BMI is one input into a clinic's eligibility decision, assessed alongside blood work and comorbidities. Photo: Sasun Bughdaryan / Unsplash Quick answer Body mass index affects whether a Korean clinic will accept you for cosmetic surgery, which procedures it will offer, and how it prices risk. Korea applies Asian cut-offs, where obesity begins at a BMI of 25 rather than the 30 used in WHO's global classification, so patients who are not classified as obese at home may be class

Korean clinics apply nicotine rules to vapes as well as cigarettes. Photo: Samuel Ramos / Unsplash Quick answer Most Korean cosmetic clinics ask patients to stop all nicotine 4 to 8 weeks before surgery and for at least 4 weeks afterwards. Nicotine narrows the small vessels that keep an incision or flap alive, so smoking raises the risk of infection, wound breakdown and tissue loss. Vapes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches are generally treated the same as cigarettes, and s

A second visit is easier to plan at the time of the first operation than eighteen months later. Photo: Eric Rothermel / Unsplash Quick answer A repeat visit to a Korean clinic is a planned second trip for a review, a touch-up or a revision that cannot be completed remotely. Injectable and device-based treatments usually need scheduled repeat sessions by design; surgical procedures may need one review visit at six to twelve months, and a revision if a result needs correcting.

For a patient under the age of majority, the signature that matters legally is the legal representative's. Photo: Romain Dancre / Unsplash Quick answer Cosmetic surgery on a minor in Korea requires informed consent from the patient's legal representative, normally a parent, in addition to the clinic's own assessment of whether the procedure is appropriate at all. Korea sets the age of majority at nineteen under its Civil Act, and the Medical Service Act requires that the expl

Emergency readiness is a set of specific arrangements you can ask about by name. Photo: P. L. / Unsplash Quick answer Most cosmetic surgery in Korea is performed in small clinics rather than hospitals, which means no intensive care unit and no emergency department on site. Readiness therefore rests on four specific things: who administers and monitors the anaesthetic, what monitoring is used, which emergency drugs are stocked, and what transfer arrangement exists with a highe

Quotes from different clinics are only comparable once they are broken into the same line items. Photo: Gorilla ROI Data Connector / Unsplash Quick answer Comparing quotes from Korean clinics means converting each one into the same set of line items before looking at the totals, because headline prices routinely exclude different things. Normalise eight items: surgeon fee, anaesthesia type and fee, facility and admission charges, implants or materials by brand, pre-operative

Pre-operative screening usually happens on arrival day, which is why same-day surgery bookings carry schedule risk. Photo: Irshad Pathan / Unsplash Quick answer Korean clinics performing surgery under sedation or general anaesthesia normally require pre-operative screening, typically blood tests including a full blood count and clotting studies, liver and kidney panels, infectious disease serology, a urine test, and an ECG, with a chest X-ray for many general-anaesthetic case

A revision is a second trip as much as a second operation, and the calendar is usually the binding constraint. Photo: Walls.io / Unsplash Quick answer A revision policy sets out whether a clinic will re-operate at reduced or no surgical cost if the result falls outside an agreed range, and for how long after surgery. In Korean practice it typically covers the surgeon's fee for a defined window, often six to twelve months, while anaesthesia, facility fees, new implants or graf

Most disputes are decided by the paperwork signed before surgery, not by what is said afterwards. Photo: Romain Dancre / Unsplash Quick answer If you believe a procedure in Korea caused harm, you generally have three escalation routes: the clinic's own complaint process, mediation through the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency (KMDRAA), and civil litigation. Mediation is usually the cheapest and fastest option for foreign patients, but it requires the clin

Read the surgical consent and the price schedule as two separate documents. Photo: Cytonn Photography / Unsplash Quick answer At a Korean clinic you normally sign two distinct documents: a surgical consent form covering risks and the specific procedure, and a treatment contract covering price, payment and refund terms. Korean law requires that material risks be explained before invasive procedures. Request both documents in a language you read fluently, and keep a signed copy

Pack several days more dressings than you expect to need. Photo: Franck V. / Unsplash If you fly home from a Korean clinic before your stitches come out, suture removal must be arranged in advance with a doctor in your own country — it is a short procedure, but timing matters, and no clinic abroad can manage it for you remotely. Many international patients leave Korea with sutures still in place, either because the clinical timeline does not fit the trip or because a flight w

Recovery accommodation in Seoul after surgery is short-term lodging chosen for post-operative comfort and clinic access, ranging from nurse-supported aftercare centres to serviced residences, business hotels and short-term rentals. Where you sleep during the first two weeks tends to matter more than most patients expect. Swelling, restricted movement, dressing changes, soft-food diets and repeat clinic visits all interact with the building you are staying in: its lifts, its b

Medical travel from Indonesia to Korea requires a visa for individual patients: Indonesian passport holders are not covered by Korea's visa-waiver arrangements, so a medical patient travelling alone or with family must obtain a visa before departure. That single fact is where most planning goes wrong, because a limited group-tourism exemption introduced for 2026 is frequently misread as applying to everyone. This guide sets out which visa applies to which length of treatment,

Verifying who will actually perform your surgery in Korea means confirming, in writing and before you consent, the identity and qualification of the named operating surgeon — a safeguard that exists in Korean law because substitute surgery has been prosecuted there. The Korean term is 대리수술, usually translated as ghost surgery: an operation performed by someone other than the doctor the patient consented to, sometimes by an unlicensed person. Korea has responded with an operat

Liposuction cost in Korea cannot be compared with prices in the United States, the United Kingdom or Thailand by looking at headline figures alone, because each market quotes a different bundle of fees and only some publish verifiable data at all. This guide does something narrower and more useful than listing numbers. It identifies which figures come from a named institution and which are only clinic advertising, explains what each quoted price does and does not include, and

Monopolar radiofrequency tightening in Korea refers to non-invasive devices that pass radiofrequency current from a single handpiece electrode through the skin to a return pad, heating a broad volume of dermis to provoke collagen remodelling. Four platforms dominate Korean clinic menus: Oligio, Volnewmer, Thermage FLX and Density. They are frequently presented as near-identical, and just as frequently presented as unrelated breakthroughs. Neither framing is accurate. This gui

Korean botulinum toxin brands — mainly Nabota, Botulax and Hutox — are botulinum toxin type A products made by Korean pharmaceutical companies and used in Korean clinics in place of Allergan's Botox. For an international patient this matters in two ways. The price quoted for a wrinkle-relaxing session in Seoul often reflects which product is in the vial, and the number of units quoted cannot be compared across brands the way currency can be converted. This guide sets out who

Bringing a companion or caregiver for surgery in Korea means someone travels with you to assist during the days when you are least able to manage alone, and most Korean clinics treat this as normal and sometimes advise it for certain procedures. Overseas patients often plan a solo trip to keep costs down and then discover that the first forty-eight hours after a general anaesthetic or a facial procedure are harder to navigate alone than anticipated. Whether a companion is gen

Updated 16 September 2026. Korean Plastic Surgery Research Desk. Price figures cross-checked against two independent 2026 sources. Double jaw surgery in Korea, known clinically as bimaxillary orthognathic surgery, repositions both the upper and lower jaws to correct bite misalignment, jaw asymmetry, and skeletal imbalance of the mid and lower face. It is among the most misunderstood procedures on Korean clinic menus. Marketing often presents it as a facial-shape operation, bu

Subcision, TCA CROSS, and fractional laser treat acne scars in different ways: subcision releases tethering beneath rolling scars, TCA CROSS remodels narrow ice-pick scars chemically, and fractional laser resurfaces the surrounding skin texture. The single most common mistake in acne scar treatment is choosing a modality before identifying the scar type. Most faces carry a mixture - rolling, boxcar, and ice-pick scars often coexist, sometimes alongside post-inflammatory pigme