A jaw-dropping before and after plastic surgery transformation has left social media users speechless, after a man was photographed looking decades younger after the surgery.
Images of a plastic surgery clinic in Istanbul, Turkey, showing a middle-aged man becoming unrecognizable after facial surgery, has been viewed by 37.3 million people on X, with commentators divided over whether the results They could be real or not.
Social media user @D_Radiance, who posted the images on
The original Instagram post from plastic surgery clinic @estemedistanbultr states that patient ‘Michael’ has undergone a combination of facial surgeries, from facelifts to rhinoplasties, also known as nose jobs.
But social media users have wondered if they are simply being “trolled” and joked that he has just “given a new head” or has transformed “into his own grandson.”
In a post by patient Michael, pictured, the clinic states that he has undergone a “facelift, neck lift, lower eyelid blepharoplasty, upper blepharoplasty, buccal fat removal, rhinoplasty and hair transplant procedures.”
Dr. Mikhail also believes the patient underwent jaw surgery to achieve a more angular look, which is not apparent in the Instagram post.
MailOnline approached the Istanbul clinic for comment on the notable case (and a series of other equally impressive makeovers on its page), but received no response.
In the clinic’s Instagram post about ‘Michael’, which has 15.5k likes, it states that the patient underwent a ‘facelift, neck lift, lower eyelid blepharoplasty, upper blepharoplasty, buccal fat removal , rhinoplasty and hair transplant procedures’.
We spoke to top plastic surgeons and asked them: could such dramatic changes in appearance really be achieved by the operations they claim to have undergone?
They said they were “skeptical” but, interestingly, refused to rule out the possibility.
Bristol-based consultant plastic surgeon Dr Nigel Mercer, who specializes in facial reconstruction surgery, said the “skin quality” of the subsequent images was suspicious.
‘If you look at the texture of his skin in the previous image, you can tell that the man has been a smoker or that he is quite old.
“In the next photo he has the skin of a 35-year-old person and that is not possible,” he told MailOnline.
He added that facial hair disguises face-lift scars, but suggests that the difference in the shape of his eyebrows implies that other surgeries or edits are at play.
Mercer said: ‘The shape of her eyebrows before and after is completely different. This can happen to some extent with facelift surgery, but just looking at the difference between the upper eyelid and the third part of the eyebrow is a big change.
“Their face is a completely different shape, and I can’t believe you can do that with just buckle fat removal, which is the removal of fat pads on the cheeks to create a slimmer, more angular facial appearance.”
Mark Mikhail, a London-based NHS plastic surgeon, said: “Even in a dystopian world where it was possible to do this (with surgery), they would have had to carry out more operations than they claim to have carried out.”
Comparing the incredible transformation to the 1997 thriller Face Off, he said the flawless skin, changes in eye color and lack of scars are some of the big signs that these images have been heavily retouched.
‘They say they have done a facelift but there is no scar. With a facelift you have to make a cut around and behind the ear and when you pull your face back, the burn ends up right next to the ear,” added Dr. Mikhail.
“Men often have a finger gap between their ears that can disappear and still have it in later photos.”
Dr. Mikhail also believes that jaw surgery would have been necessary to achieve a more angular look in the after photo, which does not appear in the Instagram post, and that the lower part of his neck, which would not have been part of the lift neck, also has better quality skin, suggesting that the images have been edited.
An Instagram post from the clinic shows before and after photos of patient Miss Dilek. In the post, which has 26.5 thousand likes, the clinic states that the images show the results after “two years of rhinoplasty, facelift and blepheroplasty surgeries.”
Another Instagram post from the same clinic shows strikingly different before and after images of patient ‘Miss Dilek’.
In the post, which has 26.5 thousand likes, the clinic states that the images show the results after “two years of rhinoplasty, facelift and blepheroplasty surgeries.”
Social media users questioned whether the post was a joke and others suggested he would need a new passport after such a transformation.
“These images are tremendously different, they are not the same people,” said Dr. Mikhail.
‘Even with the surgeries they have said. The skin quality is totally different and their eyes are different colors,” she added.
Experts say the lighting in the images makes it almost impossible to tell if they are the same woman and suggest the images have been heavily edited.
Dr. Mercer is also “very skeptical” that the two before and after images are of the same woman.
“She looks totally and absolutely different, there’s no doubt about that.” The main thing that makes us look old is our skin and the transformation of her skin is absolutely phenomenal,’ she said.
In the first image the patient has brown eyes and in the second she has blue eyes. But it’s not just the change in eye color that makes surgeons suspicious.
Dr. Mercer explains that it is difficult to compare eye shapes because you look in opposite directions.
Although there is no mention of having lip fillers, both Dr. Mercer and Dr. Mikhail point out the obvious difference in the shape and fullness of her lips.
“Her upper lip can only be done with a lip lift, but I can’t see any scars from a lip lift,” Dr. Mercer said.
‘His upper lip is a fraction of the height it was before. If you do a lip lift directly, you lose the white roll of the lip that is actually quite well formed on it and the lower lip is completely different,’ he added.
However, it is the lighting of this image that makes it almost impossible to decipher whether it is the same person.
Dr. Mercer said: ‘For before and after you need to have the same lighting. Here the later images are whitened out. That’s what Madonna uses on tour because the bright white light bleaches all skin color and takes up all the shadows.
‘So before without makeup, and then this after with makeup, it could potentially be the same person. But it’s been very, very edited.
But Dr. Mercer warns that even if it is possible to achieve these dramatic transformations, these surgeries can be high risk, especially when traveling abroad.
He said: ‘There are very good surgeons in Turkey, but there are also many large commercial practices where people are sold a conglomerate of things.
“It’s a relatively high-risk surgery and it’s not the kind of thing you can do by flying, having surgery and then getting back on a plane to fly back.”
‘If you have a lot of facial swelling you should not fly for at least three weeks to a month. Any problems, infections or respiratory problems should be resolved before returning home.’
