Almost three months ago I had upper eyelid surgery by Dr. Choe at Carolina Opthomology PA in their Hendersonville, NC office. It was for upper eyelid surgery, including the tightening of the muscles that lift the eyelid.
Occular plastic surgeons, have the most training in plastic surgery for the eyes and that was reassuring. Although my surgery was initially indicated for a functional reason I was reassured by Dr. Choe's personal assistant that she would do a good job.
She showed me examples of Dr. Choe's post eyelid surgery results, but they were of men with the one exception being her own surgery results.
After she told me that Dr. Choe's work was dedicated to making the results of her surgeries look natural and tended to be a somewhat conservative approach I decided to go forward.
After surgery my peripheral vision was improved and my eyes more open, but I wish I had gone to someone who had more before and after surgery photos of women to show, more years as a practicing plastic surgeon or that she spent time explaining her plan for surgery.
What she did tell me was I had a lower eyelid crease that is typical of men more than women and if I wanted a more feminine and open look, she could locate the incision "a little higher" above the eyelid crease which would accomplish that.
It was my choice but one I have regretted since it introduced changing the shape of my eye and my natural expression.
My surgical incisions are not symmetrical. They are different shapes and are in different locations, one hidden and the other visible. One has a curve that follows the shape of the eye and is hidden in the eyelid crease.
The other incision is less curved and is located above the crease, which makes it visible until the red of the incision eventually fades.
More skin appears to have been removed around that eye, which has exaggerated my eyebrow's slightly lower position.
On both eyes, fat under the skin was removed between the center/middle of the eye area to the tear duct, but left in the outside areas. I feel like this has created a hollow look, which I am told cannot be remedied.
There is a visible dent in my skin at the outer end of one suture line and bunched, raised skin at the inner corner of the both eyes, more one than the other.
Dr. Choe acknowledged that the raised skin was a product of the surgery and offered to remove it at a later date, pro bono.
My underlying issue is this...after contacting Carolina Opthomology PA and voicing concerns, neither the clinic, Dr. Choe's personal assistant nor Dr. Choe have ever reached out by email or phone regarding these concerns, as of the date of this posting.
I voiced unhappiness starting the first month after surgery and beyond, but it did not concern them enough to contact me and inquire what was going on.
The Hendersonville branch of Carolina Opthomology PA has never acknowledged that I have had "any" concerns since my surgery.
When I decided to cancel my exit exam last week as a waste of my time, I called and explained that I still had issues with the results of my surgery and felt I might try to seek remedial help elsewhere...no call back. If that is not a flag that something is wrong, I am not sure what would be.
This review is my own opinion. Everyone has one, but I most likely would not have written anything if Carolina Opthomology PA had reached out to me, after I had expressed post surgery concerns or had been allowed continued access to my client-doctor account. I understand the account can not be deleted but my log in access (name/date of birth) was no longer active, even after reporting it.
Today I was contacted by their office after this post was noticed. I don't know how I feel about being contacted because of a post on Yelp and not before.
Still, I appreciated the call and hope protocol will be improved in the future. read more
