Is it safe to get plastic surgery in Turkey?
Turkey, with its high service quality and price advantage, has been the country where many patients from Europe and America plan to travel in recent years, especially for hair transplant, plastic surgery, obesity and dental treatments. In addition to this, there are some important points of view to give an insight on what one should consider and question before you travel to Türkiye.
In this guide, there are a few recommendations on what to do and what not to do while searching for a clinic, agency or doctor.
What should you take into consideration for dental treatments?
Dental procedures occupy a big part of medical tourism with the aim of both as a treatment, and as an aesthetic procedure. Especially laminate veneers and implants are the most preferred procedures. However, the most frequent problem that patients come across is the inconsistency between the cost that they pay, and the quality of service that they receive. Many clinics offer low prices in the beginning to attract more clients but the patient ends up paying more eventually with a different treatment plan. Planning the treatment can vary up to various criterias such as the current condition of the mouth, gums, and bone, which makes it essential to get correct information from the patient to provide an accurate pricing.
What to do: Before getting a quote from the agency or the clinic, it is highly recommended to send an x-ray or radiography image. If you do not have such documents, a few photos are required that would show the teeth detailed from different angles. The quote received should contain all the details such as product brand, quantity, price per unit. You should also make sure to ask if there is any alternative treatment plan with a different pricing. Evaluate and research the clinic profoundly to see if they have sufficient facility, certification and professionalism. Request a few before and after photos of previous cases and ask if you can talk with a reference that had a treatment previously.
What should you take into consideration for hair transplant?
Turkiye has been the most preferred country for hair transplant in terms of service quality and price advantage. However there have been a growing negative impression due to a high demand to unfairly low prices which skeptical clinics are offering that are far away from having sufficient equipment and credentials. This makes it unfair to the clinics and agencies that provide truly good quality service unfortunately.
Even though hair transplant is performed with local anesthesia, it is essential to research thorougly in order to find a good clinic because if hair transplant goes wrong there is no going back after.
How to choose the right hair transplant clinic for yourself?
When you decide to come to Türkiye for a hair transplant, you can see a price range of 1000 Eur – 7000 Eur. If you would like to get a good quality hair transplant, you should have a budget around 2000 Eur. What is more important than the budget is that you should find yourself a proper medical doctor that is expert in hair transplantation. You can have your hair transplant done by a medical doctor or a medical team supervised by a doctor, both are fine but definitely should be under the control of a proper medical doctor. The reason is that an expert medical doctor can evaluate the case much better and can avoid any complication or any unwanted results.
In order to receive a hair transplant quote, it is a must to share correct and sufficient information. Photos of your hair should be of good quality and reflect the reality of the current state of your hair – not misleading. Medical history is another important part of the information shared – if you take any medications regularly such as blood thinners, the medical team definitely should be informed beforehand. Additionally, if you use Minoxidil or Finasteride for your hair loss, your doctor may want you to stop taking them 3 weeks prior to your operation date.
In Türkiye, hair transplant prices do not vary depending on graft numbers – they are all inclusive package prices. There are some clinics that offer astronomically high graft numbers in one sitting, however higher than 4500 grafts can be permanently damaging to donor area. Thus, the treatment plan that you are offered is really important. Those who offer really high numbers of grafts for a really cheap price may not give you what you want.
What should you take into consideration for plastic surgeries?
In Turkey there are numerous plastic surgeons that had international education in their field. In addition to this, there are many fully fledged hospitals with the highest standard of technology. Türkiye has the most number of hospitals with JCI accreditation. It is essential to pay attention to the credentials of the surgeon and the facilities of the hospital that your surgery will take place in. If your surgery involves placing an external material such as breast implants, it is crucial to know the brand and quality of them.
How to choose the right place to get plastic surgery?
In order to receive detailed information from your doctor, you should definitely share a few photos, your medical conditions, previous surgeries, medication use. Any lack of information might severely affect the outcome, or risk your health – therefore if an agency or a doctor does not ask for such information, they may not be the one that you are looking for.
There are various factors that might affect the price such as the brand of implants, the hotel that you will be accommodating in, number of nights, if the postoperative garment or materials are included or not. It is important to pay attention to these details while comparing prices, because if a quote looks very low, you may end up paying extra for everything eventually.
Combined plastic surgeries are preferred widely by many people because it provides a great price advantage and you get to solve two problems at once. However it is not recommended to have more than two surgeries together in order to lower the risks and have a healthy healing phase. According to international articles, surgeries longer than 6 hours increase the risk immensely. For example if you are looking to get many different surgeries as rhinoplasty, tummy tuck, thigh lift, breast augmentation, it is highly recommended to plan it as two separate sessions according to your priorities.
Another important point is the duration of your stay in the hospital and Istanbul. The duration of your stay in the hospital and in Istanbul is really important. For instance, after your rhinoplasty surgery, at least 6 to 7 days of stay is necessary post-operation in order to have sufficient healing with the cast and tampones which protect the shape of the nose. It is not recommended to remove the cast sooner than 6 days, which would be too early in terms of maintaining the new shape.
What should you take into consideration for obesity surgeries?
Now in the day, humans are more passive even though the life itself has gotten faster. This lifestyle has provoked the consumption of fast food recently which plays a big role on the obesity. Türkiye is one of the pioneers in obesity treatments along with other type of surgeries. Most preferred obesity treatments are Gastric Sleeve, Gastric Balloon and Gastric Botox. What the patient needs to pay attention is to choose the best method. For example, to get a gastric sleeve surgery, minimum BMI is 33. Whereas for gastric balloon this limit is 27. For a person with a BMI of 30, it is not the correct way to perform directly a gastric sleeve surgery. To lower the BMI down to 27, firstly gastric balloon can be placed, and then once the goal reached, gastric sleeve can be performed. Another very important factor on this subject is the quality of the material used. For instance during a gastric botox procedure, around 2 to 3 units of botox are used. In the recent days there have been some clinics and doctors that use generic or bad quality botox which have caused serious prolems such as cardiac arrests, intubation, and necrosis inside the stomach.
How to choose the right place to get a weight loss surgery?
You should definitely inform the medical facility about your medical history, weight and height, and if you have any gastric problems. The amount of nights to spend in the hospital and in Istanbul postoperation is really important. After a gastric sleeve surgery, depending on the patient’s condition, ideally 2 or 3 nights of hospital, and 3 or 4 nights of Istanbul stay is recommended. In terms of gastric ballons; you should definitely know more about the brand of the product that you are getting. The one and only brand for intragastric swallowable balloon is Allurion Elipse. Even though it is slightly on the costly side, it does not require any anesthesia, nor any removal procedure. In gastric sleeve surgeries, the biggest material to affect the pricing is the staples. In most of the surgeries around 4 to 5 staples are used. Some of the clinics use low quality brands from far east to lower their package prices. If your doctor uses only 2 or 3 staples, this would mean that they are trying to lower the price as well even though it would not be enough to provide a successful result.
To compile the tricks and recommendations to find the best doctor and clinic for yourself, we can list those as follows.
Pay good attention to the following no matter what type of treatment you are getting:
- Share medical history information and photos fully
- Request quotes with certain details such as brands and quantity of the products
- If possible, try to talk and get feedback from people that got their treatment from that certain clinic.
- Ask for detailed hospital an doctor information.
- Ask for all the certifications and memberships of the clinic.
- Try to find accredited medical tourism agencies in Türkiye.
- Ask about every doubt you have and choose the cleanest and direct answers you have been given by.
- Choose a place that is not solely money focused. Experience and knowledge should be priority while evaluating the clinic and doctor.
By taking all these recommendations into consideration, you can be one of the happy patients that leave Türkiye with a successful result. Turkiye is economic and safe place for those who think, research and receive the correct information.
