Plastic surgeon Dr. Kim Jong-hwan, who specializes in facial rejuvenation, says anti-aging is fundamentally about defying gravity.

“First thing one must understand about anti-aging procedures that I pursue is that they are about making you actually younger, rather than making you ‘look’ younger,” he said.

Kim emphasized that plastic surgeons “should not focus merely on making patients temporarily ‘look younger,’” but instead seek to revitalize the skin.

“To keep the face youthful and glowing, collagen should be restored and cells regenerated,” he said.

He said he has spent 26 years developing a facial rejuvenation procedure called “Gold Happy Lift,” which realized his idea of facial rejuvenation.

“To me, a young face is a face that does not show symptoms of aging,” he said.

“I have performed countless incisional face-lifts since 1994, but after understanding the risks and limitations of incisional surgery, I have come to practice only nonincisional therapies,” he said. “I have reached this conclusion from over two decades of clinical experience and research.”

“Because I believe people are uniquely beautiful in their natural state, I have decided to avoid any incisional wrinkle removal procedure,” the doctor said.

Kim said he has compiled his aesthetic philosophy in a book titled “Gold Happy Lift: The Last Facelift You Will Ever Need,” published in May.

He added that real beauty is “under the skin,” where “both morphological and biological responses occur.”

With the thread-lift, an “authentic rejuvenation, rather than a mere appearance of youthfulness” is possible, he said. “It is about making the skin return to its young, healthy state.”

Kim said that the procedure, applied on the lower parts of a person’s face, shows significant improvement in aging in the entire face.

“For example, in case of treating wrinkles in the lower eyelid region, the main methods today conduct fat removal or cut and pull the skin back through scalpel or laser, but our thread-lift restores the healthy fat through microscopic stimulation without any incisional procedures involved.”

What is most noteworthy about the face-lift is that it “does not require a scalpel, instead using two specially designed threads,” he said.

The impact of the face-lift is threefold, according to Kim.

The Gold Happy Lift procedure “suspends the influence of gravity,” “generates new cells” and “supplies nutrients” to the face, he said. “I call it the ‘reverse ballooning effect’ on the face.”

Kim said the lift not only rejuvenates the face, but is also proven to increase hair growth. “I have seen it happen time and time again in my patients.”

“The (Gold Happy Lift) overcomes shortcomings of existing procedures, whose impact remains mostly at a superficial level,” he said.

“Many surgeons today perform procedures on patients with little regard for what is actually good for them,” Kim said, adding he focuses on developing aesthetic treatments and procedures that would not jeopardize a patient’s health.

“It makes no sense to me that one would pursue beauty at the cost of health. If a procedure does not lead to a patient’s well-being, it should not be conducted.”

“There is nothing so delicate and artistic as a human face,” he said. “Cosmetic surgery, which deals with and treats the face, should be approached with the most philosophical, scientific and artistic considerations.”

By The Korea Herald (khnews@heraldcorp.com)