After Treatment in Türkiye: What's Normal, What's Urgent, and Who to Call
It is 11pm. You have been home from Türkiye four days, the clinic's messaging app has gone quiet, and your wound, scalp or face looks different from this morning. Is this ordinary healing, or should you be in hospital tonight?
This is a triage guide, not reassurance. If you are frightened, read the two red-flag lists below first; if still unsure, call NHS 111. Being assessed and sent home is a good outcome; waiting until morning so as not to make a fuss is not.
The first 48 hours home: judge the direction, not the symptom
Swelling, bruising, soreness and some discharge follow any operation. What matters is the direction of travel. Almost everything normal peaks within 48 to 72 hours, then improves daily. A symptom clearly worse on day five than day three deserves attention. Pain that was settling and starts climbing again is the most useful warning sign in surgery. Photograph the area daily, in the same light.
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust notes that a surgical wound infection can appear from 2 to 3 days after surgery until the wound heals, usually 2 to 3 weeks.
Treatment | First 48 hours | Peaks | Settling by |
Gum soreness, cheek or lip swelling, blood-stained saliva, bruising, tenderness on biting | Day 2 to 3 | Day 5 to 7; tooth sensitivity can last weeks | |
Hair transplant | Tight, achy, swollen scalp; pinpoint scabbing over each graft; swelling tracking to forehead and eyelids | Day 2 to 4 | Scabs shed days 7 to 14; the NHS notes transplanted hair sheds before regrowing, new hair from about 4 months |
Grittiness, watering, light sensitivity, hazy vision, red blotches on the white of the eye | 24 to 48 hours | Days; the NHS says glare, halos and starbursts improve within a few months | |
Swelling and bruising around the eyes, blocked nose, mouth breathing, light nosebleeds, a taped splint | Day 2 to 3 | The NHS gives 3 weeks for eye bruising, splint off around day 7, swelling up to 6 months | |
Tummy tuck and body surgery | Pain, bruising, tightness, numbness, compression garment, fluid-filled swelling above the scar | Day 2 to 3 | The NHS gives about 6 weeks, garment worn throughout |
Clear or lightly blood-stained ooze is common; thick, cloudy or foul-smelling discharge is not, at any stage.
Call 999 or go to A&E now
Do not wait for the clinic in Türkiye to reply.
Breathlessness, chest or upper back pain, a very fast heartbeat, coughing up blood, or someone passing out — the NHS 999 criteria for pulmonary embolism. After surgery and a flight, assume a clot on the lung until a doctor says otherwise.
Signs of sepsis: the NHS lists breathing very fast, confusion or slurred speech, blue, pale or blotchy skin, a very high or very low temperature, feeling hot, cold or shivery, and a rash that does not fade when pressed. Its final criterion matters most: symptoms you fear might be sepsis.
Spreading redness with fever, shivering, fast heartbeat or breathing, dizziness, confusion or clammy skin — the NHS emergency threshold for cellulitis.
Sudden vision loss or severe eye pain. The NHS is explicit: 999 or A&E if you have severe pain or loss of vision and had eye surgery in the last 4 weeks. Endophthalmitis usually appears within the first week with pain, redness, light sensitivity and blurring; the College of Optometrists calls for emergency same-day referral. Sight is lost in hours, not days.
Bleeding you cannot stop with fifteen minutes of firm pressure, or that repeatedly soaks through dressings.
Dental swelling affecting breathing or the eye. The NHS says go to A&E if you are finding it hard to breathe, speak or swallow, have a swollen or painful eye, a lot of swelling in the mouth, or difficulty opening it.
Get seen the same day
Same day means today, not Monday: NHS 111, an urgent treatment centre, a GP urgent slot, or urgent dental care.
Pain worse on day four or five than day three, or no longer controlled by painkillers that were working.
Redness spreading beyond the wound edges, or hot, tight skin, without the features above.
Discharge that is thick, cloudy, green or yellow, or smells.
A wound opening, gaping or with exposed tissue: in a British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons review of 198 cases, wound breakdown was the commonest complication (37%), then infection (28%).
Fever, shivering or feeling unwell, even with a wound that looks unremarkable.
New floaters, flashes of light, or a dark shadow crossing your vision — the NHS directs these to 111 the same day.
Pain, swelling, warmth or discolouration in one calf or thigh.
Skin at a wound edge turning grey or black, or a graft area losing colour.
Clots: what the flight adds
Surgery and flying are both risk factors, and the NHS notes clots can happen weeks later. Deep vein thrombosis usually shows as throbbing pain in one leg, typically the calf or thigh, with swelling, warmth or discoloured skin: urgent advice the same day. With breathlessness or chest pain, it is a 999 call.
NHS advice on cosmetic surgery abroad suggests waiting 5 to 7 days after breast surgery or liposuction, and 7 to 10 days after facial procedures or a tummy tuck, before flying. The BAAPS review found premature air travel in 5% of cases and inadequate aftercare in 21%. If a package flies you home sooner, that is a clinical decision, not a logistics one — see our outline of how the process runs.
What to tell a UK clinician, and what to bring
A UK clinician seeing you at 2am cannot access your Turkish records. What you bring determines how quickly you are treated.
The operation note and discharge summary, in English if possible, with procedure and date.
Implant and device details: make, model, size and batch numbers for implants; graft numbers and donor area for hair; lens model and power. Photograph the stickers.
Every medicine given or prescribed, with doses and dates.
Dates: operation, discharge, flight home, first symptom.
Daily photographs in order, and the clinic's name and a working phone number.
Say it early: "I had surgery in Türkiye on this date, here is the operation note." It changes what they do next.
How the NHS fits in, honestly
Three things are true at once.
A&E, 999 and urgent care are yours, unconditionally. Emergency care does not depend on where you were treated or why.
GPs, NHS dentists and hospital teams will manage a complication — infection, a clot, an abscess, uncontrolled pain, a wound needing dressing. That is ordinary NHS work.
The NHS will not generally redo private cosmetic work. The NHS Business Services Authority states that treatments which cannot be deemed clinically necessary, or that are purely cosmetic, must be provided privately. An NHS dentist will treat infection under a failing crown; replacing crowns you dislike is private work at UK prices. The same applies to revision rhinoplasty and body surgery — see what a UK dentist will and will not do with work done in Turkey. Better known before you fly than afterwards.
The insurance reality, in one paragraph
Standard travel insurance almost never covers planned surgery abroad or its consequences, and travelling for treatment can invalidate a policy altogether. Türkiye has required complication insurance for international surgical patients since January 2026, but the exclusions are the story: malpractice and negligence, pre-existing conditions, and dissatisfaction with the aesthetic result generally sit outside cover. Read what travel insurance actually covers when you have surgery abroad and what Türkiye's mandatory complication insurance covers and excludes before buying anything.
What we do about this
Wellness Journey is a UK-registered medical travel coordination company. We do not provide clinical treatment: it is delivered by independent partner clinics in Cappadocia and Kayseri, licensed by the Turkish Ministry of Health. The CQC, GDC and GMC have no jurisdiction over care provided abroad.
On return, Dr Selvi reviews you in Brighton. We make sure you leave Türkiye holding your operation note, implant details and medicine list, and we keep a copy. If a complication appears we put those records in front of the UK clinician seeing you and take up revision with the partner clinic.
What we do not do: we are not an emergency service, we cannot prescribe, admit or treat you, and we do not answer the phone at 3am. In an emergency call 999; for anything urgent call 111.
Before travelling, read the FCDO travel advice for Türkiye, which records 7 British nationals dying there in 2025 following medical procedures and warns that companies promoting treatment have a financial interest — ours included.
Written by Dr Omer Selvi, GMC-registered medical doctor · GMC number [INSERT]
Last reviewed: September 2026
Dr Selvi is a director of Wellness Journey, which is paid for coordinating treatment with the partner clinics described on this page. You are free to seek an independent second opinion.
General information, not a diagnosis. If worried, contact NHS 111; in an emergency, call 999.
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