Istanbul is a city of sixteen million people across two continents, and the difference between a comfortable treatment week and an exhausting one is mostly geography.
Where to stay
Stay near the clinic, not near the sights. Most dental and hair clinics are on the European side in Şişli, Nişantaşı, Levent or Etiler — business districts, well connected, quiet in the evening. Sultanahmet, where the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are, is beautiful and is forty-five minutes of traffic away from the clinics. On a day when your face is swollen, that distance is the only thing you will notice.
- Ask the clinic for its address and book within a fifteen-minute drive
- Nişantaşı and Şişli: central, walkable, plenty of pharmacies and quiet restaurants
- Levent and Etiler: newer hotels, calmer, slightly further out
- A room with a kettle and a fridge is worth more than a view when you are on soft food
Getting around
- Most clinics include airport transfers. Confirm which airport — Istanbul Airport (IST) and Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) are on opposite sides of the city and an hour and a half apart.
- Use a ride-hailing app rather than hailing taxis; it removes the fare conversation entirely.
- The M2 metro line runs through Şişli and Levent and is faster than a car at rush hour.
- Traffic between about 07:30 and 10:00 and again from 17:00 is genuinely severe. Leave early for appointments.
Eating when you are on soft food
Istanbul is unexpectedly good at this. Mercimek çorbası, the lentil soup available everywhere, is warm, cheap and requires no chewing. Yoghurt, sütlaç, and menemen are all easy. Avoid anything hot in temperature for the first days after surgery, and avoid anything with small seeds after extractions.
Practical things
- Pharmacies (eczane) are everywhere and pharmacists frequently speak some English
- Tap water is chlorinated but most people drink bottled
- Cards are accepted almost everywhere; keep some lira for taxis and markets
- Turkey uses the European two-pin plug, Type F
What to do on the good days
Keep it low-effort. A ferry across the Bosphorus is an hour, costs almost nothing, involves no walking and is the best thing in the city. Sitting in a tea garden in Ortaköy or Bebek is a legitimate afternoon. The Basilica Cistern is cool, flat and close together.
