Did you know that 3 out of every 4 hair transplants in Turkey are illegal, often performed in unauthorized places like rented hospital rooms?

This poses a serious risk to public health and hurts Turkey’s reputation in medical tourism.

It’s challenging for patients to tell legal centers from illegal ones, as they often present themselves online as legal.

However, by following the simple steps we’ve outlined below, you can figure out if a center operates legally, ensuring you can safely get your hair transplant in Turkey without risking your health. 

1. Is there a doctor’s name on the website?

→Centers that don’t clearly display the doctor’s full name on their website are often unlicensed. If the doctor’s name is listed, please check the next step.

You can find detailed CVs of our doctors on our About Us page.

2. Is the doctor a dermatology specialist or a plastic surgery specialist?

→ In Turkey, hair transplantation can only be conducted by dermatology specialists and plastic surgery specialists and their teams of nurses. It is illegal for general practitioners, doctors of other specialties, or their teams to perform hair transplants. The primary reason for this is that hair transplantation requires specialized knowledge in skin-related matters.

You can see the dermatology specialist diploma of our responsible doctor Dr. Meltem Şentürk below.

3. Are there any posts on the Instagram account besides before-and-after results?

→ You’ll often see that the Instagram accounts of illegal hair transplantation centers and their teams almost exclusively feature before-and-after pictures. The main reason for this is their desire not to reveal themselves. On the other hand, these hair transplant teams often break up and change, so they don’t have consistency. Since the places where they perform the operations are also illegal, they can’t share many pictures showing these locations.

You can view our Instagram accounts through these links:

4. Are the faces of the doctor and nurses clearly visible and presented?

→ On the social media accounts of illegal clinics, the most common images are closely taken surgery pictures, and often, photos of doctors(?) or nurses taken up close in a dark room wearing masks. When you examine these social media accounts, it’s quite difficult to understand exactly who the team is.

5. Does the hair transplant center have a license from the Ministry of Health authorizing it to perform hair transplants?

→ In Turkey, hair transplantation can only be performed at clinics and hospitals licensed for hair transplantation by the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Health issues a hair transplantation license for this authorization. Performing hair transplantation in clinics or hospitals without this license is problematic and prohibited. Below, you can see that our clinic is licensed for hair transplantation in the area marked in red. (saç ekimi=hair transplantation)

 

6. Is the name of the hair transplant center listed on official government websites?

→ The name of the health facility where your operation will happen should always be on the local health department’s ”.gov websites”.

If you can’t find the center’s name on these sites, it means you’re not dealing with a legal health facility.

You can find our clinic on the Antalya Health Department’s website.

7. Is the address of the hair transplant center clearly listed on the website?

→ Illegal centers often do not list their addresses on their websites, or the addresses are not detailed.

Even if they have addresses, the companies you are in contact with do not show signs on their Google Maps profiles, or they share pictures of the hospitals where they operate. It may also be illegal to perform hair transplants in these hospitals.

Therefore, although it may not be sufficient on its own, having the institution you are dealing with and the location where the procedure is performed be the same place is one of the positive signs.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Even just one of the items listed above should raise questions about the legality of that business. The more items you find problematic, the higher the likelihood that the business is operating illegally. Failure to meet the requirements in item 5 often indicates on its own that the business is unauthorized and shows that your health is at risk.