American entrepreneur spends $30,000 on Turkish facelift and veneers

Heather Emerson, who runs an international staffing agency, postponed a planned U.S. facelift after contracting COVID and later discovered the surgeon’s fee had risen from $15,000 to $45,000. Seeking a more affordable alternative, she booked a comprehensive cosmetic procedure with Dr. Soner Karaali in Istanbul, paying $15,000 for a deep-plane facelift, neck lift, upper and lower blepharoplasties, micro-fat transfer to temples and eyelids, and a lip lift.

During the same trip she added $3,000 in lower-teeth veneers and stayed at a five-star hotel costing $6,000. The seven-hour operation left her in intense pain, requiring morphine after initial tramadol proved insufficient, and she spent two nights in the hospital before discharge. After ten days the sutures were removed, and she flew home, waiting eight weeks for swelling to subside before seeing results. Eight months post-op she notes minor unevenness in her lip, a small scar, and some neck skin laxity, but feels the overall rejuvenation was worth the $30,000 total outlay.