Tevfik Sozen, MD

I broke my nose as a child and had been struggling with breathing issues ever since. By the time I had my first consultation with Dr. Sozen, I was almost dependent on Otrivine just to sleep. From the very beginning, Dr. Sozen was open and transparent about the process, setting realistic expectations and helping me make an informed decision.

We scheduled the surgery a month in advance, allowing me to arrange my trip from London to Ankara. The day after my arrival, I underwent pre-surgery evaluations at the hospital and visited Dr. Sozen’s clinic to finalize the details, take pre-operative photos, and address any remaining questions.

The surgery took place the following day at Bay?nd?r Hospital, where I stayed for one night. Everything went smoothly as planned. Post-surgery, Dr. Sozen's dedicated team provided excellent care, closely monitoring my recovery. By the fourth day, my splint was removed, and I was already experiencing restful, uninterrupted sleep for the first time in years.

Today marks 28 days since my surgery, and I couldn't be happier with both my breathing and my new look.

A huge thank you to Dr. Sozen and his great team!

I spoke to several surgeon and research their training and results. Tevfik was friendly, open to questions and listened to my needs. I was nervous about travelling abroad, but translators were on hand at the hospital. My post surgery care was very good, I spent two nights in hospital, and was very well cared for by the nursing staff. The hospital was clean. Post surgery I spent a week in Ankara in a hotel, I was contacted daily to see how I was progressing. On day seven I had my stitches removed and I flew home the following day. I am now two weeks post surgery and still have bruising and swelling, but the overall effect looks very good.

A couple of months ago, my husband and I went out to a bar for a late nightcap. This is not something we have done in decades.
I am 67 years old. My hair is grey.
I went to go to the washroom at one point and I was immediately stopped by a group of young women who said that they had been talking about me all night and that I was "stunningly beautiful". They wanted to be like me when they got to be my age. I asked them what age that would be. One of them hesitatingly that I was late 30's or maybe 40.
I gave them all a huge hug!
This type of thing happened a couple more times that night with other young women. In fact, It has happened on many occasions. Young women would flock to grey haired me with questions. As of this writing I am 9 months post surgery.
I did not tell them my real age. Instead, I talked about nutrition, skin care, weight/cardio training and finding a caring stress-free life companion.
That was my bad, I should have also had Dr. Tevfik Sozens card on hand with the advice to make small surgical interventions throughout the course of their lives because, personally, there is no other way to maintain a youthful appearance throughout life.
The attention from much younger men has been disarming to say the least.
Gravity is real and it drags our faces and bodies us down to look older every minute of every day!
I feel very fortunate for putting my trust in Dr. Sozen and his team. I recall endless hours of reading and charting to distill a list of practioners I would feel most certain about. No matter what I did I never got rid of the nagging feeling that I could be making a choice that would lead to disaster. Plastic surgery can not ever be viewed as a trivial choice. I kept looking at myself in the mirror asking myself "Why are you thinking of doing this at your age?"
My first go at facial plastic surgery was fraught with an intense level of fear and uncertainty and I had nothing to go on other than internet reviews. I had facial surgery 12 years ago in Costa Rica it was a SMAS facelift. I speak Spanish and Latin America was always the obvious choice for any subsequent cosmetic surgery. The experience in Costa Rica was quite satisfactory in the end and when I decided to go for facial surgery again I realized that Turkey was a real possibility despite the additional hours of travel. (As a side note, the recovery centre where I stayed in Costa Rica was in a nice neighborhood of the capital, but there is a problem with crime and gun violence in Latin America. Some guests were robbed when they ventured downtown when I stayed there. The daytime receptionist admitted that in the year that she had lived there, she had been held up at gunpoint five times. I was alone, that time in Central America, and this was not reassuring. I never felt insecure like that in Turkey. Turkish people also do not stare at someone with a nose cast or facial bandages on. Feeling secure makes a big difference.
As you do your own research you will find a legion of positive reviews about the very high quality of the medical infrastructure and staff there. I too can attest to that observation about this wonderful country and the incredibly hospitable people who live there. The medical facilities are truly world class to the point of putting our humble Canadian facilities to shame. The hospital staffing chosen by Dr. Sozen is attentive, patient and kind. These aspects become very important to your experience during the recovery stage. Healing is relatively quick but I looked like a mess and I was up and down emotionally. My husband was with me the entire time. I am so grateful to have had his support. It is critical to have a person around to help because the simplest task can feel insurmountable after you are out of hospital post surgery. If it is the case that you are in the country alone, Dr. Sozen can arrange for post surgery daily visits by a qualified care giver.
In selecting Dr. Sozen over several other highly qualified options I also chose to have the surgery done in Ankara, the capital of Turkey as opposed to having the surgery done in Istanbul where the bulk of medical tourists go.
Dr. Sozen recommended Ankara but he could have also done the procedures out of Istanbul. I was grateful to have made this choice because Ankara turned out to be a much more convienent and affordable option for a very important aspect of cosmetic surgery and that is the recovery. Moreover, I chose to add rhinoplasty and a lip lift to the list of procedures.
I was hoping to get an upper eyelid lift, brow lift, neck lift and face lift and rhinoplasty and lip lift done at the same time. The doctor wisely and gently convinced me to schedule the rhinoplasty two weeks subsequent to the initial procedures to minimize the stress my body will have to deal with at one time.
Ankara is a modern major metropolis but the cost of living is much lower than Istanbul because it is not a major tourist destination. Pricing of everything is aimed at the average Turkish resident so the ground costs were substantially lower. In Istanbul the traffic congestion is indescribably horrible. In contrast, in Ankara, Uber can take you anywhere fast at astondingly low cost. Quality accomodations are very reasonable and the city is safe all hours of the night. Women and children could be found walking confidently everywhere no signs of fear or insecurity. Even stray dogs and cats are taken care of by professional vets. They are all ear tagged and taken care of by the neighbourhood. People are leaving food out for their neighbourhood pets. In fact, there are food dispensors for these pets everywhere. Put a coin in and food drops into a bowl for any animal that passes by.
Google translate was used extensively to communicate with people and everyone my husband and I met was eager to try to communicate. The unexpected pleasure of this country was a total surprise to the two of us and we will definitley be returning.
I am going off course waxing poetic about Turkey and the people we had the pleasure to meet but I am sure you will feel the same way if you find yourself in the country.
The choice of Dr. Sozen was not difficult. We found his manner to be very personable, sincere, caring and communicative right from our initial video conference through surgery on to recovery.
We communicated primarily through an app call WhatsApp. It took a little effort but we found it ultimately indespensible. Load it up and use it to get familiar with it. It also provided a full accounting of all our communications, pictures, text and videos included.
He gave us sound balanced advice in perfect English on what was achievable and of course what to expect subsequent to surgery ( He studied his art Stateside under the eye of a most emminent "God" of plastic surgery)
In evaluating the shortlist of choices regarding Turkish surgeons we found a surprising amount of concordance on the elements of my specific case. All the surgeons presented extremely well but there was an aspect of craftmanship, artistry and of course trust that tipped the scale towards Dr. Sozen. He has a comprehensive Instagram account that gave me a good sense of the fine quality of his work.
My husband was very impressed with the precision of the stitching post-surgery. Of course at the time the expected swelling and bruising had not come into play. He too got alarmed over the next few days. Neither of us could truly relax about this even though we have been through this process before.
Doctor Sozen also corrected the “pixie ear” that resulted in my left ear after my previous SMAS facelift. He was able to tailor a new earlobe for me. In fact he also restored the tragus in both ears I had lost due to excessive skin tensioning. The advantage of the “deep plane lift” that Doctor Sozen recommended is that the skin is draped naturally over its new position and is never under tension so the healing process occurs undisturbed. I can barely see the scars now.
The after care was superior, the Doctor was always available during my recovery although most of the communications were with my husband initially. They communicated every evening. I was too out of it. We talked to him every day and he handled every question and concern with a calm, reassuing demeanor. My husband took a series of standardized photos every day for the doctor to review and we talked with him about practically every detail. That level of personal care was greatly appreciated because I was alarmed every time I looked in the mirror. We were provided with a list of prescriptions and materials to help with my recovery. The cost of the medications and materials was shockingly low compared to what we were used to back home in Canada.
Eight days after the deep plane face-lift, neck-lift, upper eye-lift, brow-lift and lip-lift I felt well enough to consider travelling to Istanbul. We were able to visit most of the major sites and had a brilliant time there. I wore a lot of makeup and sunglasses to cover my embarrassment. After my travels in Latin America where I endured stares even when I hadn’t had any surgery, it was a welcome relief to discover that no one actually reacted to my surgery at all. People are really chill in Turkey and they simply are too polite to just stare at other people. Moreover, it seemed that there were lots of people in every crowd proudly sporting either a bandaged nose or a bandaged head. I stopped feeling out of place after a few days and it was a relief.
We returned to Ankara a day before my rhinoplasty. The surgery went very smoothly but the recovery was much more challenging. This time I had a lot of head pain and this coupled with the added difficulty breathing had me behaving "badly" as my husband puts it.
Six days later after checking my stitches and healing with great relief he removed the spacers from my nostrils. I still had a swollen piggy nose and this would persist for far longer than I had expected. My husband joked that i resembled a beautiful little elf. My face healed at different rates on the different sides because I needed more revision of an old scar on the left side of my face. Dr. Sozen was able to explain these issues and even face timed us back in Canada to check on how it was going. We really felt the depth of his friendship when he talked to us every night about the healing process during my recovery. You need to prepare yourself for the emotions that will arise while your face is settling into its new look, because there will be bruising and lots of swelling and for a bit of time you’re going to look like hell. It did take some time for my face to settle down and I was glad we had planned an extensive holiday where I could hide out and recover before returning home to family scrutiny.
When I did return home, it was with a reinvigorated look, but turning back the clock about 30 years, does seem to have triggered a lot of soul searching among the in-laws.
Several things come to mind when people ask me how I managed to look the way I do at my age. I have spent many decades minding my appetite, and exercising and walking. You should get your weight as low as you can BEFORE SURGERY, because losing weight afterwards will cause a subsequent loss of facial volume and then the temptation will arise to pack on some extra pounds to fill in the sunken cheeks. Lose the weight first! I managed to achieve a BMI of 22 and this has definitely played a big role in my results. Although I have mixed Mediterranean heritage, and can really darken up if I was so inclined, I have always cared for my skin by wearing a hat outdoors, applying high SPF sunscreen, and thoroughly cleansing and moisturizing, because self-care is essential.
It is now over nine months since I placed myself under the care of a masterful surgeon who has handed me back my youth. After surgery I had anxiety and fears and during the recovery every bit of bleeding, swelling, bruising or feeling of discomfort was a major cause of concern but the Doctor always gently reminded me to relax and wait for the results. And the improvements slowly but surely appeared. I wake up every morning now extremely happy with the new more vigorous and vibrant face I see in the mirror. I did not expect my surgeon to perform a miracle. In the end, however, he did.

As a faculty anesthesiologist at one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and with almost forty years of practicing medicine, I put in a great deal of time and effort in looking for the facial plastic surgeon that I would trust my face and life with. Sitting in my hotel room, post op day 11 and awaiting my flight back to the US tomorrow, I don’t think I could have done any better than having found Tevfik Sozen, MD.

I was looking for an experienced facial plastic surgeon that could do the deep plane face lift, an approach that many surgeons do not feel comfortable with because of potential risks with injuring the facial nerve; however, an approach that gives you the longest lasting result with a natural look and not that dreaded “over done “ look that we have all seen from bad face lifts. I then came across Tevfik, who had fellowed under “the Master”, Andrew Jacono, MD, considered the top plastic surgeon in NY, perhaps even in the United States. In talking with Tevfik I learned that he had done well over 100 of these procedures without having had any serious complications. Because I couldn’t afford Dr. Jacono, I decided to go with one of his students and I couldn’t be more pleased with my decision! Although still dealing with significant edema, which Tevfik warned me about, I can see the transformation that has taken place. His work is absolutely brilliant.

Equally important to Tevfik’s surgical ability, are the qualities that he has consistently demonstrated throughout this process. He has made himself available, whether it was seeing me multiple times in the hospital or even coming by my hotel. He took time to contact my girlfriend multiple times via video calls, to keep her apprised of what was going on. He truly is a caring and compassionate doctor. I have already reached out to one of my family members and have encouraged them to come see Tevfik for their rhinoplasty. I have even guaranteed them that if they aren’t 100% thrilled with the outcome, I will reimburse his fee.

Initially I was looking at rhinoplasty doctors in Europe then accidentally in one UK Facebook group I saw that ladies are highly praising Turkish doctors. So time to time I started to check doctors in Istanbul. Because I am not in my twenties and wasn't willing to have any revisions in the future may aim was to find a doctor who does naturally looking noses and who is a real craft master in rhinoplasty. So I've contacted quite a few very popular doctors in Istanbul but didn't feel that I have found the right one. Then, by chance after checking well known European rhinoplasty specialist profiles on Instagram I spotted dr Tevfik Sozen and straight away I had the feeling that he might be the doctor I am looking for. I had a video call consultation with him and was really impressed that he wasn't trying to sell me procedures I was asking about but was honestly advising what is the best for me. So I found the doctor I was looking for but to be fair, I didn't want to go to Ankara. I thought that the best place to stay if you are not going to the Turkish sea side is Istanbul. After long consideration, I finally decided to go to Ankara and didn't regret my decision at all. On my first eye to eye consultation dr Tevfik Sozen precisely explained every detail of my next day surgery and we easily found an agreement that suited me the best. The hospital works like a hotel, modern, really clean, all the staff is very helpful and friendly. The doctor's team arranged me a translator so all my pre-surgery tests and stay in the hospital went really smoothly. Now I am two weeks post operation. I am still a bit swollen but I can easily breathe, the stitching is almost invisible. Though I am back to UK I am still under the doctors supervision. He is precisely checking my healing progress and always ready to answer to all my concerns and questions. If I decide to have any other plastic surgeries, 100% I will go to this talented doctor. Regarding Ankara, I completely changed my mind. It's very safe, very green, and absolutely a tourist friendly city. Though most people don't speak english, they are always ready to help you, no one is trying to scam you. Lots of nice bars and restaurants and the price in comparison to Istanbul is much cheaper.

I had many problems on my nose and searching for a doctor, one of my friend advised Mr. Sozen. First I followed him from his instagram account, then called him. He set up a zoom with me. I had many questions about the process and he answered all my questions and concerns. I am living in Michigan and Mr. Sozen’s assistant planned my trip from door to door , they gave me two options for surgery which are Istanbul and Ankara ( capital of Turkey) I choosed Ankara which was more budget-friendly to me. Generally all the doctors from Turkey do not offer Ankara as an option, they prefer Istanbul which is more famous and touristic but Ankara is more safety and comfortable than Istanbul. My flight was good, I stayed one of the most biggest and luxury hospitals in the city, the staff was very kind and friendly, my surgery process was good. Mr.Sozen followed the after- surgery process very closely. I stayed nearly 10 days in Ankara, then I flight back to MI. Mr Sozen and his assistant followed me via video calls in every month, I highly recommend him as a doctor and his team as a international healing-trip coordinator, they are very professional . I am very happy with my new nose.

I came to Ankara from the USA to have my surgery with Dr. Sozen. I am extremely happy with the results! The surgery went smoothly and Dr. Sozen was incredibly kind and knowledgeable. He listened to my concerns attentively and completed the surgery exactly how I wanted.the results were amazing. I’m happy that I chose Dr. Sozen and highly recommend him to everyone!

This office is the absolute BEST!!!!! Every single person is personable and professional with the highest standards. I’m so happy with my nose! I had surgery a week ago and my cast was taken off today. I can’t speak highly enough of both Mr. Tefik Sozen who is my surgeon, Nurse Burcu, and the staff. They showed me the computer rendering at my consult and my nose came out even better than the rendering. My nose is still super swollen from surgery a week ago and I can tell it’s already going to be beautiful. They listened and paid close attention to me. After the surgery, they called/texted me daily to make sure that I was not in pain during my recovery time.

Thank for making me feel like a ROCK STAR

I live in Denmark, and had the operation in Istanbul. I have met with the Dr. Tevfik for the first time the day before the surgery. And I felt like I already knew him, because I have followed him on Instagram for a long time. I can say that he is very similar to his videos in person as well.

What I wished for my nose was to look natural and suitable for my face. My biggest fear was ending up with a too small or a clearly operated nose. I now have a natural looking nose.

The most important for me was the honest and clear communication. Many doctors try to gaslight their patients, if there are issues after the operation and that affected a couple of my friends very badly. Dr. Tevfik has also supported me emotionally by checking in daily with messages. He has promised full transparency before surgery and delivered on that. Immediately after the surgery, he has informed me about a possible and a very fixable issue due to my very crooked nose. So, I didn’t have to worry about it. It has been 2 months and he still checks how I am and I know that I can reach him easily if I need any help.

I suggest checking his instagram and communication style. I was sure that he was THE doctor for me and I still feel the same way now.

I had the amazing experience with my revision rhinoplasty thanks to Dr. Tevfik Sozen. The result is beyond my belief. I have the perfect nose and I can breathe easily although it has only been a week after my operation. I had waited for 4 years to undergo revision rhinoplasty and Dr. Tevfik Sozen was the only option for me since he operated one of my friends and result was beyond perfect. He was caring, informative and helpful before and after the operation. It was a huge relief to know that I could contact my doc 24 hours a day. He was there for me all the time. Thank you doctor of beautiful noses :)