How Do You Check a Cosmetic Surgeon’s Licence in Turkey?

Updated 13 October 2026 · GetClinicTurkey Editorial · General information, not medical or legal advice.

To check a cosmetic surgeon in Turkey, check three things separately: the surgeon, the hospital where you will be operated on and any agency that books the trip. The surgeon should hold a Turkish specialist certificate in Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery. The hospital should be licensed and, for international patients, hold a health tourism authorisation from the Ministry of Health. An agency needs its own authorisation. Turkey publishes official lists of facilities and agencies and a public directory of doctors, but we found no public register of specialist certificates.

The checks at a glance

A hospital can be on the Ministry list while the doctor operating there is not a plastic surgeon.

Check	What it shows	What it does not show	Where to check
Surgeon’s specialist certificate	The doctor completed specialist training and the Ministry of Health registered the certificate	How much experience they have with your procedure	Ask for a copy. HealthTürkiye Health Professionals is a cross-check, not a register
Turkish plastic surgery society (TPRECD)	The surgeon is a member of the national specialist society	It is not a licence. Trainees who have completed 48 months of training can also be full members	Plastik Cerrah Bul member search
Hospital’s health tourism authorisation	The facility holds the Ministry’s international health tourism authorisation certificate	The surgeon’s specialty, or the quality of the facility	Ministry lists or our licence check
Agency’s authorisation	The intermediary company holds its own certificate from USHAŞ	Anything about the surgeon or the hospital	HealthTürkiye agency list
ISAPS or FEBOPRAS	International membership or a European board exam	A right to practise. Neither is a licence	ISAPS Find a Surgeon, EBOPRAS Fellows

Check 1: is the surgeon a plastic surgery specialist?

Turkish law has no specialty called “cosmetic surgery”. The official specialty is Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (Plastik, Rekonstrüktif ve Estetik Cerrahi), with five years of specialist training, or three years for doctors who are already general surgeons (Law No. 1219, Annex 1). When the training is complete, the Ministry of Health issues and registers the specialist certificate, and nobody without one may use a specialist title (Specialty Training Regulation, Articles 22 and 27).

The same law reserves surgical operations for doctors with the required specialist documents; any doctor may carry out minor surgery (Article 3). Titles such as “Op. Dr.” or “aesthetic surgeon” on a website do not tell you which specialty certificate the doctor holds, so ask.

Public lookups are directories, not a specialist register. HealthTürkiye, the Ministry of Health’s health tourism portal (Regulation No. 32882, Article 4(1)(d)), has a public Health Professionals search that needs no login and shows a doctor’s name, branch and, for many entries, the facility where they work. Use it as a cross-check: being listed is not a licence or an endorsement, and a surgeon who is not listed is not necessarily unqualified. e-Devlet’s Doctor Information Bank (Doktor Bilgi Bankası) only shows doctors their own records (user guide, in Turkish), and we found no public doctor search on the Turkish Medical Association or Istanbul Medical Chamber websites. What you can do:

• Ask for the certificate. The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) and the Turkish Society of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, in a joint statement, say your surgeon “should have Turkish board certification – you should be able to see their certificate on request”.
• Search the society’s members. The same statement points patients to the society’s member search, which you can filter by province. Membership is a useful signal but not a licence: under the society’s bylaws (Article 5), trainees who have completed 48 months of plastic surgery training can also become full members.
• Ask the society if in doubt. The BAAPS statement says that if there is uncertainty about your surgeon’s qualifications or society membership, you should email the Turkish society at tprecd@gmail.com.
• Ask the medical chamber. Doctors in private practice must join their province’s medical chamber (tabip odası) within one month (Law No. 6023, Article 7), so you can contact the chamber where the surgeon works.
• Ask about experience. The BAAPS statement recommends at least five years in plastic surgery practice and an aftercare plan.

Medical aesthetics is not cosmetic surgery

Under Turkey’s 2025 regulation on private outpatient health facilities (Official Gazette, 19 April 2025, No. 32875), medical centres, polyclinics and private practices may offer aesthetic or cosmetic health services within the skills a doctor gained through their training or a certificate, and within the procedures that facility is permitted to perform (Article 6(10)). A certificate, master’s degree or doctorate cannot be used as a specialist certificate (Article 28(1)(f)).

So a doctor with an aesthetic medicine certificate is not a plastic surgeon. If a clinic offers injections and operations, ask who will operate on you and which specialty certificate they hold.

Check 2: where will the operation happen?

Ask for the name and address of the hospital or medical centre where you will be operated on, in writing, before you pay. Many surgeons see patients in their own private practice (muayenehane) but cannot operate there. Annex 13 of the 2025 outpatient regulation says a private practice may not carry out procedures that current medical practice requires in an operating theatre, procedures that need any anaesthesia other than local, or procedures that need a ward or intensive care stay afterwards. Such surgeons operate under contract in a private hospital licensed in that branch (Private Hospitals Regulation, Article 24) or in a qualifying medical centre (outpatient regulation, Article 16), which may operate only in the specialties named on its surgical permit (Article 19(5)).

For international patients, the facility also needs the Ministry of Health’s international health tourism authorisation certificate (Regulation No. 32882, Article 5(1)), and the name on its website must match that certificate (Article 13(2)). The Ministry’s four lists give each facility’s name, type, address and phone number, but not the specialty of the doctors who work there. A surgeon’s own private practice may be listed, but that does not tell you where the operation will take place. Our Ministry licence check page explains how to search the lists.

The same regulation sets three rules that matter for surgery:

• Complication insurance. For surgical and interventional procedures carried out in an operating theatre for international patients, the facility must take out complication insurance (Article 6(1)(c); the deadline was 31 December 2025). It is not a policy in your name, so ask what it covers and see our guide to travel insurance for treatment in Turkey.
• Accreditation. Authorised hospitals and medical centres must be accredited by TÜSKA, Turkey’s health care accreditation institute, by 31 December 2026 (Article 6(1)(b), provisional Article 1(3)).
• Responsibility. The facility and any intermediary are responsible for the services they provide, including complications and malpractice that arise afterwards (Article 6(3)).

The BAAPS statement below also recommends “a fully recognised hospital, which might be, in Türkiye, identified by having at least 30-beds”. That is guidance, not a legal threshold.

Check 3: the agency that books your trip

A company that arranges your consultation, hotel and transfers is an intermediary (aracı kuruluş) and needs its own authorisation certificate, issued by USHAŞ, the state health tourism company (Regulation No. 32882, Article 5(1)). Authorised facilities may not use unauthorised people or companies for intermediary work (Article 6(1)(e)). The Ministry’s link for authorised intermediaries leads to the HealthTürkiye agency list. It tells you nothing about the surgeon. Our guide to booking direct or through an agency covers the trade-offs.

Memberships and board exams are signals, not licences

The right to practise and to use a specialist title comes from the Turkish state:

• ISAPS (International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery) has a public Find a Surgeon directory. ISAPS says an active member “must be in good standing of the national plastic surgery organization of the country in which they currently reside” and be sponsored by an existing member.
• FEBOPRAS is the title of surgeons who passed the European Board exam in plastic surgery. EBOPRAS calls the exam a quality mark and says passing it “does not give a right to work in a member country”. Its list of Fellows adds that inclusion “does not guarantee that they remain of good standing”.

What UK guidance tells you to check

• NHS: its cosmetic surgery abroad page (last reviewed in December 2022) warns that “it can be difficult to find out if a surgeon is fully trained in the procedure you want” and advises two consultations with the surgeon before surgery.
• FCDO: the Turkey travel advice says it is aware of 7 British nationals who died in Turkey in 2025 following medical procedures and advises discussing plans with your UK doctor.
• TravelHealthPro: the medical tourism factsheet from NaTHNaC, the UK’s travel health service, says qualifications and credentials “should be independently verified and references should be requested prior to travel”.
• BAPRAS advises asking about training, qualifications and memberships.

Documents to ask for before you pay

• The surgeon’s full name and a copy of their specialist certificate (uzmanlık belgesi).
• The name, legal name and address of the hospital where you will be operated on.
• If an agency is involved, its company name and authorisation certificate.
• A written treatment plan, the consent form, and who to contact if there is a problem after you get home.
• Who covers the cost of treating a complication, and what your own travel insurance excludes.

The BAAPS statement says a comprehensive consent form should be completed before you travel. Our 12 questions to ask before a deposit are written for dental treatment, but the payment, refund and complaint questions apply to any procedure.

Where GetClinicTurkey fits

Our directory is mostly dental, with a small number of aesthetic clinics. Each profile shows whether we found the clinic on the Ministry’s health tourism list. That label is about the facility, not the surgeon, and a clinic without it is not necessarily unauthorised (how we verify clinics). For the Ministry figures, see how many Turkish clinics hold a health tourism licence.

Frequently asked questions

Can I look up a Turkish surgeon’s specialist title online?

Partly. HealthTürkiye, the Ministry of Health’s health tourism portal, has a public Health Professionals search that shows a doctor’s name, branch and often their facility. It is a directory, not a legal register: being listed is not a licence, and not being listed does not mean a doctor is unqualified. e-Devlet’s Doctor Information Bank only shows doctors their own records. Ask the surgeon for a copy of the specialist certificate.

Is a cosmetic surgeon the same as a plastic surgeon in Turkey?

Turkish law has no specialty called cosmetic surgery. The specialty is Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (Plastik, Rekonstrüktif ve Estetik Cerrahi), with five years of specialist training. Ask which specialty certificate your surgeon holds, not only whether they call themselves a cosmetic surgeon.

Does the Ministry of Health list prove my surgeon is qualified?

No. The Ministry’s health tourism lists show facilities that hold an international health tourism authorisation certificate, not doctors’ specialties. Being listed is not a recommendation, and not being found does not by itself mean a facility is unlicensed.

Is ISAPS, TPRECD or EBOPRAS membership a licence?

No. Licensing and specialist titles come from the Turkish state. ISAPS membership, the Turkish society’s member list and the FEBOPRAS title are extra signals. EBOPRAS itself says passing its exam does not give a right to work in a country.

Can cosmetic surgery be done in a doctor’s private practice in Turkey?

Not if it needs an operating theatre or anaesthesia other than local. Turkey’s 2025 outpatient regulation bars private practices from those procedures. Surgeons with a private practice operate under contract in a private hospital or a qualifying medical centre, so ask for that facility’s name and check it too.

Sources

• Law No. 1219 on the Practice of Medicine, Article 3 and Annex 1 (Mevzuat)
• Resmî Gazete, 3 September 2022, No. 31942: Specialty Training Regulation, Articles 22 and 27
• Law No. 6023 on the Turkish Medical Association, Article 7 (Mevzuat)
• Resmî Gazete, 26 April 2025, No. 32882: Regulation on International Health Tourism and Tourist Health
• Resmî Gazete, 19 April 2025, No. 32875: Regulation on Private Outpatient Health Facilities, Articles 6(10), 16, 19, 28 and Annex 13 (annexes, PDF)
• Resmî Gazete, 30 January 2025, No. 32798: Private Hospitals Regulation, Article 24
• Ministry of Health: Healthcare providers authorized by the Ministry
• HealthTürkiye: authorised agencies and Health Professionals search
• e-Devlet: Sağlık Bakanlığı Doktor Bilgi Bankası user guide (PDF)
• TPRECD: Plastik Cerrah Bul (member search) and bylaws (PDF)
• BAAPS and TSPRAS joint statement (June 2023)
• BAPRAS: Cosmetic surgery abroad
• NHS: Cosmetic surgery abroad
• GOV.UK: Turkey travel advice, health
• TravelHealthPro: Travelling for treatment (medical tourism)
• ISAPS: Choosing your surgeon
• EBOPRAS: Examination and Fellows

Comparing aesthetic clinics? Browse the aesthetic clinics in our directory, then run the checks above on the surgeon and the hospital before you pay anything.