Reviews

Dr. Ho is incredibly kind, patient and excels performance-wise at what she does. She truly cares for the patient. What captured my confidence in her is she will perform the procedure that looks best for YOU. She doesn’t cookie cut anything and tailors to what looks good for you. I felt insecure about my eyes and 4 months after getting blepharoplasty by Dr Ho, I couldn’t be happier with the results. If you’re looking for a great cosmetic surgeon esp. for asian eyelids, look no further!

I have researched a few plastic surgeons who can do my Aging Asian eyes and facelift for long time. After read Dr. Gorettie’s reviews and FaceTime consultations, I knew she was the one! She and her staff are so kind and I felt in ease. She has such talented beauty senses that no other plastic surgeons have. Dr. Gorettie, Carolyn and Era( sorry not sure the spelling) and her assistant doctors are very beautiful in and out. I had an amazing result better than I expected! Also I hired care taker Ms. Ha for fist three days and she is very sweet and kind. The patient like myself from out of town would need someone who can pick you up from surgery center and taking care you a few days.

Over all experiences with Dr. Gorettie was simply the best. I recommend Her to everyone!!!

I was referred to Dr. Goretti Ho Taghva by one of the top plastic surgeons in Orange County. He said Dr. Taghva specializes in asian blepharoplasty. I was a little apprehensive at first, but her confident and friendly demeanor put me at ease. She performed incisional double eyelid surgery and epicanthoplasty (inner corners). Initially I wanted a male surgeon with many years of experience, but then realized they don’t have the updated techniques and training that Dr. Taghva has. I couldn’t talk to them about my struggles with eye makeup because they simply couldn’t relate.

Surgery went smoothly and I only took 1 Tylenol PM the first night. I didn’t experience any pain the following days. My eyes were pretty swollen for the first few days but that quickly diminished since I closely followed their after-care guide. Everyone recovers differently, but I didn’t bruise at all and was able to return to work about a week later. Getting my stitches removed was completely painless.

It’s been 6 weeks since my surgery and I couldn’t be happier with the results. I was very worried about asymmetry. I’ve been wanting this surgery for over 15 years and so glad I finally got it done. I wore fake eyelashes everyday for many years to obtain a crease but wanted something permanent and more defined. I don’t usually write reviews, but I am so impressed with Dr. Taghva and her office staff I wanted to share my experience.

I have been wanting to do the Asian eyelid surgery since I was a young girl. I had the typical one eye had a crease and the other was a monolid. I’ll discuss more on my board. I was going to go with a dr in san Jose but dr. Goretti popped up in my realself and I did a LOT of searching around with dr goretti, did a consult and booked a month later. Caroline was great and super nice. Dr goretti recommended the same thing as the San Jose doctor did, completing the surgery on BOTH my eyes vs just one so that as I heal and age, I’d still be happy with the result. The practice in newport was clean, a little small, but all the staff was so nice and personable. My surgery ran about 30 min behind but once dr goretti got in, everything went amazing. The meds helped me relax and everything went smoothly. Hubby picked me up and I went home! I had a few questions afterwards and I was able to both call and text the staff and they were quick to respond and help. Suture removal went great and now that I am one and a half months out…. I LOVE my eyes. I’ll talk more about the healing process in my board but dr taghva was everything I hoped for and she was able to exceed my expectations. I 100% recommend dr goretti with any eye surgery. She is skilled, well trained, and will listen to your wants and needs and will let you know realistic expectations. LOVE her and her staff so much. I traveled from vegas to see her and it was worth everything.

I’ve had asymmetric eyelids for as long as I could remember (see picture). One eye was a tapered crease while the other was a parallel crease. Though not many people noticed this minor detail with make up on, it really made me self-conscious. This surgery was primarily for ME, to appease the perfectionist that I am. After intensive research searching for plastic surgeons in California, New York and Korea, I picked Dr. Taghva due to her positive reviews, fair prices, knowledge and personable demeanor. I felt like she was someone I could trust.

Day of the procedure, Dr. Taghva explained to me that it is impossible to reach perfect symmetry due to that natural nature of our anatomy. She also reminded me not to freak out during the healing process because during this time, our eyes may look asymmetric due to bruising and swelling. She was real and did not want me to have unrealistic expectations. I think she prepared me for the worst and I really appreciated that. In all reality though, I healed crazy fast following all her pre and post op directions. Arnica pills a couple days before the procedure definitely helped. I was even able to make it in time to a wedding 10 days post-op! No one but myself and those I’ve specifically told seem to notice any change which is exactly what I wanted. Thank you Dr. Taghva for such a natural result!

** HIGHLY RECOMMEND Dr. Taghva!!! If you are looking for the best when it comes to your eyes, you have to go see Dr.Goretti Ho Taghva. Here are some of the reasons. Many plastics surgeons will do every body part and she does as well, however when it comes to your eyes doesn’t it make more sense to go to a plastic surgeon that over 50% of her reviews are for eyelid or eye surgery? Please compare her reviews from her patients to other plastic surgeon before selecting one. You will see that many plastics surgeons do not have a lot of reviews for eye surgery or eyelid surgery and she had a lot of great reviews for all her surgeries, mostly eyes. I’ll post pictures and updates of my before and after as well as my progress and healing so you can see.

I stumbled upon Dr Goretti’s realself profile while researching double eyelid surgery online. I’ve wanted double eyelids since I was a teenager and always thought that I needed to travel to Korea if I wanted it done by the best. It wasn’t until I found Dr Goretti’s and met her in person that I realized I could have the surgery done in North America with a just as skilled, qualified, and experienced surgeon as ones in Korea (if not better!).

I had my consultation with Dr Goretti in March after having read her raving reviews on realself and let me tell you, even though I had incredibly high expectations of her going in, she somehow managed to surpass them and was even better in person! She was honest, genuine, knowledgable, professional, and made me feel incredibly at ease. I had originally wanted the suture technique but she calmly explained to me the pros and cons of both suture and incisional method, and I finally decided on the full incisional method upon her recommendation.

Looking back now after I had my surgery (it’s been exactly a month), I couldn’t be happier with her recommendation and the results. I traveled to LA from Toronto to have the surgery in July, and the experience was just as good as the consultation — professional, laid-back, quick and painless. Dr Goretti has a keen eye for aesthetics and she even corrected my uneven eyebrows through the surgery — something I had never even mentioned to her, but she noticed anyway and it wasn’t until a few days after my surgery that I noticed my eyes overall looked so much better because she had helped me correct my uneven eyebrows while performing the eyelid surgery.

Dr Goretti went above and beyond my expectations in every regard, and I haven’t been able to stop raving about her to my friends and family since! She is professional, kind, knowledgable, has a lot of experience with the double eyelid surgery, and I especially liked how she took into regard the “lasting power” of my results — in that I would not only be happy with my new eyes for the next 2 – 3 years, but her technique and recommendations took into consideration my age and how my skin will change in the next 10+ years so that I don’t have to keep going back to her. (If this last part confused you as to what I mean, I recommend booking a consultation with her to see what I mean!)

Disclaimer: I’m not the type of person who writes reviews and I’ve only written maybe 5 reviews in my lifetime, but I took the time to write this one because I truly think Dr Goretti deserves it.

I wouldn’t have wanted any other surgeon working in me. Dr. Goretti Ho Taghva is so talented and I’m so glad I waited this long to get both Asian blepharoplasty and medial epicanthoplasty done. The results were so natural and beautiful, and she was so sweet, genuine, and knowledgeable.

How I found Dr Taghva:
I grew up knowing what a double eyelid surgery was. At age 15, I knew I wanted to do it. I had consultations in Asia and California, but never found the right doctor or the right time. Finally, at 28, I discovered Dr Taghva through real self. I had my consultation. Dr Taghva was so sweet and down to earth. She was affordable and convenient for me. It seemed like the stars had aligned and I went ahead and booked my appointment. At first, they couldn’t get me the exact dates I wanted (I only had 1 full day and 1 half day as an option due to travel), but a few hours after speaking with Carolyn she made it happen!!

Surgery & Recovery:
The day of surgery, Dr Taghva made her measurements and we decided on 8mm. The surgery itself was pretty quick and I didn’t feel a thing even with local anesthesia. The entire process took about 2 hours. A few hours later, I was sore, very swollen and had lots of pressure. The pressure only lasted for the remainder of the day. By the next day, i was a bit more swollen but it was tolerable once the pressure subsided. On day 3, the swelling and bruising started subsiding. I had my stitches removed on day 8 and could go out in public without strangers noticing anything. By day 10, I had no remnants of bruising. The large majority of my swelling and bruising was gone by 2 weeks. I’m now at 4 weeks and my eyelids are already settling and much more natural. I could not be happier with my results.

Dr Taghva:
In her pictures, it’s apparent that Dr Taghva does beautiful work. I went in with a general idea of what I wanted but nothing specific. I believe that most doctors learn the general techniques, but what really separates the mediocre from the highly skilled doctors is the artistry. Dr Taghva immediately noticed my style, the balance in my face, and my genetics. I showed her what I liked and she ultimately decided what would look good. I trusted her and that was definitely the right decision. She has a keen eye for this particular surgery. There was no exact picture of what I wanted and somehow, she gave me an amazing result I couldn’t be happier with! My only regret is waiting SO long to do this surgery, but I’m glad I chose the right doctor for me.

Disclaimer: I apologize for inconsistent lighting and blurriness! i hope you get the gist of my recovery! 🙂

This surgery was life-changing for me as it made a huge difference in my confidence. No more makeup, no more lashes – just ‘natural’ beauty 🙂 I was trying to decide between Dr. Ho and another very famous, older doctor who is also in CA. I was initially leaning towards him simply because of his famous name, but thank goodness I didn’t. His consult was careless, his communication is limited and delayed (NOT what you want when going through something as big as SURGERY!!), he didn’t even look at my pictures carefully enough to notice that I had quite a bit of excess skin, and then when I had to point this out to him, he told me he couldn’t predict where the crease would fall because of the excess skin (since I wasn’t removing it). Plus he just seemed annoyed at questions and like he didn’t care. Dr. Ho was the exact opposite. She was able to predict EXACTLY that if I want a 6mm crease, she would have to make it 7.5mm due to the skin. And she was bang on with that prediction. Now THAT is skill! Plus, she uses a much more advanced suture technique she learned while training in Korea. PLUS: She is kind, attentive, I feel like she cares about her patients, AND she even called me the evening of and was responsive to messages on the weekend after my surgery. Perfect combination of skill, experience, knowledge AND kindness. So grateful I went to her.