, was now becoming an insecurity, due to the fact that people I would meet would tell me after 30 minutes of chatting that I should fix my face.  Or I could be more handsome if I treated my scars.

In Canada I had thought about it casually in the past, but because the prices were high and I was a student, I shrugged it off and bit the bullet.  In Korea, skin care and dermatology as well as plastic surgery are relatively cheap in comparison to the western world.  So I began the hunt for a clinic where I could find a dermatologist to "fix my face."  The only problem was, where to go?  In the Apgujeong and Gangnam districts of Seoul, we are bombarded with ads for plastic surgery and skin care.  Trains, subway stations, urinals and buildings are inundated with these kinds of advertising, however very little of it caters to English speakers.  I was a little weary to have to go through the awkward phone conversations trying to book a consultation so I put the task on the back burner.

Where are my floaties? I've never done this before!

Hello!  This is my first blog experience so in advance please forgive me if I move all over the place.  I'm not entirely sure I know what I am doing.  I decided to start this specific blog because as a Canadian Expat living in Seoul, South Korea, it can often be a little difficult to perform seemingly easy daily tasks when lacking fluency in the local language.  I'll be honest, my Korean is next to non-existent... It may not even exist.  The point is that for foreigners living in Korea, especially when you are new here, finding things like health services in English are vital to a comfortable stay and keeping healthy.  This blog will specifically deal with my personal experience receiving acne scar removal treatment in Gangnam and I hope that it can be useful to those seeking the same types of services in Seoul.  I will also publish pictures, information and personal accounts of the procedures I receive. Enjoy! ^_^