It’s easy to fall for the meme that health services in developing nations are sub standard in general. And maybe that is preventing you to take your deserved medical vacations.
It is normal to feel insecure when you are thinking on going through all this process of an overseas plastic surgery.
We’ll try to address the most common worries in our situation.
1. Fight the meme
Do you own research about the general quality of the health services in the country/city you are considering for your overseas plastic surgery.
In general every country offers all levels of health care, is not like every health center is equally average or mediocre. It’s all about the budget, sad but true.
Countries that offer a solid beauty tourism industry in general have specialized health care on level with developed nations, for a price.
However this price is still lower than comparable care in North America, that is the appeal of the whole thing, right?.
Look for the very best health centers and the very shady ones. That way you can have ways to compare with what you are offered.
Prefeer precedures performed in capital cities as to have higher levels and choices of care if something gets complicated.
Also look for services that offer support in english, it’s a good way to filter for specialized providers.
2. Be prepared for extra planning.
Besides the planning for the cosmetic surgery in itself you have to plan for acomodaticios, transportation, travel and immigration formalities.
Living expenses can be vastly lower but that does not mean they are zero. Especially if you plan to do the recovery there.
Budgeting can be hard but you have to account for everything in the worst possible scenario.
Include in your planning the time to learn about the culture and places you are visiting. That way you can also make the most of the vacation part of health vacations.
3. It’s dangerous to go alone
Well, not really, but it is recommended that you don’t travel alone. You can invite a friend or your significant other.
This have a lot of benefits, you’ll have a set of helping hands you can trust to help you in the formalities and in the first recovery stages.
It’s another couple of eyes watching out how everything is going and possibly documenting if something looks funny.
Also don’t forget to have all the fun you are planning on the vacation part of the thing well before the procedure.
4. Find a local friend
You can try and find some expats or locals that you’d want to be friend with.
It’s good to have insight in the local culture and another couple of eyes with better criteria to filter risky professionals and situations.
Knowledge in the local language can be a life saver in most situations so you’d want your friend to be a decent bilingual speaker.
It is not hard to imagine someone offering a service of companionship for plastic surgeries, some clinics have included it in the package. But a trusty and experienced bilingual nurse can be even better.
5. Apply the same criteria as if you were home
Shop for a clinics and professionals as if you were here, apply the same criteria and filter anything shady, is not worth the savings.
Research for your surgeon’s credentials with the local medical associations. Research the clinic’s track record with the local business bureau.
All this info is generally accesible if you look for it since it is in the best interests of the local medical industry to blacklist or prosecute bad doctors and health centers.
And finally, you should not opt for overseas plastic surgery only because it’s cheap, because going cheap in this market -even if you are in a developed nation- is very risky. And you don’t want the odds against you while you are far away from home.