How to choose a plastic surgeon in Türkiye — a checklist you can verify yourself

By Dr. Mehmet Sürmeli, MD, FEBOPRAS — European & National Board-Certified Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeon

The short version

Choosing a surgeon in Türkiye comes down to five questions, and all five can be checked in under half an hour:

  1. Is the surgeon board certified in plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery, and can you verify it on a public register?
  2. Does the surgeon personally evaluate your case and perform the operation — not a coordinator, not a team you never meet?
  3. Does the clinic tell you when surgery is not right for you, and does it keep a waiting interval between evaluation and operation?
  4. What happens after the operation: who follows you up, for how long, and how do you reach the surgeon from your own country?
  5. Can everything the clinic claims about itself be checked at the source — societies, registers, independent reviews?

If a clinic cannot give you a clear answer to any of these, that is your answer.

1. Board certification — the one credential that cannot be bought

In Türkiye, “aesthetic surgery” is not a protected term; a doctor from another specialty may advertise it. The protected title is plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgeon, which requires a full surgical residency in that specialty. Board certification goes one step further: a separate examination, after the residency, by the specialty’s own board.

Two boards matter for a surgeon in Türkiye:

  • the Turkish Board of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (the national board, “Yeterlik Belgesi”), and
  • the European Board of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (EBOPRAS) — its fellows carry the title FEBOPRAS, awarded by written and oral examination, and EBOPRAS keeps a public register of its diplomates that anyone can search.

How to verify: ask for the year and the board; search the EBOPRAS register for the surgeon’s name. A certificate shown on a website is a claim; the register entry is the proof.

Worked example: Dr. Mehmet Sürmeli holds both — the Turkish Board (2016) and the European Board, FEBOPRAS (2017) — and lists each certificate with its verification link on his credentials page.

2. Licence and registration — in Türkiye, and anywhere else the surgeon claims to work

A surgeon practising in Istanbul holds a Turkish medical licence. Some surgeons also hold registrations abroad; those are useful because foreign health authorities run their own checks before granting one.

How to verify: ask which authorities have licensed the surgeon and look the surgeon up in those authorities’ public practitioner searches.

Worked example: licensed in Türkiye, and registered with the Dubai Health Authority (DHA, 2024) and the Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DOH, 2025); both registrations are shown on the credentials page.

3. Society membership — what it tells you and what it does not

Membership of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) or the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) is not a licence, but both societies admit only surgeons whose training and standing they have checked, and both publish a member search. A listing there confirms the specialty; committee work within a society says something more about standing among peers.

How to verify: use the society’s own “find a surgeon” search rather than the clinic’s logo.

Worked example: member of ASPS (since 2020, appointed to its Breast and Aesthetic Committees for the 2027 term), ISAPS (since 2020), the Turkish Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (since 2014) and the Emirates Plastic Surgery Society (2026).

4. Who evaluates you, and who operates

Ask two plain questions and expect plain answers: Who reads my photographs and medical information? and Who performs the operation? In a surgeon-led practice the same person does both, and the first message you receive is that surgeon’s assessment of your own case — not a template, not a quote.

A related sign of seriousness: the clinic asks for complete medical information and proper photographs before it says anything about a plan. A clinic that offers a plan or a date without them is selling, not evaluating.

Worked example: every case is evaluated personally by Dr. Sürmeli; his assessment is prepared from your photographs and the information you provide and reaches you as a written pre-evaluation. How the pre-evaluation works.

5. A clinic that says no

Aesthetic surgery is elective. The safest clinics are the ones willing to tell you that an operation is not right for you, or not right yet: a weight that should first become stable, a medication to review with the doctor who prescribes it, nicotine to stop for three months, a blood value to correct. Being advised against surgery is part of the care, not a lost sale.

Ask: Under which conditions would you decline to operate on me? A clinic with real rules can list them.

Worked example: the clinic’s own patient-safety assessment, and the conditions under which surgery is postponed or declined, are described on the patient safety page.

6. Time to decide

A good practice keeps a minimum interval between the evaluation and the operation — normally not less than two weeks — so that you can read the plan, ask further questions, compare alternatives and, if you wish, take a second opinion. Surgery the day after a first consultation is a warning sign, not a convenience.

7. The stay, and what happens after you fly home

Ask how long you need to be in Istanbul for your operation, what the hospital stay includes, when the follow-up visits take place before you leave, and how follow-up continues once you are home. Long-term follow-up is a feature of a practice built on its own patients rather than on volume.

Worked example: the practical side — the stay, the hospital, the follow-up from abroad — is described on the international patients page.

8. Independent reviews — read them in the right place

Reviews on a clinic’s own website are selected by the clinic. Reviews on RealSelf and Google are written on platforms the clinic does not control, and RealSelf pages show procedure, date and the patient’s own follow-up over time.

Worked example: Dr. Sürmeli’s RealSelf profile.

9. Warning signs

  • A plan, a price or a date offered before your medical information and photographs have been seen.
  • “Aesthetic surgeon” with no board named, or a board that has no public register.
  • No clear answer to “who operates on me”.
  • Pressure to decide quickly, or surgery immediately after the first visit.
  • Promises of a specific result, or before-and-after images used as a guarantee.
  • No named follow-up after you leave the country.

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to have plastic surgery in Türkiye?

It is as safe as the surgeon and the system around you. Türkiye has a large number of board-certified plastic surgeons and accredited hospitals; it also has clinics that operate at volume with little evaluation. The checklist above separates the two, and every point on it can be verified before you book a flight.

What does “board certified” mean in Türkiye?

That the surgeon completed a full residency in plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery and then passed the specialty board’s own examination — the Turkish Board, the European Board (FEBOPRAS), or both. Only the specialty’s boards count; a diploma from a course or an association is not board certification.

How do I verify a surgeon’s credentials myself?

Search the EBOPRAS public register for European board fellows; use the ASPS and ISAPS member searches; look up any foreign registration on that health authority’s practitioner search; read reviews on RealSelf and Google rather than on the clinic’s own site.

Should I choose a clinic or a surgeon?

Choose the surgeon. The clinic, the hospital and the coordinators matter, but the person who evaluates your case and holds the scalpel determines the result. Make sure you know who that person is before you decide.

How soon after the evaluation can I have surgery?

A serious practice keeps a waiting interval, normally not less than two weeks, between the written evaluation and the operation. Use it.

Dr. Mehmet Sürmeli, MD, FEBOPRAS — plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgeon, Nişantaşı, Istanbul. Double board certified (Turkish Board 2016, European Board 2017), licensed in Türkiye, Dubai (DHA) and Abu Dhabi (DOH); member of ASPS and ISAPS. Every case is evaluated personally. Start your online pre-evaluation.