Hello.
I'm Dr. Jaeho Jeon, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at ARC Dental near Seoul City Hall Station.
Today it's not about how wisdom teeth are, or how implants are... I just want to talk a little about myself.
Usually I only write about treatments, but today I'll just write whatever comes to mind. Haha.
Five Minutes on Foot from Seoul City Hall Station — ARC Dental, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
First of all, our clinic... is right near Seoul City Hall Station. Very close.
I actually timed it. From Exit 4 of Seoul City Hall Station (Line 1), it's about a 5-minute walk. We're also close to Gwanghwamun Station (Line 5). Come out of Exit 5 and it's about 4–5 minutes.
So... you can walk here from Seoul City Hall Station, or walk here from Gwanghwamun Station. Well... that's it. Seoul City Hall Station and Gwanghwamun Station turned out to be closer than I expected. Haha.
Five minutes on foot from Seoul City Hall Station — ARC Dental, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
But even though we're this close, fewer people come than I expected
But here's the thing.
Even though we're this close, not as many people who work near Seoul City Hall Station or Gwanghwamun Station come as I expected. It's been almost over three months since I opened here. At first I was a bit puzzled.
"There are so many offices around here — why doesn't anyone come?"
So I looked at a map. Ah... there were a ton of dental clinics. Of course I knew that... I'd known it since before I opened, but I'm still surprised every time I look at the map. -_-
If you're looking for a dentist near Seoul City Hall Station — ARC Dental, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, also close to Gwanghwamun Station
Anyway, if you look at the map around Gwanghwamun, Seoul City Hall, Jongno, Euljiro, and Myeongdong, there are seriously a lot of dental clinics. It feels like there's a clinic one building over.
Thinking about it, there's no reason patients should come all the way to our clinic just because we're close to Seoul City Hall Station. -_-;;
If there's a clinic in your office building, you go there; if there's one in the next building, you go there on your lunch break... and that's only natural. I'd do the same. ㅠㅠ
The story of how I came up to Seoul from Hongseong and opened near Seoul City Hall Station
The reason I opened here is actually simple. My home is near here.
I've actually been living near Gwanghwamun Station — more precisely, near Seoul City Hall Station — all along. Haha. I originally practiced dentistry in Hongseong, Chungcheongnam-do. Somehow I ended up going all the way to Hongseong to run a clinic. Haha.
But because I was in the countryside, we had to live apart during the week... My son endlessly looked for his dad, and my wife — a honey-badger type — kept grumbling that she was bored every weekend...
In the end, I...... had no choice but to close up and come up to Seoul. I am a dad and husband who loves his family, after all. (Huh??)
If any of the patients I treated in Hongseong happen to read this... I hope you're all doing well??! I think of you sometimes.
But it's true I came up because of home — and honestly, I also had a reason I wanted to give it a try in Seoul.
When I practiced in Hongseong, there were quite a few patients who came from quite far away. Some came by car from really far. At first I also thought, "Wait, how did they even find this place and come all this way?"
But when I heard their stories, most had a reason. People who found it hard to get to a university hospital in Seoul, people who couldn't wait months after booking an appointment, people who'd been told their wisdom tooth extraction would be difficult at a local clinic, elderly patients worried about surgery because of underlying conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure, people who needed re-treatment because an implant went wrong... all kinds of people came. Thankfully.
Even when I practiced oral and maxillofacial surgery in Hongseong, many people came from far away — Seosan, Cheonan, Boryeong, and beyond.
When people come from far away, strangely I get this feeling.
"Oh man... they came all this way, I have to do whatever I can for them."
That kind of feeling. I actually worried more about patients who came from far away.
Of course there are treatments I can't do. I can't pretend I can do something I can't. If someone truly needs a university hospital, I tell them to go. But if it's something I can do, they'd already come all this way, so I wanted to solve it somehow. I think that was my own sense of reward.
So even when I came to Seoul, I thought: there must be people like that here too. There must be more people than I think who need an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. That's what I thought. But once I actually got to Seoul.....
People nearby don't come; people far away do
People nearby come less than I expected, and people from far away come.
Some come from across the river, some come down from the north... (not North Korea) And some come up from the countryside.
So one day I thought about it. "Why on earth do people from far away come?"
When I look closely, there's something in common.
Wisdom teeth that are hard to extract because they're near a nerve. People who've been told at another clinic or a university hospital that they need their wisdom tooth removed. People who keep hurting after implant surgery with no known cause, or who need revision surgery. People who had an implant but keep hurting or having problems. People worried about a lump or cyst in the jawbone that won't go away. People with a lump in the tongue or mouth that keeps growing. And people with severe jaw joint pain, or who grind their teeth so badly their teeth wear down, or who suddenly can't open their mouth well....
Well... these aren't exactly easy cases. Haha.
The difficult wisdom teeth, implant revisions, jaw joint, and oral cyst patients who come to ARC Dental, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery near Seoul City Hall Station
You wouldn't drive two hours just for a routine cleaning. It's a hassle to book and wait at a university hospital, and you don't want to go to just any clinic... so while searching, they seem to find us.
But these somewhat difficult cases are — near Seoul City Hall Station, or near Gwanghwamun, in any case not around Euljiro, Myeongdong, or Jongno. Haha.
Somehow our clinic ends up being somewhere in the middle.
"I wonder if I need to go to a university hospital, but let me try here first."
Kind of like that? Haha. I don't mind. The care I originally wanted to practice was exactly that kind of care.
While we're on the subject, let me brag a little (?)
I... am somewhat proud of having good hands.
They say a surgeon needs good hands. Of course medical knowledge and accurate judgment are the basics, but in the end, surgery is done directly with your hands. Even for the same surgery, there's a sense you get from feeling the tissue, and times when you have to judge how far to go and where to stop.
That's not something you can learn only from books; I definitely think there's a part that becomes second nature through doing many surgeries. I seem to be well suited to that kind of "work done with hands."
.......
Writing this like this makes me sound really full of myself. ㅋㅋ
But it's my blog, so I figure this much is fine. Haha.
I really am an oral surgeon who loves surgery. I just seem to like doing oral surgery. I like extracting wisdom teeth, I like implant surgery, I like removing cysts, and I especially like finding the cause when something goes wrong and solving it.
Why it keeps hurting, why the mouth won't open, why a problem reappeared where it had been operated on. Looking into each one and, if it's something I can solve, solving it myself. I guess that kind of thing is quite fun for me. Haha.
Oral cancer surgery and research, and adjunct professor at Seoul National University Dental Hospital
Thinking about it, I seem to have liked this area from the beginning.
I still go out as an adjunct professor at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Seoul National University Dental Hospital, teaching junior dentists. Haha.
Back when I was at a university hospital, I did a really wide variety of surgeries. Not just wisdom teeth and implants — I participated in oral cancer surgeries with professors, and joined reconstruction surgeries where we took leg bone to rebuild the jawbone. I removed cysts in the jawbone, saw trauma patients who came in with face or jaw injuries..... I really did a lot of this and that.
Looking back, why did I go that far...... I originally wanted to become a professor doing oral cancer surgery. I've mentioned this a few times on other blogs, but I just wanted to become a leading expert in the field of oral cancer. ㅋㅋ Really.
So I was at the National Cancer Center, and I did a fellowship at Seoul National University for longer than you'd expect. I did oral cancer surgery, wrote papers, did research, and lived really hard trying to become a professor.
But.... to become a professor at Seoul National University, you have to be really, really diligent. Being just a "diligent person" isn't enough. The way I felt about it, you can't sleep. -_-;; Haha.
Once you start an oral cancer surgery, sometimes it goes over a day, and when the surgery is over, going home to sleep isn't the end..... You have to write papers, do research, give lectures, review your juniors' work, and look good to the senior professors... anyway, it's an extreme job.
After living like that for a few years, at some point I thought, "Ah... I can't do this anymore." "I guess I'm not cut out to be a professor." So I left. Haha.
If I'd held on just a little longer, I might really have become a professor. I don't know. Since I've already left, what meaning is there now. Haha.
Still, the experience of operating like crazy back then remains. Looking back, I think that's my biggest asset.
So even now, when I see a difficult surgery, rather than being scared, I tend to first think, "Hmm... how should I do this?"
Dr. Jaeho Jeon of ARC Dental, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, who also writes the blog himself after opening near Seoul City Hall Station
Now that I've opened a clinic, doing surgery well isn't enough
Well.... I thought I'd live just doing surgery. But now that I've opened a clinic, doing surgery well isn't enough. Haha.
These days I write a blog too. I already have 7 subscribers. Haha. This too, really...
I thought when you open a clinic, a doctor just needs to see patients, but that's not it. You have to pay rent, pay staff salaries, buy materials, have patients come... in the end, I'm a self-employed business owner too. Haha.
I heard somewhere that if a doctor says it's hard to make a living, they get cursed at. Still, there are really a lot of dentists these days. Dentists are everywhere. -_-;; Especially around Seoul City Hall, Gwanghwamun, and Jongno, it seems even more so.
So I've been doing my own bit of internet marketing — writing a blog when I have time, checking the website, fiddling with this and that by myself. But after doing it for about three months..... it seems this alone is nowhere near enough. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ I guess I'll have to do something else... ㅠㅠ Anyway, nothing in this world is easy.
As "advertising," I even filmed a YouTube video a while back. (I just checked my YouTube subscriber count and it's 2. ㅋㅋ) But after filming, when I watched the video, the me I imagine and the me on screen were a little different.
Especially..... my belly. On screen it had a lot more presence than I thought. -_-;;
So I decided, "Let me lose some weight and film again." That was already a month and a half ago. Still the same. The YouTube channel is still the same too. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Maybe because dentists sit all day seeing patients, strangely I don't know about other parts but only my belly sticks out..... Well... I'll try YouTube again a bit later. Haha.
Let me share the YouTube link here too.
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ARC Dental, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery - YouTube
Hello. This is ARC Dental Clinic's Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. An oral and maxillofacial surgeon provides care in person in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, and on this channel we provide information on a variety of dental treatments such as wisdom tooth extraction, impacted wisdom teeth, implant placement and revision, TMJ treatment, saving natural teeth, apicoectomy, intraoral cysts and minor surgery, and tooth reshaping. We explain the questions you had before dental treatment in a way anyone can easily understand, and our goal is to deliver correct medical information for accurate diagnosis and treatment.
I tend to talk a lot with patients
But there's also a good thing about opening near Seoul City Hall Station here. We're not yet a clinic overflowing with patients. Haha. I'm not sure if I should call this good... but thanks to that, I talk a lot with patients.
Where you came from, why you came all the way here, what happened before, what bothered you the most, how much you suffered because of your teeth. I listen to all sorts of stories for quite a while. And then there are people who stick in my memory.
Actually, there's a reason I talk a lot to patients. Haha. The dentist's office itself isn't exactly a welcome place for most people. Some come worried it'll hurt, some come worried about how much it'll cost, and some come extremely tense because of a painful memory at a dentist before. Especially if they're told they need surgery.
So when I see patients, I deliberately talk a lot. In the middle of talking about treatment I talk about other things, ask where you came from, talk about work, and sometimes talk about truly pointless things. Haha. I just hope patients can relax even a little.
Of course..... there may be people thinking, "Doctor, can you just treat me now....." Haha.
Still, rather than a patient leaving after just getting treated while extremely tense, I'd like them to talk a little comfortably and go home thinking, "That wasn't as scary as I thought."
So the things I write on the blog naturally come to include a lot of that too. The story of someone who came from far away because an implant kept hurting, the story of someone who came because two places couldn't extract their wisdom tooth, the story of someone who came after not being able to open their mouth and eat properly, the story of someone who came worried because a lump in their mouth kept growing for years... they're just stories of people I met in the treatment room. (Of course, I write within a range that doesn't reveal personal information.)
And within that, I add a little of the medical story I want to explain. I think that's what my blog is.
Honestly, looking at other dental blogs
Honestly, if you look at other dental blogs, there are a huge number of similar photos. Rather than similar, most of them are dental-related photos. There's a CT, there's a panoramic X-ray, a red circle drawn, arrows, how many mm of implant was placed here, how it was extracted, how it was operated on...
Of course it's important. I look at them. Because I'm a doctor. Haha. But sometimes I wonder. Do patients really read all of this? Haha.
If I look at an article in a field I know nothing about, I'd probably glance at the photo once and scroll on down. So I just scribble down what I want to write. A little information, a little about patients, my own stories like today, and sometimes a bit of grumbling. Haha.
Still, writing like this, I hope it shows a little what kind of person I am and what I'm thinking while I treat patients.
When choosing a dental clinic, you'll look at the facilities, the location, the price, and many things, but in the end, I think who the doctor is — the person you're entrusting your teeth to — matters quite a bit too.
So just, "Ah, so the director here is this kind of person." Even that much is enough for me. Haha.
So the conclusion of today's post is
Hmm..... writing this, it seems like it turned into Dr. Jaeho Jeon's survival diary of opening a clinic... -_-;;
It's just the story of a person named Jaeho Jeon, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon running a clinic near Seoul City Hall Station, thinking these thoughts and working hard to treat patients.
Still, if I have to force a conclusion,
You're looking for a dental clinic around Seoul City Hall, Gwanghwamun, Jongno, Euljiro, or Myeongdong, and rather than just the closest one, you want to be treated by a doctor who listens to your story a bit, or
You've been told treatment is difficult elsewhere. Your wisdom tooth is near a nerve so extraction is hard. You had implant surgery but it keeps hurting or having problems. Your jaw hurts and one day you can't open your mouth well. Something appeared in your mouth or jawbone and won't go away. You were told to go to a university hospital but you feel lost about where and how to start.
If that's your situation, you can come by.
First, let's look together at what the problem is. Whatever I can look at, I'll look at diligently. If it's a problem I can solve, I'll solve it. If it's something I can't do, I'll tell you I can't. If it's something that doesn't need treatment, I'll tell you that too, and if it's a tooth that can be saved, I'll think first about saving it if possible.
Well..... a doctor should of course do that anyway. Haha.
"Doctor, I came because of your blog." — That one sentence makes me happiest. ㅋㅋ
And if you came because of the blog, please do tell me. "Doctor, I came because of your blog." Then, even if I don't show it, inside I'm really happy. Like, "Ah... so there really are people reading this." ㅋㅋㅋ
Anyway..... If you found your way here while looking for a dental clinic near Seoul City Hall Station, thank you.
To all the office workers around Seoul City Hall Station, Gwanghwamun, Euljiro, Jongno, and Myeongdong, you're always welcome. Haha.
If your teeth hurt, your jaw hurts, you've been told treatment is difficult somewhere, or you just want to hear a proper explanation once. I'll explain what I know as easily as possible, and if it's a treatment I can do, I'll do it diligently.
And to the patients who've deliberately come from far away until now, I'd like to use this post to truly thank you. There were so many people I wondered how they even found this place and came all this way, and because each one of you came, I feel like I'm slowly settling in here too.
Seoul National University, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Specialist
Adjunct Professor, Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Seoul National University Dental Hospital
This was Jaeho Jeon of ARC Dental, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery.
Ah... writing this, it got really long. It's not about wisdom teeth, it's not about implants, it's just my story, and I didn't know I'd write this much. Haha.
Anyway, writing about myself instead of treatment for the first time in a while, I feel a bit refreshed inside. ㅋㅋ Next post I'll go back to being a dentist and talk about teeth.
Then, really, that's it. Haha. Bow.