GuidesSafety

How to choose a plastic surgery clinic in Korea

To choose a plastic surgery clinic in Korea, check in this order: a board-certified plastic surgeon, who operates and who gives the anesthesia, CCTV in the operating room, an emergency transfer plan, and a written quote and consent form that name your surgeon. Be wary of pressure to pay, vague answers and prices far below other quotes.

By the KPSR editorial teamLast updated October 3, 2026General guidance from published sources and the clinic. Your surgeon confirms your own plan.

What should you check, and in what order?

Most of these checks take one message or one question at the consultation. Do them before you pay a deposit or book flights, while you can still compare clinics calmly from home. The table is the short version, and the sections below cover each step in more detail.

The same questions apply to every clinic, including Urban Plastic Surgery, our partner clinic. Expect clear answers in writing. If you have not chosen a procedure yet, start with our procedure pages, which list the risks and who each operation may not suit.

Clinic checklist for plastic surgery in Korea
Step	What to check	What to ask for
Surgeon	A board-certified plastic surgeon who does your procedure often	Full name, specialty, certifying organization and cases of the same procedure
Who operates	The doctor you consult is the doctor who operates	The surgeon’s name on the quote and the consent form
Anesthesia	Who gives the anesthesia and who watches you	Whether an anesthesiologist is on site for the whole operation
Operating room	CCTV, emergency equipment and sterilization	How to request CCTV filming and what equipment is in the room
Emergency plan	A transfer route to a hospital	The hospital’s name, how you get there and who goes with you
Agency	A registered facilitator, if you use one	Its registration, and a quote issued by the clinic itself
Quote and consent	Everything in writing, in a language you read well	An itemized quote and the consent form before you travel
Revision policy	What happens if a correction is needed	The conditions in writing: who decides, what is covered and for how long

Is your surgeon a board-certified plastic surgeon?

A title such as “cosmetic surgeon” on a website does not tell you the doctor’s specialty. Ask for the surgeon’s full name, their specialty and which organization certified them, and ask the clinic to show the certificate. If a clinic will not name the surgeon before you book, keep looking. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons suggests the same questions for anyone having surgery abroad, and adds one about the surgeon’s training in cosmetic surgery.

Then ask how often the surgeon does your procedure and how long they have been doing it. Ask to see cases of that procedure by that surgeon, and check that each before and after pair has the same lighting and angle, no makeup in the after photo and no visible editing. Our clinic cases come from the partner clinic with the patient’s consent on file, and our editorial policy explains how we show them.

Who operates, and who gives your anesthesia?

The doctor who consults you should be the doctor who operates on you. Ghost surgery, where another doctor operates while you are asleep, is a common worry about Korean clinics. Ask whether anyone else will do part of the operation, such as closing the incisions, and ask for the operating surgeon’s name on both the quote and the consent form.

Find out who gives the anesthesia and who watches you while it lasts. Some clinics have an anesthesiologist on site, some bring one in for the day, and in others the surgeon gives sedation while operating. Check which applies to you, whether the anesthesiologist stays for the whole operation and who watches you in the recovery room. This matters most for general anesthesia, which is used for longer operations such as an SMAS facelift and is one option for breast augmentation.

Urban Plastic Surgery, our partner clinic, lists 2 board-certified anesthesiologists alongside its 2 plastic surgeons. Its main page states that an anesthesiologist is always on site, and its breast surgery page states that the whole operation is recorded on CCTV. Ask for these facts in writing there too, as you would at any clinic.

What should you ask about the operating room and CCTV?

Since September 25, 2023, Korea’s Medical Service Act has required CCTV in operating rooms where patients have surgery under general anesthesia or sedation that leaves them unconscious. If you or your guardian requests it, the operation must be filmed, although the law lets the surgeon refuse in some cases, such as an emergency operation. Sound is not recorded unless everyone involved agrees.

Make your request before surgery day and in writing, so it is on your file. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports infection as the most common complication in patients who had cosmetic surgery abroad, so questions about the room itself are fair at any clinic:

Is the operation done in a dedicated operating room, and who monitors your heart, breathing and oxygen during it?
Is there a defibrillator and emergency medicine in or next to the operating room?
Is there backup power if the electricity fails during surgery?
How are instruments sterilized, and which items are single-use?
Who checks your wound after surgery, and which signs of infection should you report?

What happens if something goes wrong?

Ask what the clinic does if you need hospital care during or soon after surgery: which hospital it transfers patients to, how you would get there and who from the clinic would go with you. A clinic with a working plan can name the hospital and describe the route.

Ask, too, who you can reach during your nights at the hotel. You need a phone number or messaging-app contact that someone answers at night, and a clear list of the symptoms that mean you should call. Plan your dates so the last visit your procedure needs, whether a check-up or stitch removal, comes before your flight with a day to spare. After breast augmentation at the partner clinic, stitches come out at about 2 weeks, usually after you are home, so agree in advance on how that will be handled. Our surgery trip timeline shows typical days in Seoul by procedure.

Before you leave Seoul, ask how the clinic will follow your recovery once you are home: who reads your photos and messages, and what happens if a problem appears weeks later.

Is the agency or facilitator registered?

Korea has a registration system for agencies that bring foreign patients to clinics. If you use an agency, ask for its registration, and check that your quote comes from the clinic itself with the clinic’s name and the surgeon’s name on it.

If you contact us, a patient coordinator answers first, then the surgeon at the partner clinic that fits your case reviews your photos and consults in depth. We pass on your details only with your consent. Our coordinators are not doctors, medical decisions are the surgeon’s, and the quote and consent form come from the clinic itself. The consultation is free for you, and you pay only the clinic’s own price for treatment.

Ask for an itemized written quote before you travel. It should name the surgeon and the type of anesthesia, and list what is included: tests, medicines, garments, follow-up visits and stitch removal. Most event prices on our partner clinic’s Korean website state that they are not for foreign patients, so compare the quotes written for you rather than advertised prices. Our surgery quote checklist lists every line to look for.

Read the consent form before you fly, so you are not seeing it for the first time on the morning of surgery. The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons advises completing a full consent form before you travel and having 2 consultations with time to think between them. The form should be in a language you read well and name the operation, the surgeon and the main risks.

Ask how the clinic handles a revision before you need one, and get the answer in writing: who decides whether a correction is needed, which costs the clinic covers and how long after surgery the policy applies. If you are already planning to correct an earlier operation, read our guide to revision surgery planning and the revision procedures we cover.

Which red flags should make you walk away?

Some signs are reason enough on their own to choose another clinic: you never meet the surgeon who will operate, or the quote and consent form do not name them. Others, such as one vague answer, may have an explanation, but two or three together are a reason to pause, ask more questions or look elsewhere. The size of a clinic tells you little on its own: a small clinic and a large one can both answer these questions well, or both fail them.

The doctor you meet at the consultation is not the doctor named for surgery, or you never meet the surgeon at all
The quote has no surgeon’s name, or shows only a package price
The clinic cannot tell you how many operations your surgeon has on your surgery day
You are pushed to pay a deposit the same day, or offered a discount that ends soon
The price is far below other written quotes, and the clinic cannot say what it leaves out
Answers about anesthesia, CCTV or emergency transfer stay vague after you ask twice
The consent form is only in a language you cannot read, or you first see it on surgery day
The before and after photos differ in lighting, angle or makeup

Procedures in this article

Sources

Patients, doctors at loggerheads as operating room CCTV footage made mandatory. The Korea Times
Briefing Paper: Cosmetic Surgery Tourism. American Society of Plastic Surgeons
BAAPS Cosmetic Tourism Guidelines. British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons
Call for crackdown on illegal medical tourism brokers in South Korea. IMTJ, LaingBuisson