By Kwak Yeon-soo
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| Noh Hyung-joo, the plastic surgeon at The Class & Mizain Plastic Surgery |
As the only certified Korean plastic surgeon who operates in Kazakhstan, Noh goes to Almaty every month to perform cosmetic surgery.
"I must admit that I'm a lucky man," he said. "Because Korea is recognized as one of the best places for high-quality plastic surgery, I get invited to a lot of seminars across the world and there is also a growing number of foreign patients coming to Korea."
According to Noh, a large proportion of foreign patients come from Indonesia, China and Kazakhstan and the vast majority of plastic surgery patients are women.
Common procedures beyond eyelid surgery and rhinoplasty are those aimed at achieving anti-aging, without specifically following either Western or Korean beauty standards, according to Noh.
"The so-called minimal aesthetic surgery is a rising trend nowadays, and people have a high desire for anti-aging treatments," he said. "Most patients look for facial volumization or face-lifting. But it is once again divided into non-invasive (non-surgical) and invasive (surgical)."
Noh explained that Korean women are starting to prefer a natural look and are moving away from surgeries that make eyes larger and chins sharper.
"Compared to the past, when they sought to imitate celebrities, Korean women now tend to focus more on obtaining perfectly smooth and fresher-looking skin," he said.
According to Noh, the preferred cosmetic surgery differs per region.
"When I've gone to seminars in Dubai, Taiwan, Lebanon and Mexico and meet with local patients there, I could definitely feel that the preferred cosmetic surgery differs from one region to another."
For example, patients from the Middle East and Central and South America prefer body contouring, meaning they look for abdominal surgery or breast augmentation. By contrast, patients from Asia want younger, wrinkle-free skin, according to Noh.
Apart from operating cosmetic surgeries, Noh also treats those who suffer ptosis and cleft lip and palates in foreign countries.
Ptosis occurs when muscles around the eye make it difficult to lift one's eyelid. A cleft lip or palate are birth defects, in which the tissue of the upper jaw and roof of the mouth fail to fuse during gestation.
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