Is plastic surgery safe in the Dominican Republic?

Anyone can buy a white coat and an Instagram following. The exequátur (state license), CMD registration and specialty-society membership are public records — if a “surgeon” can't be found in them, that is your answer.

Ask for the exact facility. Accredited operating rooms have anesthesiologists, monitoring and crash protocols. “My private clinic” with no accreditation is where things go wrong.

Most complications happen in the days AFTER surgery. A recovery house without licensed 24h nursing and a written emergency-transfer protocol is a gamble. This is the half of the decision almost nobody researches.

Step 1 — Exequátur: the state license to practice medicine in the DR. Equivalent in role to a U.S. state medical license.

Step 2 — CMD: active registration in the Colegio Médico Dominicano (the national medical college).

Step 3 — Specialty society: for plastic surgeons, SODOCIPRE membership — the closest signal to U.S. board certification.

Step 4 — Facility and recovery: where exactly you will be operated and where you will sleep the first nights, with 24h nursing.

Yes — with a verified surgeon (valid exequátur, active CMD membership, specialty society) operating in an accredited facility with monitored recovery. The tragedies that make the news share one pattern: unverified credentials, unaccredited operating rooms, and unmonitored recovery. Verification is the difference.

Check three public records: the exequátur (state license to practice), the Colegio Médico Dominicano (CMD) registration, and membership in the specialty society (SODOCIPRE for plastic surgeons). WhitePageMedic cross-checks all three against public records and publishes a dated verification record for every listed surgeon — free for patients.

Instagram is marketing, not verification. Before paying any deposit, verify the license against public records, ask where exactly the surgery happens (which facility), and where you will recover (24h nursing? minutes to an emergency center?). If any answer is vague, walk away.

Verified-market ranges: liposculpture US$3,500–5,500, tummy tuck US$4,000–6,500, breast augmentation US$3,800–5,200, mommy makeover US$7,500–10,500. Prices far below these ranges are a red flag — the cut usually comes from the operating room, the anesthesiologist, or your recovery.

A recovery house is where you spend the first days after surgery. Most complications happen there, not in the operating room. Demand: licensed 24-hour nursing, a written emergency protocol naming the transfer hospital and minutes of travel, and real photos or video of the rooms. Verified recovery houses in our registry publish all three.