What to Check Before Choosing a Gangnam Skin Clinic

Come up from Gangnam station, look up, and most of the buildings in view carry a clinic sign. Twenty within a single block is not unusual.

It is true that aesthetic medicine in Korea is very good. That fact, however, does not make choosing any easier. A lot of clinics doing good work and an easy path to the right one for you are two different things.

It is harder still if you are here for a few days. There is no second visit to check something, and if anything goes wrong, sorting it out means another flight.

Every question below applies to us at DayBeau Gangnam as much as to anyone else.

This is not a piece asking you to choose us. These are questions you can put to any clinic, ourselves included, and how a clinic answers them tends to reveal how it is run. A good question tells you more than the answer does.

The first question, and the one most often skipped.

At some clinics the person who consults with you and the person who performs the treatment are not the same. That is not a problem in itself. But walking in knowing who does what is different from walking in not knowing.

Worth asking: whether a doctor performs the treatment directly, whether any part of the procedure is delegated, and if so, which part. A clinic that answers this clearly has told you something already.

Sometimes the figure discussed in consultation and the figure at the counter are not the same. Sometimes an addition is proposed once you are already in the treatment room.

The addition may be medically sound. Plans reasonably shift once a doctor has seen your skin in person. The question is whether that shift happens while you still have room to decide.

Worth asking: whether today's quote is final, what could change it, and whether you would get a proper explanation and a decision in that case rather than a signature.

A single sentence, and the one that reveals the most.

A good answer usually contains something about your skin. That your skin runs thin. That the laxity started at the cheekbone rather than the jaw. That a previous treatment left a particular response. An answer that only describes how good the treatment is has described the treatment, not you.

One more thing to listen for: whether they also tell you what not to do. A clinic willing to say that something can wait, that you don't need everything today, is generally the more trustworthy one.

For patients traveling from abroad, this one matters more than it looks.

Questions arise a few days after treatment — that is ordinary. Most of what happens falls within the normal range, but knowing whether it does is the hard part. Whether you have somewhere to ask shapes how the rest of your trip feels.

Worth asking: whether you can reach them after you fly home, by what channel, and whether the reply comes in your language. If all that exists is a clinic switchboard and no route home, that tells you the clinic's responsibility ends at the treatment room door.

On a short trip, this is a medical question rather than an administrative one.

Some treatments carry a recovery window that will not fit the days you have. Sometimes reordering the same treatments produces a better plan within the same week. A clinic that never asks how long you are staying may be building around a treatment list rather than around your time.

Worth asking: whether this plan fits the days you have, and if it doesn't, what should come out of it.

For any injectable, this is a fair thing to ask.

Most major products used in Korea carry an authentication system, and many clinics will show you the packaging before treatment. Asking is not rude, and a clinic that treats the question as routine is telling you something useful.

Six questions, but really they check one thing.

Whether this clinic is selling treatments or helping you decide.

Selling points toward the treatment: how good it is, why now is the moment. Helping points toward you: what condition your skin is in, what it needs, and what it doesn't need yet.

There are many good clinics in Gangnam. Which of them is right for you is something these six questions will usually tell you. You are welcome to ask us.